CREDINȚA POSTMODERNĂ: „NU” RELIGIEI, „DA” SPIRITUALITĂȚII

Pr. Pavel VITEL, PhD. Candidate & Lect. Iulian DAMIAN, PhD.

“Iustinian Patriarhul” Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Bucharest &

 “Dumitru Stăniloae” Faculty of Orthodox Theology, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University

ABSTRACT: The first key facet of the postmodern man’s religion arises from the famous collapse of meta-narratives of modernity. Jean-François Lyotard, in The Postmodern Condition, stressed the idea that the entire culture of contemporary man is marked by skepticism towards the big myths of modernity: reason, science, progress, and so on. This means that the cultural power of atheism collapses. Postmodern man belongs to the an era of cultural agnosticism were the very ambiguous idea of ​​"spirit" or "spiritual" offers a useful mediator between two poles: faith and unfaith. This idea avoids the theological meta-narrative about God, and yet not completely refuses the idea of ​​His existence. A growing number of people find themselves suspended between the loss of old certainties, and discovering new beliefs. These people are constantly living on the border that unites and separates faith from unfaith. Therefore, it should not be surprising that postmodern man is willing to “flirt” with the sacred, albeit situated at a safe distance from it, in a textual world, often divorced from his intrinsic need for faith, and a real religious commitment. Postmodernity itself is the era of experts in “identity problems”, of personality spiritual healers, of writers of “how to reassert yourself”; it is the era of “counseling boom”. Therefore, postmodern religion claims a “meta-experential” function performed today by numerous “self-improvement movements”, deriving their seductive power from their promise of developing the experiencing the soul and the body trough exercise, contemplation, self-concentration, and others. Postmodern man is a spiritual chooser, whether by his own preference or by neccessity.

KEYWORDS: postmodernity, religion, spirituality, individualism, consumerism.

A SCRIE ÎN LIMBA CELUILALT -IDENTITATE ŞI HIBRIDITATE ÎN LITERATURA MAGREBIANĂ DE EXPRESIE FRANCEZĂ-

Otilia-Maria AIOANEI, PhD. Candidate

Doctoral School of Philological Studies, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University

ABSTRACT: Throughout the XXcentury, the globalisation and decolonisation phenomena have moved the world towards an era named post-colonialism. People with different cultural backgrounds have shared history, but maintained different perspectives. Representing a fundamental theme in the discourse on identity and postcolonial studies, the concept of hybridity illustrates in an accurate manner the phenomenon of multicultural societies. Postcolonial societies are actually the result of cultural and linguistic exchanges determined by various historical and geographical situations, such as the colonisation. Assia Djebar represents one of the most important writers to have come out of modern Algeria, being for many decades at the forefront of postcolonial debates on cultural translation, identity and gender. Her work represents a juxtaposition between personal and intimate narratives, historical and national motifs. The object of this paper is to discuss the implication of cultural and linguistic exchanges for the postcolonial francophone literature in general and for the francophone Maghrebian literature in particular in order to demonstrate that the problem of identity and multiculturalism is still representing a fundamental problem for the modern society. The specific contribution of the present essay is the fact that it explores the particular position of Assia Djebar concerning her multilingualism, her choice of writing in French and the linguistic imaginary resulting from the juxtaposition of the Berber, Arabian and French cultures.

KEYWORDS: postcolonial French literature, decolonization, identity, alterity, linguistic imaginary.

ENUNȚAREA POETICĂ ÎN POEZIA ROMÂNEASCĂ POSTMODERNĂ

Beatrice Diana BURCEA, PhD. Candidate

University of Craiova

National College "Dr. Ioan Meșotă”, Brașov

ABSTRACT: This article approaches an important pragmatic aspect of communication, namely the phenomenon of poetic enunciation. The first part of the article summarizes representative theoretical positions. The second part of the study presents a few forms of discourse subjectivity. In the analysis of Postmodern Romanian poetry we targeted the subjectivity of enunciation. We identified deictic marks of enunciation, marks of the ethos as enunciation activity, aspects of the reported discourse, the dialogism of enunciation voices, etc.

