Volume XII (2007)

CULTURE, BOOKS, SOCIETY: ADRIAN MARINO AND HIS HORIZONS

Contents

Studies

Mircea POPA
Abstract

The paper presents Adrian Marino, the daemon of erudition, the uomo universale in extinction. He was that type of erudite who lived at the confluence of two or three cultures, and aspired towards the universal Republic of Letters. He had fought for an open and dialogical culture, though his aspirations towards culture had been rejected for more than a decade by the interdiction of his signature right. Each of Adrian Marino's books from Viata lui Alexandru Macedonski, until the Biografia ideii de literatura, and Pentru Europa put up in value the national potential of literary ideology, the authentic signals of our Europeanisation. Marino the comparativist and the ideologue was a voice that we needed, a constructive civic spirit who always had in sight each stratum of society, sailing over vast spaces the way he used to do in his literary works.

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Adrian Marino
Abstract

This article contains the last pages written by Adrian Marino before he died. The study presents the evolution of the idea of freedom in Transylvania in the first half of the 19-th century. Investigating the philosophical and political writings of scholars and thinkers like I. Budai-Deleanu, Moise Nicoara, D. Tichindeal, Petru Maior, Gh. Barit etc. and the several petitions addressed to the Habsburg emperors, Adrian Marino outlines the way in which the basic ideas of the Enlightenment and of the French Revolution were assimilated by the Romanian political-philosophical discourse.

Because of the absolutistic regime, civil and human rights (such as the right to resistance, revolt and revolution) could not be discussed and demanded in a way that would have threatened the socio-political status quo. Therefore the entire discussion about political and social freedom was projected into the abstract sphere of concepts, ideas and purely theoretical systems. However, the notions and ideas debated penetrated the Romanian political language and prepared the ground for concrete political actions.

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Emilia-Mariana SOPORAN
Abstract

The paper presents an elevated exchange of letters and ideas of two outstanding personalities: the historian Andrei Pippidi and the ideologue Adrian Marino. Their productive connection unfolds in the following letters. As it appears from the content of these epistles there is a long collaboration between them on cultural scale through the permanent exchange of ideas and information, of articles and books on the basis of "trust, appreciation, sympathy, cooperation and personal interest taken in each other".

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Alex GOLDIŞ
Abstract

The paper is an attempt to demonstrate the fact that the return of the theoretician to Enlightenment and “pasoptism” represents in fact a return to polyvalence and to the multifunctionality of the concept of Europe. The main theories formulated by Adrian Marino’s ideological works can also be read as an evolution of "Europe" from the state of possibility towards a specific political concept. Generally Europe becomes a grid, an ordering scheme of Romanian space, in the measure in which the author confesses that his preoccupation regarding the "way in which the Romanian spirit and culture grasp and assimilate this reality in expansion".

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Florina ILIS
Abstract

Adrian Marino, trying to impose hermeneutics upon Romanian literary criticism, developed a new methodology of hermeneutics and a real critical system. The study analyses this system, comparing Marino's hermeneutics to the systems of such outstanding hermeneutists as Heidegger or Schleirmacher. Being very well acquainted with the hermeneutical tradition, Adrian Marino elaborated a kind of synthesis of the hermeneutical interpretation methods and techniques, but he also developed a method of hermeneutical analysis for the texts of literary theory, thereby inventing a new discipline, the hermeneutics of the idea of literature.

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Károly VERESS
Abstract

The study deals with Adrian Marino's scientific activity developed in the domain of hermeneutics in the 1970s and considered to be trailblazing in the Romanian culture under the intellectual circumstances of that age. The paper is based on Marino's works written about Mircea Eliade's hermeneutics and about literary hermeneutics. It focuses on two main aspects of this hermeneutical achievement. On one hand it tries to investigate critically whether Marino's basic hypothesis can be verified. This hypothesis stated that, in Mircea Eliade's works written in the domains of history of religions, anthropology of religion, phenomenology of religion - works which explore the historical forms, cultural configurations and semantic contents of the universal religious mythology and symbol system - one can in fact discern the outlines of a universal hermeneutical conception that may be compared with Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. On the other hand our study makes an attempt to show all the deficiencies and limits of Marino's hermeneutical view which arose from his structuralist view and his epistemological-methodological approach. Having compared the essential points of the problems investigated by Marino with Eliade's statements as well as with Gadamer's and Ricoeur's relevant ideas, the present study concludes that Marino's characteristic misunderstandings related to the hermeneutical conception arose exactly from the hermeneutical situation which served as a medium for his investigations and, in fact, these misunderstandings have proved to be hermeneutically fertile.

