Fragmented Selves, Healing Visions

The purpose of this paper is to analyse two experimental “novels of the self”, written by two of the most innovative Jewish-Romanian writers of the ’30s: Max Blecher and H. Bonciu, stressing on those aspects they have in common with the mainstream of the twentieth-century Western literature. In both authors, inward disquietude is experienced as outward atmosphere, submerging the world in indefinable strangeness and mystery. In this context, the concept of “inner exile” and “fragmented self” may prove useful in defining the particular status of the narrators’perspective, as well as their relationship with the world (objects, settings, invisible traps, “sickly” or “healing” spaces).

Le problème de l’identité culturelle dans les romans Tout s’effondre de Chinua Achebe et Un nom pour un autre de Jhumpa Lahiri

The novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri approach an acute and sensitive problem of the effects of colonization and of the self-exiled emigrant man. Each of the protagonists of these two novels expresses an upheaval, an inner cultural conflict. It turns out that their destiny is in a close connection with their images and emotional valences, strongly fed by a collective imaginary, by the deep reality of collective life. Thus, adherence and communication with the archetypal resources of the native community, with the essential that precedes the human condition, proves to be a vital necessity, of overwhelming importance for our protagonists.

Faire, défaire, refaire ses identités et son personnage

"My paper aims, with regard to the imaginary of identity, to outline the essential lines corner poles of our hermeneutics. Against the tendency to approach contemporary identity tensions, I will focus here on identity fluctuations, above all in contexts of disengagement of identity, following the possible dissolution or deconstruction of any identity, collective and personal."

Johann Moritz ou « l’homme sans identité »

"My article concerns the analysis of the several “identities” of Johann Moritz (alias Anthony Quinn) in the film directed by Henri Verneuil, The Twenty-Fifth Hour (a French-Italian-Yugoslavian coproduction), produced by Carlo Ponti, and adapted after a book published by the exiled Romanian novelist Virgil Gheorghiu in Paris in 1949. Johann Moritz or the “man of Fontana” is the “man of La Mancha”, but unlike Cervantes’s mad knight who wants to rid the world of monsters, he is a pacifist dreamer, embodying the drama of identity dissolution, under the pressure of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century."

“In Any Case They’re All Very BrightColoured”: Disturbing Readerly Identity in Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat

"The present essay approaches Muriel Spark’s 1970 novel, The Driver’s Seat, as an attempt to examine the interpretive processes through which readers experience both text and reality, with a view to disturbing readerly habits and facing us with the limitations of our own hospitality in relation to (fictional) others. I argue that Spark’s sketching of sparse “identikits” for the author’s, character’s and reader’s positions alike function as cautionary tales of the dictatorial potential inherent in any act of comprehension, or interpretive appropriation."

Plasticité et normopathie : Enquêter sur l’identité pour la fabriquer autrement

This article presents the general contours of the notion of identity (sameness and difference, continuity and impermanence, identity processes), as well as one of the philosophical foundations for thinking about this notion (the Apeiron hypothesis). These clarifications on identity reveal, on the one hand, a disconnection of the notion with contemporary usage. On the other hand, these clarifications point towards a re- appropriation of identity in order to make possible thinking about the constitution and composition of an open, non-oppressive common notion, which is in tune with the concrete transformation of its conditions of existence.

La dualitude comme identité mystique chez Henry Corbin

"Henry Corbin is the creator of many neologisms. The term imaginal, related to the phrase mundus imaginalis, is probably the best known among them. Few researchers have come to realize that the term dualitude is also a Corbinian neologism. By first exploring the historical origin of the term in Corbinian thought, I propose then to explain the metaphysical role given by him to the term, but also the way in which the concept ensures the coherence of “mystical identity”. As a matter of fact, Corbin places at the heart of “mystical identity” the principle of dualitude of the Self and the Ego. For Corbin, the metaphysical structure of monotheistic angelology rests on this principle and allows a personal relationship between the individual and the divine."

Self-Discovery through Otherness as Depicted in Folk Tales

The entire world of folk tales is an interrogation, a regeneration of reality. The cosmos becomes, through these tales, an inverted image, an upside-down perspective on our existence. Everything that surrounds us can be and will be brought into question. Our attempt is to emphasize the role of folk tales in asking questions, in leading to the knowledge of the world, of the Others, and of the Self. To see how that is achieved for the heroes of folk tales, we will discuss The Twelve Daughters of the Emperor and the Enchanted Palace, from Petre Ispirescu’s collection.

Qui êtes-vous ? L’imaginaire du retrait dans la vieillesse

"This article proposes the approach of the imaginary of the retreat in old age and its identity implications. The rich semantism of the term retreat implies different states of mind, different worldviews and behaviours, on a scale between normality and pathology, between self-preservation and self-alienation."

Uncovering the Self: Identity and Otherness in Irish Fiction (Barry, Beckett and Banville)

"Fiction seems to be bound to the discovery of the self and the other. By engaging in ethical readings, literature can become a fruitful space of interaction in which the reader and text can communicate in order to make an acquaintance with otherness. In this regard, the present paper consists of several analyses on Irish fiction that propose explorations into the quest of self-discovery. As it stands, self-identity is iterated in terms of knowing both the self and the other and therefore discovering alterity. Through the works of Barry, Beckett and Banville, we intend to demonstrate various approaches towards self-identity and analyse how they came into fruition."