Synergy

3

Authors: Carmen Ardelean

Book review Jordan B. Peterson 12 Rules for Life. An Antidote to Chaos Random House, Canada, 2018 In truth, the purpose of a book review is not to disclose details to potential readers, but rather to say just as much as needed in order to entice them to open the first page, then get in the right mood required to get to the last page. Jordan Peterson’s latest work is such a book. Apart from controversies and personal opinions or beliefs, it proposes a viewpoint on self-discovery that needs to be taken seriously into account.

13

Authors: Viorela-Valentina Dima, Lucia-Mihaela Grosu-Radulescu Raluca-Elena Hurduzeu

The paper aims to examine the types of careers chosen by Applied Modern Language graduates from the Faculty of International Business and Economics within The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania. Starting from a previous case study on the educational and professional choices of the classes of 2016 and 2017, in print in the Synergy Journal Issue 14 (no.2), we intend to find out whether the respective choices have led to pursuing the same or diverging paths over the years. By doing so, we hope to shed light on the dynamics of the labor market needs for foreign language specialists.

14

Authors: Antonia Enache, Marina Militaru

The present paper looks into Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Concession Speech, delivered the next day after unexpectedly losing the American Presidential Elections to the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. While the belated speech is emotionally charged to a large extent, we attempt to show in our analysis that the idea of defeat is actually not accepted by the speaker (a feature deeply embedded in the American unconscious, highly competitive and victory-driven); Clinton is forced by circumstances to face loss and turn it into an opportunity to salvage her political persona. Hence, we will aim to prove in our paper that the 2016 Concession speech is at the same time an instance of inspirational discourse, and a discourse imbued with awareness of defeat and consequent face-saving strategies.

17

Authors: Adriana Elena Stoican

Relying on a cultural studies approach to literary texts, this paper analyzes Jhumpa Lahiri’s recent embrace of the autobiographical form as a radical change, associated with a modernist strategy of innovation. The central theme of the author’s fictional work is the process of self-understanding experienced mainly by second-generation members of the Bengali community in New England. This paper starts from the premise that, as well as her characters, the author follows a transcultural path to redefinition via her relocation to a different space (Italy). This argument investigates the significance of Henri Matisse’s visual universe in relation to Lahiri’s transcultural metamorphosis.

21

Authors: Maria Grajdian

This paper focuses on the colorful and dynamic reflection of the Japanese cultural imperialism, with its idiosyncrasies and contradictions, in the domestic media, particularly in the “Rurouni Kenshin” phenomenon, a typical example of Japan’s wakon yōsai(“Japanese spirit, Western technology”) strategy of simultaneously absorbing and resisting the West. An emblematic case of “media transfer” or “cross-mediality” (starting as a popular shōnen manga by mid-1990s with sequels in early 2010s, including an additional light novel in 1996, evolving to a cult TV anime series and six OVAs targeted at the same shōnen audience from 1996 until 2001, and three live-action movies in 2012 and 2014), the Rurouni Kenshin brand remains in the consciousness of 1990s-teenagers as a symbol of faith and empowerment, in strong contradiction with Japan’s realities of the so-called “lost decade”. Conversely, as to be analyzed in the current paper, Takarazuka Revue Company’s staging of Rurouni Kenshin in 2016 had to overcome two major challenges – the (predominantly) female audience and the limitations of the theatrical genre – while keeping up with the aesthetic-technical details of its performance standards and complying with the prevalent ideologies of the wakon wasai (“Japanese spirit, Japanese technology”) policies openly promoted by the Abe administration, thus aligning to similar ardent efforts within the Japanese entertainment industry and media landscape.