KEYWORDS: deixis, discourse, enunciation, pragmatics, voice.

CONCEPTUL DE ANGOASĂ LA SØREN KIERKEGAARD

Nataşa MAXIM, PhD. Candidate

 Doctoral School of Philological Studies, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University

ABSTRACT: This paper approaches Kierkegaard`s anguish from the philosophical hermeneutics perspective, since anguish belongs to the somatic, psychological and pneumatological area. Given that man is a synthesis of body and soul carried by spirit, the disruption of one is damaging the others. Demonic means closing itself, denoting dumbness. State of captivity, inwardness, refusal of communication, the demonic is a condition that Søren Kierkegaard opposes to freedom, expansion, communication and can be a metaphor of the diary, if we consider the diarist`s mental structure: schizoid, in an endless conflict not only with itself but with the world. In a religious way, freedom is communicative, meaning to share, to (be) saved. Through an ontic perspective of being, seeing the man becoming, Kierkegaard teaches us what it means to be human through an imaginary reintegration into someone else`s condition, it`s a perspective that we identified as the background of Eliade`s hermeneutics. Another aspect of the demonic is the genius, represented by subjectivity, passion, anger, religion, contemplation, introspection. The genius is not afraid of fate because he knows that it can be determined by free will, he is afraid only of himself, of his own conscience. Subjectivity is always reactionary. The rebel, the demon, the genius is dominated by anguish, guilt, despair, the reason being the sin of breaking the community.

KEYWORDS: demonic, anguish, metaphor of the diary, genius, thorn in the flash.

PERCEPEREA DE CĂTRE COPIII DIN CENTRELE DE PLASAMENT A FACTORILOR ŞI A PROCESELOR CARE SUSȚIN REZILIENȚA

Ovidiu BUNEA, PhD. Candidate

“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University

ABSTRACT: Resilience is the ability of certain individuals to get good results despite exposure to risk. From the '70s researchers have tried to determine the resources and mechanisms that make some children to do better than might be expected of them considering some negative conditions in which they live: situations of war, natural disasters, abandonment, alcoholic or mental illness parents, chronic poverty or violent environment. This paper is the result of four focus groups held in orphanages in Iași in which we sought to determine how young people from here perceive the resources that they have and how this perception can initiate and support resilience. From the perspective of social factors we examined several variables - the orphanage, school, group of friends - and how they can positively or negatively influence the resilience of adolescents living in a residential system, and as a same factor can be both a risk factor and one protection. The age of young participans to focus groups was between 14 and 23 years, depending on the placement center, and the lenght of stay in orphanage varies widely: from 1-2 years to 20. The result we reached in the course of this research is that the study of resilience is not a matter of resources (factors), but rather an valorization of that factors. In other words, an analysis of resources is incomplete in absence of an analysis of resilient mecanisms and processes. On the other hand, this research extended the acceptance of resilience concept to the one proposed by Hunter & Cahndler (1999) which considers resilience lying on a continuum that goes from a negative optimal (behaviors characterized by violence, as we discovered to some interlocutors) to a positive optimum.

KEYWORDS: resilience, variables, factors, resilient mechanisms, placement center.

THE TRANSNATIONAL FAMILY IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Loredana- Florentina CĂTĂRĂU, PhD. Candidate

Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University

ABSTRACT: The fall of the communist regime in Romania had brought major changes regarding the mobility of  workforce. The number of Romanians who crossed the country’s borders to Europe has increased in the last period of time. More and more parents migrate with the aim to secure a better environment for their children. The spatial and temporal separation between them created what we call today a transnational family. With the help of technology, these transnational families are capable to remain united in the fusion of two different worlds. Even so, the idea of parenthood becomes minimal. Most often, we are dealing with cases where someone else is taking the role of parent, even the children themselves. This present paper has two approaches. One of them has into attention the dissolution of the transnational families, the struggles and the difficulties that involves a migration experience. The second approach aims to identify how parents cope with challenges from the host country.

