Antonio Patraş, Arta de a (nu) scrie un roman
E. Lovinescu. The art of (not) writing a novel
In the present paper we endeavored to prove that Lovinescu’s artistic creation is generally looked down on as a sort of ‘specimen’ failure; in spite of its quantitative importance, his literature did not meet with the public’s general enthusiasm; on the contrary, putting aside the author’s fame, the scholars kept themselves at bay, being reserved in giving any verdicts. The Genesis of Form… seeks to undo the laboratory experiments of an enigmatic writer who, but for writing it, used to know everything about literature. Thus, the book does not represent, in a restrictive way, an instance of genetic criticism, prone to locate and restore only the pre-publication variants. On the contrary, it aims to inquest – in a complex and subtle manner, at the same time – the issue of subjective taste, which should have determined the evolution and aesthetics of literary forms along the prose writer’s biographic course.
Keywords: biography, melodrama, cyclic novel, erotic psychology, creativity
I.E. Lovinescu, Opere / Works, edited by Maria Simionescu
and Alexandru George, Bucharest: “Minerva” Publishing
House, 1982-1992
E. Lovinescu, Scrieri / Writings, edited by Eugen Simion,
Bucharest: “Minerva” Publishing House, 1969-1982
E. Lovinescu, Bizu, edited by Marian Papahagi, Cluj-Napoca:
“Dacia” Publishing House, 1974.
E. Lovinescu, Firu’n patru / Hairsplitting, Bucharest:
“Naţionala Ciornei” Publishing House, 1933.
E. Lovinescu, Diana, Bucharest: “Socec&Co” Publishing
House S.A., 1934.
E. Lovinescu, „Sburătorul”. Agende literare / “Sburătorul”.
Literary agendae, edited by Monica Lovinescu & Gabriela
Omăt, vol. I-VI, Bucharest: “Minerva” Publishing House,
1993-2002.
II
Peter Brooks, The Melodramatic imagination: Balzac, Henry James,
Melodrama & the Mode of Excess, New Haven & London:
Yale University Press, 1976
Ioan Holban, Proza criticilor. Lovinescu. Ibrăileanu / The prose
of the literary critic. Lovinescu. Ibrăileanu, Bucharest:
“Minerva” Publishing House, 1983
Ligia Tudurachi, Cuvintele care ucid. Memorie literară în romanele
lui E. Lovinescu / The words that kill. Literary memory in E.
Lovinescu’s novels, Cluj-Napoca: “Limes” Publishing House,
2010.
