Volum 74 Nr. 1 (2025): Analele Universităţii Bucureşti. Limbi şi Literaturi Străine (2025)
Analele Universităţii Bucureşti. Limbi şi Literaturi Străine este o publicaţie ştiinţifică bianuală care acoperă diverse domenii filologice de interes: lingvistică, literatură, studii culturale, traductologie.
Publicat:
2025-09-04
Articles
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CONVERSATIONS D’EMILIE DE LOUISE D’ÉPINAY : UNE PERSPECTIVE FÉMININE SUR L’ÉDUCATION AU XVIII-E SIÈCLE
Rezumat
This study, based on Madame d'Épinay’s educational novel, Conversations d'Émilie (1781), a series of dialogues between mother and daughter, aims to analyse the principles of education proposed by Louise d'Épinay, about the formation of the female personality and its role in society. According to Louise d'Épinay, the education of the female elite requires a thorough training in order to successfully manage the family universe (combining knowledge of psychology with sensitivity and responsibility towards all members of the field), to succeed in the social role of a rational woman (who, although she has studied worldly norms, does not allow herself to be dominated by them; who, thanks to her discernment and modesty, clearly perceives the intentions of her interlocutors and therefore cannot become a victim of others or of her own ego), to become an intellectually brilliant, sociable figure (mastering the subtle art of conversation, the fruit of reading and intelligence cultivated in discussions of substance).
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SULLO SGUARDO DEGLI ANGELI NEL PARADISO DANTESCO: UNA GERARCHIA DELLA CONTEMPLAZIONE ON ANGELIC VISION IN DANTE’S PARADISO: A HIERARCHY OF CONTEMPLATION
Rezumat
The present paper aims to treat an aspect of Dante's angelology, namely the contemplative function of angels, which is closely related to their hierarchical arrangement, standing at the very core of angelic intermediation in the universe configured by Dante. Our paper focuses on the implications of angelic vision, arguing that it is not a passive function, but actually an operation, as it involves a constantly active orientation of the angels toward God as the source of life-giving light and knowledge, but also toward one another, and ultimately towards creation as a whole. At this point, Dante's assimilation of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite’s doctrine on angels plays a fundamental role.
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INY LORENTZ’S WANDERING HERO – AN UNCANNY NARRATIVE RESEMBLANCE
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This century has seen a resurgence of historical fantasy novels, but few works have come as close to Walter Scott’s historical novel as Iny Lorentz’s books, at least when it comes to narrative technique and selling numbers. There was a period when the public couldn’t access their books, on account of the language barrier, but translations have been published and their success with “Marie, the Wandering Harlot, Series” rivals Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge Series and Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma novels. They managed to eclipse even Rebecca Gable’s success with Fortune’s Wheel. The reader gets copious endnotes, an insight into the “real” historical events which served as a source of inspiration and research prior to the writing, as well as explanations for various local traditions. A central common denominator uniting the Iny Lorentz’s novels with the ancestors of historical novels (Edgeworth and Scott) is the presence of wandering characters. It is our claim that transformations the wandering hero undergoes – a type of hero who plays a central role in both Scott and Lorentz – are rather caused by Lorentz’s narrative style, which injects narrative features pertaining to women writers into the agglomeration of incident specific to a historical novel, rather than by postmodernist precritical assumptions behind the narratorial voice. Otherwise, far from offering a marginal voice and a “petite histoire” (like Ginzburg’s Il formaggio e i vermi), these characters reinforce the dominant set of values and hierarchies and provide a way out of the political/social problems in the fictional/historical societies depicted.
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REPRESENTATIONS OF REAL AND FICTIONAL BLACK HEROISM IN HO CHE ANDERSON’S KING AND NNEDI OKORAFOR’S SHURI
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This article takes into account Black heroism, as illustrated through Martin Luther King Jr. (portrayed in Ho Che Anderson’s graphic novel called King) and Shuri, the sister of Marvel’s Black Panther (featured in Nnedi Okorafor’s two-part comic book entitled Shuri). By looking at a real historical figure and a fictional superheroine, I will pinpoint what differences arise between such depictions, while also highlighting the fact that writers and artists have the possibility to (re)create non-stereotypical representations of heroes. Essentially, such stories end up reminding diverse audiences that it is important to design role models for communities and accentuate how heroism is meant to be defined through a realistic, but hopeful picture of a person who equally embraces their flaws and strengths.