KEYWORDS: international migration, transnational family, separation, children, transnational care.

ADOLESCENȚA: ÎNTRE MODELUL BIOLOGIC ŞI MODELELE SOCIO-CULTURALE

Simona FORTIN-BĂLĂNOIU, PhD.

Departament of Communication Sciences

Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest

ABSTRACT: The biological model which seems to be the most stable, although carefully researched, becomes in turn rather fragile, as the cultural model, or the educational one. Socio-cultural models for the study of adolescents and adolescence focus on the adolescents relationships with the environment: family, group, school, etc. or investigating the teenager from the perspective of their own sub-cultures. The author analyzes the specialized literature to see how adolescence is defined, how the adolescent relationships with others are characterized, what are the leisure activities and how the teenager relates, at least in theory, when it comes to school.

KEYWORDS: adolescence, models, school, family.

THE EFFECTS OF THE ARAB SPRING IN EGYPT AND TUNISIA. CHOOSING BETWEEN A SECULAR STATE AND AN ISLAMIC STATE

Ana-Maria GAJDO, PhD. Candidate

Faculty of Political Science, Sociology, Communication

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT: The revolutions that took place in North Africa and the Middle East in 2010-2011, subsumed to the Arab Spring have different results/effects depending on country-specific characteristics and factors. Depending on the historical legacy, the evolution of institutions in each state, the involving of national and international players etc. we can find a wide range of outcomes of the Arab Spring. If Tunisia is now considerd the successful example of the transition to democracy, in Egypt the military returned to its dedicated role - "savior of the people" and the establishment of another authoritarian regime. Although during the revolutions of 2011 there were no slogans and no religious claims, however, the Arab Spring has meant a "revival of Islam." In all MENA countries where dictators feared opposition forces with Islamic doctrine, these partiesor movements were banned before the revolutions of 2010-2011, as it was the case of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Immediately after the revolutions of 2011, parties with Islamist ideology asserted themselves on the political scene in Tunisia - such as En Nahda - and in Egypt - Freedom and Justice Party which has strong links to the Muslim Brotherhood. They succeeded, through democratic means, to gain political power, then they were removed from governance either because of new elections - the case of En Nahda din Tunisia - either because of "the new revolution" or "coup" as they were called the events of June-July 2013 in Egypt. In 2014 Egypt and Tunisia have adopted the new Constitutions and formulated options regarding the relation "secular-Islamic" in the functioning of societies. This paper aims to highlight the extent to which internal political actors in Tunisia and Egypt asserted their options for a secular or an Islamic State, from 2011 to the present.

KEYWORDS: Arab Spring, secular State, Islamic State, power, political Islam.

METAFORA ÎN DISCURSUL MEDIA PUBLICITATEA ŞI METAFORA VIZUALĂ

Mădălina MOCANU, PhD. Candidate

Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University

ABSTRACT: This study sets out to explore the world of visual metaphor in relation with advertising.  Starting with one of the most known theories about metaphor, my paper aims to explore every small piece of this mechanism of thought. Considering the fact that metaphor is central to various types of communication, I seek to understand more about the inner structure of visual metaphor in social campaigns. Metaphor helps us understand abstract concepts as love, fear, freedom, death in terms of another concept. In advertising, metaphor can be an easy way to attract the target or to send a message, but we need to know how this mechanism works in order to use it properly. The main research questions are the following: what is the inner structure of metaphor and what do we need to know about it? How are visual metaphors structured as we see in some cases of advertising campaigns and how does metaphor actually become visual? Research involves analyzing campaigns where metaphor seems to be the main strategy to create a bond with the public and various visual creations relevant to my theme.  The structure of my research is based upon the balance between theory and practical study: the first part will explain the structure of metaphor, main theories that explains parts of this process and then I will present relevant case studies.

