Synergy

5

Authors: Virginia Mihaela DUMITRESCU

Like Søren Kierkedaard and Friedrich Schlegel (among many other prominent thinkers), Paul de Man is fascinated by the highly disruptive potential of irony, a trope traditionally defined as “saying one thing and meaning another”. In “The Rhetoric of Temporality”, he looks at irony as a typical example of the disjunction between “sign” and “meaning” that is totally in keeping with his notion of the linguistic “emptiness” of meaning, or the insubstantial character of language. At the same time, and more significantly, irony is reevaluated from an epistemological perspective, as a major figure of disjunction whose temporal structure seems to point to a problem that goes far beyond the area of rhetoric, or literary studies in general, into the much wider field of cognition; an analysis of its “empty” temporality throws light on human existence considered as “a succession of isolated moments lived by a divided self”. The subtle distinctions previously made by Baudelaire between “le sentiment du comique”, “le comique absolu” and “le comique significatif” are used as arguments in favour of the Demanian account of the temporal structure of irony – the key to understanding its epistemological thrust.

8

Authors: Doru ENACHE

This article focuses on Schopenhauer’s masterpiece – Viata, amorul, moartea – analysing the author’s view on some essential aspects of human existence. The center of his approach relies on the famous concept of “will”. The will to live appears as the only motivator of our existence, the only trigger of our actions. Also, while all things have their reasons, existence is the only one lacking motivation. Thus, the only way we can reach serenity is by accepting the absurd of our own life.

9

Authors: Ioana STAMATESCU

This article analyzes identity construction strategies in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel‘Tender Is The Night’, in an attempt to show that the two main characters (Dick Diver and Nicole Diver) use a process of othering in order to achieve a ‘complete self’. Whereas Diver sees completeness as a flawed self and achieves it through eroticizing what is abjected: his union with Nicole and the symbolic adoption of her broken psyche, Nicole achieves a valid self through a vampire-like energy transfer from Diver. The latter turns from the eroticized other into the abjected other, in Nicole’s process of self construction.

11

Authors: Mihaela ARSENE

This article surveys the major models currently available for classroom observation purposes, duly pointing out their basic tenets and limitations. The survey is followed by a practical application to the author’s teaching situation by means of a peer observation session conducted for professional development purposes. The paper finally documents the design, resources, implementation and outcomes of the observation session, attaching due attention to the conclusions emerging from this instance of reflective practice and to the observation refinements required for the next stages of this teacher education project. Keywords: collaborative supervision, non-directive supervision, error correction, reflective practice, post-observation analysis

13

Authors: Roxana MARINESCU

This article examines British colonialism in South-Asia and the violence of this process, as well as the internal post-empire violence, as reflected in a number of novels, among which Midnight’s Children or The Ground Beneath Her Feet,Shalimar the Clown or Shame by Salman Rushdie, The Hungry Tide by Amitav Gosh, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru, The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai or Brick Lane by Monica Ali. The discussion revolves around the idea of institutional violence of the Empire or the new merging state(s) over the collective body of a nation (or several nations or ethnic groups) or over individual people. Colonial violence has a different impact on the common bodies of both colonisers and colonised, depending on spatial and temporal location, but more importantly on other factors, such as gender, caste, or religious denomination.

17

Authors: Mariana SĂNDULESCU

The present article focuses on the various modalities of conceiving broadcasting speciality information for the wide public in the view of the latest approaches of the communication theory. At the level of super-textual structure we demonstrate that speciality broadcasting, as explicit rephrasing, tends to provide a text S2 (Speech 2) - a speciality popularizing, openly declared as an outcome of a rephrasing process of S1 (Speech 1) this not only does not hide it, but regularly highlights it, on many levels, rendering the essence of communication into a global declarative structure of reported speech.