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GWEN’S GENDER, RACE, AND AGENCY IN THE BBC TV SERIES MERLIN (2008-2012): FROM SERVANT TO QUEEN
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This article discusses the character of Gwen from the TV series Merlin (2008-2012) created and broadcast by the BBC. Gwen starts her journey in the series as a black woman and a servant to lady Morgana, but eventually, she marries Arthur and she becomes the Queen of Camelot. In this text, we note the innovation of the creators of the series to portray the infamous character of Guinevere for the first time as a black woman and a servant in the palace as a way of introducing multicultural and multiracial characters in well-known adaptations. Subsequently, we explore Gwen’s race, gender, and agency as they evolved in the series in relation to her social position and relationships.
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A DIACHRONIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THREE TRANSLATION VERSIONS OF OSCAR WILDE’S THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
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The phenomenon of retranslation has been receiving more and more attention in translation studies. Many translations into Romanian of landmark English-language works were carried out during the communist era, as part of a vast translation effort, with the resulting target texts generally being of high quality. But some of these seminal works have been retranslated in the last 30 years, sometimes more than once. A possible record-holder for retranslations (excluding dramatic texts) is Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, with at least 9 translated versions, six of them dating from the post-communist era. This paper looks at three versions of this classic – one from the communist era and two from the post-communist era. It analyses possible reasons for retranslation, changes in textual-linguistic profile, translation strategies, quality and the relationships between the versions (are they active or passive translations?). Do these changes reflect changes in the broader translation market?
Book Reviews
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KATHRYN N. JONES, CAROL TULLY, & HEATHER WILLIAMS. 2020. Hidden Texts, Hidden Nation. (Re)Discoveries of Wales in Travel Writing in French and German (1780-2018) Liverpool University Press, 304 p. ISBN: 978-1-78962-143-3.
Rezumat
Part of a joint project between Bangor University, Swansea University and the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Hidden Texts, Hidden Nation is a timely book that focuses on Wales and the idea of Welshness, as depicted by French, Breton and German travellers from the latter half of the eighteenth century to contemporary times. Furthermore, it aims to unravel a nation which, much like Scotland and Ireland, has long been perceived and represented as marginal to the English imperial discourse. The authors’ rationale for the book is endorsed by the unfair treatment of Wales as a country with a “compromised” relationship with “its globally dominant neighbour”. However, despite the steadfast tendency to regard Wales as a part of England even during the post-devolution times, the nation has showcased not only its own language, social, cultural and political identity but also its specific legislation and education system. This line of thought enables the three authors to zoom in on Continental travel writing so as to reconfigure Wales as a nation radically different from both England and the European Celtic periphery. They successfully achieve their major goal by scrutinizing “the works of European travellers to Wales writing in languages other than English” with a view to erasing Wales’s “cultural ‘invisibility’”.
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MICHAEL SAENGER & SERGIO COSTOLA (Eds.) 2023. Shakespeare in Succession: Translation and Time Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 336p. ISBN: 978-0-2280-1649-6
Rezumat
The volume Shakespeare in Succession: Translation and Time, edited by Michael Saenger and Sergio Costola, represents a timely contribution to the field of Shakespeare studies, particularly within the subfields of translation studies and global performance criticism. Building on recent presentist approaches to Shakespeare (Grady & Hawkes, 2007; DiPietro & Grady, 2013), as well as on insights from translation and adaptation studies (Hutcheon, 2006; Jonathan Gil Harris, 2009) that posit Shakespeare's works as cultural texts embedded in ongoing processes of translation, adaptation, and reworking, the volume offers a compelling investigation into the complex cultural negotiations that reshape Shakespeare’s texts across time, space, and language.
