Antonio Patraș, Recitind „Jurnalul parizian“
Re-reading “The Paris Diary”
I aimed to show in this article that Eugen Simion’s Paris Diary (Jurnalul parizian) from 1977 underlines, there is no doubt, a significant moment within the Romanian critic’s career, by prompting a quality leap within his critical style and by decisively orienting the interpreter’s options towards definite research topics. Along with quasi-subjective and personal confessions, rather scanty, The Paris Diary contains a series of essays on various themes, as well as a gallery of portraits, epic sequences (with marked anecdotic and chronicling aspect), fine observations on the intellectuals gathered in Paris and on the specific atmosphere of the 70s. The majority of literary reviewers has already referred to all these features; usually, the argument served so as to enhance the critic’s literary talent, most obvious in the way he turns portraiture into an artistic achievement, in the excellence of memoir-like accounts, in his disposition for aphorism, etc. Not willing to re-play the previous approaches to Eugen Simion’s Diary, it was my intention to catch the overall picture and, subsequently, to pinpoint the place this book has within the Romanian critic’s work. The stages of its popularity show nothing less than the fact that the author made a “lucky” shot and succeeded in writing a text which, also nowadays, retrieves a positive satisfaction while re-read.
Keywords: Authenticity, Confession, Diary of ideas, Mimesis, Autobiographical pact, Urban mythology
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- Mircea A. Diaconu, Eugen Simion. Modernitatea clasicului. O recitire a „Jurnalului parizian” (Eugen Simion. The Modernity of the Classic: a re-reading of the Paris Diary), in „Convorbiri literare”, issue no. 5, May 2013.
- Gabriel Dimisianu, Jurnalul unei experienţe intelectuale (The Diary of an Intellectual Experience), in „România literară”, issue no. 5, 2 February 1978.
- Eugen Negrici, Timpul mărturisirii (The Time of Confession), in „Ramuri”, issue no. 2, February 1978.
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- Paul Georgescu, Timpul trăirii – timpul mărturisirii (The Time of Living, the Time of Confession), in „Contemporanul”, issue no. 6, 1978.
- Nicolae Manolescu, Civilizaţia ochiului (The Eye’s Civilisation), in „România literară”, issue no. 11, 16 March 1978.
- Mircea Iorgulescu, Memorialul unui critic (A Critic’s Memoirs), in „Luceafărul”, issue no. 14, 8 April 1978.
- Al. Călinescu, Jurnalul parizian (The Paris Diary), in „Convorbiri literare”, issue no. 4, April 1978.
- Mircea Doru Lesovici, Timpul trăirii, timpul mărturisirii (The Time of Living, the Time of Confession), in „Dialog”, May-June 1978.
- Şerban Cioculescu, Lirica de gândire (On the Poetry of Thinking), in „Flacăra”, 15 June 1978.
- Ion Constantinescu, Excelenţa memorialisticii (The Excellence of Memoirs), in „Ateneu”, June 1978.
- Valeriu Cristea, Timpul reflecţiei (The Time of Reflection), in „România literară”, issue no. 28, 12 July 1979.
- Lucian Raicu, Timpul mărturisirii (The Time of Confession), in „România literară”, issue no. 43, 23 October 1980.
- Constantin Ciopraga, Jurnalul unei experienţe franceze – Eugen Simion (The Diary of a French Experience), in „Dacia literară”, issue no. 3, 2000.
- Andrei Grigor, Eugen Simion. Monografie (Eugen Simion. A Monography), Aula Publishing House, Braşov, 2001.
- Răzvan Voncu, Jurnalul ca spaţiu al libertăţii interioare (The Diary as a Space of Inner Freedom), in „România literară”, 19 October 2006.
- Tudorel Urian, Sous le ciel de Paris, in „România literară”, issue no. 37, 2006.
