Daniela Preda, Ciprian Iulian Toroczkai, Innovation, Classicism and Humanism
Innovation, Classicism and Humanism
This study focuses on one of the most important and latest contributions to the exploration of Albert Camus’s work in Romanian field of culture. In this volume, the studies can be grouped according to the (inter)disciplinary field Camus’s work often approaches: morality and sacred, philosophy and mythology, literature and stylistics. The authors stress that Albert Camus lived and wrote in accordance with moral discipline which, on the one hand, objected to social injustice and human weaknesses, and, on the other hand, defended the human beings and tried to help them while avoiding the notion of the human being as abstract entity. Furthermore, Camus’s “new humanism” is equally humanitarian (owing to the idea of human solidarity against injustice, poverty and death) and humanistic (owing to the superiority of human values: freedom of choice, reason and disinterested love). Albert Camus believed in the “tragic nature of the human being”, which means being good at any cost, hence his triple militant ideology for equality, justice and freedom. At the end of the study, the authors approach a more general conclusion: with no damage to the topicality and the importance of studying Anglo-American language and literature in Romanian, this concern should not turn in cultural monopoly. The Romanian culture’s ties to the Latin vein are incontrovertible and this requires its contextualization depending on its “relatives” – the French, Spanish or Portuguese culture.
Keywords: innovation, classicism, humanism, Albert Camus
- Albert Camus – René Char, Correspondence 1946-1959, transl. by Vasile Savin, RAO, Bucharest, 2011. Albert Camus, “Trois interviews”, in Actuelles. Chroniques 1944-1948, Oeuvres complètes II, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade – “nrf”, 2006.
- Baciu, Virginia, Albert Camus et la condamnation a mort, Junimea, Iași, 1998.
- Bako, Alina, Latinitatea – limbă, spiritualitate și identitate [Latinity – Language, Spirituality and Identity], in Transilvania no. 11-12, 2013, pp. 148-152.
- Bratu, Florian, Albert Camus: mit și metafizică [Albert Camus: Myth and Metaphysics], Junimea, Iași, 1998.
- Camus, Albert, Betwixt and Between, Noces. The Myth of Sisyphus, The Rebel, by Irina Mavrodin, Modest Morariu and Mihaela Simion, RAO, Bucharest, 2014.
- Camus, Albert, Caligula. The Misunderstanding. The State of Siege. Révolte dans les Asturies, transl. by Catinca Ralea, RAO, Bucharest, 2004.
- Camus, Albert, Notebooks, transl. by Micaela Ghițescu, RAO, Bucharest, 2003.
- Camus, Albert, The Fall, translated into English by Justin O’Brien, Vintage Books, New York, 1956
- Camus, Albert, The First Man, transl. by Ileana Cantuniari, RAO, Bucharest, 2014.
- Camus, Albert, The Stranger, The Plague, The Fall, The Exile and the Kingdom, by Georgeta Horodinca, Olga Mărculescu and Irina Mavrodin, RAO, Bucharest, 2013.
- Lascu, Ioan, Manolescu, Camelia, Rădulescu, Valentina (eds.), Albert Camus: innovation, classicisme, humanisme, Scrisul Românesc, Craiova, 2013.
- Matei, Alexandru, Charisma pierdută a literaturii [The Lost Charisma of Literature], in Idei în Dialog no. 9 (36), September 2007, pp. 33-34.
- Tzvetan Todorov, La littérature en péril, Flammarion, Paris, 2007.
- Vitner, Ion, Albert Camus sau tragicul exilului [Albert Camus or the Tragedy of the Exile], Editura pentru Literatură Universală, Bucharest, 1968.
- Vuillemin, Alain, Lascu, Ioan, Rădulescu, Valentina, Manolescu, Camelia, Rădulescu, Anca, Condei, Cecilia (eds.), Albert Camus – un écrivain pour notre temps, Universitaria, Craiova, 2011.