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Rodica FRENŢIU
Abstract

The paper presents the Japanese translation of Adrian Marino's book Etiemble ou le comparatisme militant, the first book of Romanian literary criticism translated in Japan. At the same time the basic issues related to comparative literature in general and in particular in Japan are also presented. The new comparativist science elaborated by Rene Etiemble, proposed a new humanism without boundaries, oriented towards a unity of attitudes, preoccupations and ideas, which will certainly be predominant in the 21-st century. The proposal of "universal literature" seems to be a great opening of horizons. This includes the literature of every nation from West and East, both the Oriental and the Occidental literature. This theory adopted by Marino too, suggested that only comparative literature could fully understand the complex relationship between the different cultures.

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Bujor PĂDUREANU
Abstract

Contrary to the world-as-play, the Agon is above all an existential phenomenon that is characterized by the human presence. The agon differentiates itself from conflict in that it takes place according to rules and develops as horizon in the dynamics of victory. Its origin brings with it an existential modification of existence in general, inasmuch as play is the general way of life for Greek society. The tight-knit coalescence between agon and poetry shows, for instance, its deep affiliation to Greek cultural form. The agon is regarded by Nietzsche as a self-evident path of philosophy for the Greeks, and it is from himself also in the modern form further practiced. The agon moves in the same direction as the world-as-play, and lies in an analogy with it - although both are very different from one another. In this constellation of regarding the world as play and the life principle of the agon, the phenomenon of art develops by the Greeks, and the tragedy itself will be a part of this constellation.

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Ovidiu PECICAN
Abstract

The paper delineates the personality and work of Adrian Marino, a person with spectacular and protean character leading a marginal but febrile and authentic intellectual life, who made the attempt of remodelling a historical party, and set himself to the construction of a Transylvanian periodical essential for the democratic debate. A character neither popular, nor comfortable: the democratic ideologue proposing orientation towards the European Union not only on the scale of Romania's foreign alliances but also as a model of civilization.

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Constantin M. POPA
Abstract

The paper presents the evolution of Adrian Marino's work from the monographic volume about Alexandru Macedonski to the impressive six volume literary encyclopaedia, The Biography of the Idea of Literature. An uncompromising personality, Adrian Marino was irreversibly attracted to the concepts of plurality, tolerance, democracy and he never abandoned the critical spirit. As a critic of ideas he analyzed the Romanian literary critical, political and cultural tradition and tired to shape its present and future course according to his liberal and neo-pasoptist ideals.

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Monica SPIRIDON
Abstract

Adrian Marino's life and scientific activity seems to have been marked by the zodiac sign of the alternative. He elaborated a challenging encyclopaedic construction dealing with the notion of literature (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature, The Biography of the Idea of Literature, The Dictionary of Literary Ideas) and adopted an alternative method for the study of comparative literature. Being an adept of alternatives and relativistic thinking, he defied the uniformity and authoritarian character of the communist regime and managed to become an independently thinking professional.

Though a great scholar, Marino considered important not to neglect activity for the sake of theory: he endeavoured to reconcile culture and politics trying to reform both and emphasizing their complementarity. His oeuvre had both a militant and a utopian aspect.His works, outlining a pro-European and pro-democratic system of values, made him a true citizen of the Republic of Letters of his age.

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Gábor GYÖRFFY
Abstract

The work of Adrian Marino, written mostly during the communist period, sets an example of cultural independence from the political power. It is an individual solution that undermined the anti-intellectualism promoted by the perfidious institutional circles of those times. His ideological works published after 1989 are confessions about the relationship between culture and power in the communist era: they present an alternative approach to the situation of Romanian literature under the totalitarian regime.

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István FEHÉR M.
Abstract

The paper gives a short panorama of the tradition and philosophical history of the idea of Europe. It presents different phases of the discussion about Europe - discussion that usually emerged in the periods of radical social-political re-arrangements, crisis or insecurity of the European values - from Greek culture, through Bayle's Republique des Lettres or Kant's and Hegel's writings, to Postmodern philosophers such as Gadamer, Heidegger and Rorty who had to face the problems that occurred after the geographical, political unification of Europe in the 1990s.

The study raises the questions: What does the concept of Europe mean? Where was it born, and what are the perspectives for it? What are the characteristics of European culture? On what principles has the European Union been built? It argues that Europe and philosophy organically belong together, for Europe itself can be regarded as a philosophical idea.

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Doru POP
Abstract

A "history of Freedom" in Romanian culture is not possible without a history of understanding the roots of intolerance, dogmatism and aggressive isolationism in our recent past. Adrian Marino managed to give freedom and liberty a consistency far deeper than the mere ideological compatibility. A practitioner of a "liberal profession", Marino assumed this role of not being employed by the State as an ontological statement, not just as an attitude towards the Communist regime, or as a social ideal. Throughout his entire life Adrian Marino practiced three great Freedoms and dedicated all his intellectual efforts to them: the freedom of conscience, the freedom of expression and the freedom of thinking, all of them more than utopian ideologies, but difficult to realize in a peripheral culture like the Romanian one. For Marino freedom is based on a liberal (read it critical) model for the conscience, opposing any kind of fundamentalism.

