Asia

The Albanian Bucharest: From Merchant Elites To Cultural Elites

excerpts The gradual development of a cultural Moldo-Walachian elite of Albanian origin, that was able to manifest an awareness of the cultural identity of its origins through certain activities in this respect, an elite devoted to the idea of a modern and independent Albania,

Jean-Jacques Weiss: Son Esprit Romanesque Et Sa Fantaisie

Nous arrivons à l'étude d'une des faces de l'esprit de Jean-Jacques Weiss, que nous pourrions intituler: la face romanesque. Par son tempérament et par ses goûts, nous avons vu qu'il était un petit bourgeois Louis-Philippe, qui pratiquait et exaltait

Les Pays Roumains Entre Orient Et Occident. Les Principautés Danubiennes Au Début Du XIXe Siècle

Publications Orientalistes de France AVANT-PROPOSAu début du XIXe siècle, il y a trois cents ans que les Turcs dominent un des plus vastes empires de l'histoire universelle, s'étendant des confins iraniens jusqu'à l'Atlas et des Carpates à la mer

I Look At Things As A Romanian Does

Excerpts from a discussion with Raluca Barac, published in Acum (Now) magazine, No. 13, April 1990 Going back to the fate of the cultured generation, let me make so bold as to ask your opinion of the so-called age of Noica, a phrase that seems to get bandied about quite

The Mioritic Space, 1936

excerpts Cultural Differences The Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox spirits were favorable to different kinds of culture, each for itself and from its part. Catholicism favored the cultural creation that presupposes a massive creative front that is organized in one direction.

New Critical Studies, 1920

The programmatic article of THE NEW TREND, 1906excerpts …To start a war against foreign culture because we, in our barbarity, have taken the bad parts from it, is – an exaggerated but suggestive comparison – to do like mulattos in Liberia, were they, disgusted by

Tradition And Modernity In The 1920s (IV)

excerpts Chapter IV. What path shall we choose for our evolution? 1 The history of modern Romania has registered, periodically, a phenomenon that might seem strange at first glance. That is the discussion, every two or three decades, concerning the development of the country

Tradition And Modernity In The 1920s (III)

excerpts Chapter III. Reason and rationalism under accusation  2 The truth is that any objective examination of the ideological phenomenon that we are studying cannot avoid the conclusion that things were quite similar in France and Germany. By entering the territory

A Certain Incapacity

The ultimate test for everyone – therefore for nations too – is the capacity to contemplate while suffering. The Asians, the Chinese and the Indians in particular, are definitely superior to us from this point of view. These people give so much importance to contemplation

The Second Independence, 1926

There is a technique of the life of the matter and a technique of the life of the soul. One is the result of scientific findings and inventions based on precise and universally valid laws; the other is the result of long-wearing inner experiences of man with himself, with

In Defense Of Orthodoxy, 1923

Today an English bishop is holding a conference in Bucharest, as he did in Constantinople, on unifying our Orthodox Church with the Church of England. This is preposterous. Furthermore, it is a crime against our national being. We saw it coming and were expecting it. For

Religion And Identity In Interwar Romania: Orthodoxism

In the two decades between the world wars the majority of Romanian intellectuals were engaged in a grand debate about what it meant to be Romanian and how national character determined social and political development. [1] The ideological commitments of the protagonists