KEYWORDS: visual metaphor, media discourse, advertising, communication sciences.

TURISMUL - O IMPORTANTĂ ACTIVITATE ECONOMICO-SOCIALĂ

Flaviu Doru NEAGA, PhD. Candidate

University of Craiova

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Institute of World Economics, Romanian Academy

ABSTRACT: Although tourism has become an important economic social phenomena with big implications in the society development, a separate definition that is accepted by most experts still has not emerged, although they have made great progress towards establishing the terminology for international tourism. The concept of tourism has experienced over the years many changes and at the same time enriching permanently, given the fact that tourism activity has increased in scale due to the human society development as well as to the fact that tourism in most countries is designed as an important national branch. The term tourism is more complex because beside the journey, other activities are necessary to contribute at its achievement, as well as the full range of tourism services that render it a real service industry. To properly define the tourism phenomenon, it was concluded that it requires certain statistical standards and a range of appropriate terminology to differentiate travelers and visitors of a country. Tourism must be active in the context of sustainable development and cooperate with other economic sectors in ensuring the quality of the resource base and its durability. The goal of implementing sustainable tourism must be subordinated to national and regional programs of social and economic development. Actions under sustainable tourism can represent economic issues (increasing income, a variety of activities, control and zoning development), social issues (poverty reduction and inequality in terms of income distribution, protection of national cultural heritage and international intervention local communities), environmental issues (defense ecosystems, biodiversity conservation). Sustainable tourism development can be achieved if tour operators take into account the specific elements of sustainability, namely environmental, economic and the social aspect. As a result of tourism development in a area or another, there are some changes that need to be maintained in acceptable limits through infrastructure developing and tourists education.

KEYWORDS: sustainable tourism, sustainable development, economic growth, tourist phenomenon, the Brundtland.

SACREDNESS AS ZERO-DEGREE OF THE JURIDICAL SUBJECTIVATION PROCEDURES

Ștefan VLAD, PhD. Candidate

Faculty of History and Philosophy, "Babeş-Bolyai" University

ABSTRACT: Sacredness as zero-degree of the juridical subjectification procedures undertakes three main objectives: 1) a genealogical analysis of sacredness as a set of juridical procedures by means of which political power devises its subjects; 2) a description of the specific figure that results from this set of procedures: homo sacer, an exceptional (non-)subject who, being deprived of any juridical category of its identity, is left at the disposal of violent judicial and governmental decisions; 3) a condensed exposition of the core thesis of my research which, employing the results of 1) and 2) and also following Foucault’s distinction between subjectivation and assujetissment, develops the analysis of a form of subjectification that exceeds the power-knowledge nexus of juridical and biopolitical aparatuses and organises itself as a perpetual struggle against political power.

KEYWORDS: identity, subjectification, sacredness, juridico-disciplinary dispositif, state of exception.

TEHNOLOGIE, FIRME ŞI SOCIETĂŢI GERMANE, ÎN ECONOMIA DÂMBOVIŢEANĂ

Gabriela NISTOR (BĂLAN), PhD. Candidate

Faculty of History, "Valahia” University

ABSTRACT: The article is the result of the study of documents kept at the service of the Dâmbovița County of the National Archives, many referring to the German involvement in the local economy, in the second half of the XIX century and the first half of the next one. The present article leverages the following archives funds: The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, The Tribunal Dâmbovița, The Prefecture Dâmbovița, Mayor of Târgoviște, "Stan Rizescu” Industry and uses the data relating to the companies set up by the ethnic Germans, local agencies  of banks with German capital, companies with social capital or individual, who have worked in the interwar period in Târgoviște or Dâmbovița County, the cooperation between local companies and German companies, the equipping with German industrial machines, correspondence exchanged in this respect, technical books, etc. All in all, this paper covers an aspect less known in respect to the history of the local economy.

KEYWORDS: German capital, industrial machines, companies, industry, street lighting, fees.