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István KIRÁLY V
Abstract

This study, related to Plato's cave-myth, attempts to open up the meaning and existential importance of the essence of truth by focusing on the interdependence of liberty and truth. It points out that the essence of truth is liberty and vice versa, the essence of liberty is truth, for without the liberty and openness of search there can be no (artistic, scientific or philosophical) truth at all. Far from giving a final definition of this relationship, the paper illustrates the way in which these two essential components of human life constantly refer to, question and open up one another, showing that, according to the Heideggerian motto: "Whatever happens with historical human beings comes in each case from a decision about the essence of truth that happened long ago and is never up to humans alone."

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Sidonia GRAMA NEDEIANU
Abstract

The violent event of the 1989 Romanian revolution was experienced both as transforming and traumatic. Using vivid, synaesthesic testimonies on those days, the paper highlights the liminality of the revolution-as-lived, its symbolic dimension, the existential dilemmas and the harsh reflexivity triggered then, while critically examining narrative patterns of the revolution-as-told.

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Emilia-Mariana SOPORAN
Abstract

The article focuses on the Adrian Marino archive collection of the Central University Library in Bucharest, Romania. It states that this collection is composed of 467 dossiers outlining the whole personality of the literary critic, historian and theoretician. It mentions the titles of dossiers which comprise thecollection such as "Ideea de modern."

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Librarianship

Mircea ANGHELESCU
Abstract

Travel had a double function for Adrian Marino. On the one hand it meant a kind of escape from the abstract world of ideas, a mingling with people and a contemplation of everyday life on the streets of the great European cities. On the other hand it was an intellectual pilgrimage to the famous libraries of these cities, an initiation to some old and venerable spiritual centres where the quasi ritual meeting between man and book took place.

Several works written by the eminent Romanian scholar speak of the experiences he made abroad and describe his geographical and intellectual itineraries and the encounter with books and libraries during these journeys.

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Felix OSTROVSCHI
Abstract

The present material would like to presentation briefly the newly established "Adrian Marino" documentation and scientific research centre opened in the "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library from Cluj-Napoca. In this article we tried first of all to outline some biographical reference points from the life and scientific activity of Adrian Marino, who donated the collection bearing his name. Then we tried to delineate the main elements which form the bibliographic collection, starting with the books and arriving at the personal dossiers which contain either the internal or the international correspondence Mr Marino had with different personalities of the age, then his reading notes and manuscript works, most of them already published. What we wished to underline in this paper was the importance of this area; as area intended rather to the scientific research rigorously based on the unique materials existing in this collection, than to individual reading. We hope that this material will serve as a starting point for some valuable future research.

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Rozália PORÁCZKY
Abstract

Against the background of the capitalist economic structures and in the historical context of the second half of the 19-th century, Transylvania and the social-cultural activities of its population present a varied, very complex image. The studied material shows the special role the periodicals played in the second half of the 19-th century as they modelled people's view on the world and society, on culture and science, they changed mentalities, and also identified, made known and diffused the elements which constituted the cultural heritage of the different nationalities. Each nationality made efforts to collect, preserve, valorise and diffuse these values among the readers, considering that this cultural heritage, meaning national identity as well, was a national responsibility. The cultural-political role of the category of intellectuals was extremely important, as they became the motive power for the evolution and modernization of society, while the cultural institutions, the existing secondary schools and universities became the centres of scientific and cultural activities.

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Gheorghe VAIS
Abstract

This study presents the development of the library building from the moment the idea of establishing this institution occurred through the different stages of its completion and the execution to its inauguration.

When the Ferenc Jozsef University was founded in 1872 in Cluj, it was decided that a University Library was required. The Transylvanian Museum donated its rich collections to the new institution. The new library functioned in several rather unsuitable buildings during the following years. Finally the Museum Society, the University Council and the library management asked for a new library building to be raised. The field where the building was to be erected was bought by the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Religion; it was situated at the corner of Miko Street and Arany Janos Street, an important location from the point of view of urban planning.

In the project competition organized for the construction of the building famous architects of the age participated. The winners, Floris Nandor Korb and Kalman Giergl were familiar with the location having already built the University Clinical Complex in the vicinity of the future University Library. Therefore they managed to integrate the library into the new urban area developed west of the city centre; they turned the building towards Arany Janos Square. Though at the competition the two architects presented a plan characterised by the dominance of Neo-Baroque elements, in the course of its execution the building gained a Secessionist character. The building, whose foundations were laid in the summer of 1906 and which was officially inaugurated on 18 May 1909, represented an economic variant of the architectural program due to financial difficulties. Consequently, some important aspects of the execution project were abandoned and others were realized only in 1931-34.

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Luminiţa TOMUŢA
Abstract

The paper presents the modernization process of the Library of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, a branch institution of the "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library. Having a rather deplorable situation (lack of funds, proper organization, library room etc.) for a starting point, the clever measures applied transformed this library into a modern and effective informative centre offering an agreeable environment for reading, well organized book collections, good electronic equipment and a well functioning safety system. Such a modernization process always requires results in changing people's mentalities in some measure and it may be an example for further initiatives.

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Gabriela MORĂRESCU
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This study presents the changes which occurred as a consequence of the new organisational chart of the Central University Library adopted at the beginning of the year 2005 whereby branch libraries were incorporated.

The paper presents the activity of this new department for the year 2005, focusing on the collections, rooms, personnel and electronic equipment of the branch libraries as well as the different activities performed by them.

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Mariana FALUP
Abstract

The paper presents the library automation and modernization process of the Loan Department of the "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library. Being an important and highly frequented section of the library (as many readers prefer borrowing the publications to using them in the reading rooms), this department required a good and flexible organizational structure. To achieve this, an open access system was created. The main stages of the reorganization process, started in 1996, were: selecting the most frequently used books and preparing them for the open access shelves; the organization of the selected books on the shelves (a systematic-alphabetical arrangement close to the Cutter type arrangement); the changing of the Vubis database for the more efficient Aleph library software in 1999 and the computerization of the loan process. Though the financial support accorded for the reorganization of the Loan Department was small, the personnel's efforts increased considerably the efficiency and popularity of this library section.

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Carmen CRIŞAN
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The paper discusses some issues related to the online scientific databases subscribed to by the "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library in the year 2005. The study presents the four main online collections (ProQuest, Chadwyck Healey, JSTOR, SpringerLink) as well as the major problems related to their use. The different statistics, tables and graphics show an increasing interest in such online databases, which encourages the library management to make available such information sources to its users in the future too. It can also be observed that the databases were accessed by a great number of teachers, PhD students and undergraduate students both from the University and the Central University Library. Though the users' searching methods sometimes lacked the necessary professionalism, these electronic products seem to be a great help in the scientific activity of the readers.

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Alina Ioana ŞUTA
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This paper, having defined what international exchange of publications is, compares the exchange activities of the "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library in Cluj with that of the Wroclaw University Library. This service was initiated in 1923 in the Romanian library and in 1954 in the Polish institution. The partnership between the two university libraries began in 1985 and has continued ever since, the most important exchanged publications being the different series of the two university periodicals, Studia Universitatis "Babes-Bolyai" and Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis.

The exchange of publications being a complex activity with several phases, it is natural that the work method of the two exchange offices is slightly different. However, there are many common aspects and tendencies. For both institutions the exchange of publications is important as by its means the library collections are enriched and it promotes a favourable image of the institutions.

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Costel DUMITRAŞCU
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The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the bibliographic information service in the "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library. The library having several collections and catalogues, users may often need some help in their search for information. It is the task of the bibliographer on duty to assist them.

Assisting readers is not a simple task. The librarian, besides being familiar with the library, must have a good knowledge of human psychology for he has to help the different types of library users according to their needs. He must decide in each case whether he should help the user to find certain information or to show him how to search for it independently. Though it is better for both the user and the librarian if the former learns to use efficiently the informative tools of the library, the librarian is ready to answer satisfactorily even the most banal questions.

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Miscellanea

Adrian MARINO
Reviewed by
Ruxandra CESEREAN
Institution:
Faculty of Letters, "Babeş-Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca
Email:
ruxces@yahoo.com
Abstract
Anca IRIMIE-DOCOLIN
Reviewed by
Raluca SOARE
Institution:
"Lucian Blaga" Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Email:
ralusoare@yahoo.com
Abstract
Lidia KULIKOVSKI
Reviewed by
Ildikó BÁN
Institution:
"Lucian Blaga" Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca
Email:
bnildiko@yahoo.com
Abstract
Ioana ROBU, Sally WOOD-LAMONT
Institution:
Library of the University of Medicine and Pharmaceutics, Cluj-Napoca
Email:
irobu@umfcluj.ro; swood@umfcluj.ro
Abstract

The article discusses the highlights of the "10th Conference of the European Association for Health Informationand Libraries (EAHIL)" which was held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. This conference is being considered as one of the most significant events within the field of medical library information with the participation of medical librarians, medical informatics and physicians. EAHIL president Arne Jakobsson described the success of the conference and praised those who helped organize it.

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