Synergy

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Authors: Roxana-Elisabeta MARINESCU

Synergy 2/2023 presents a variety or articles which reflect topical research interests of our authors, relevant for the different philological fields Synergy Journal is keen on publishing.

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Authors: Monica CONDRUZ-BĂCESCU

The political history study “The Light that Failed”, written by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes and published in 2020, approaches the political undercurrents unfolding in Eastern European countries in the aftermath of the fall of communism in a comprehensive, original and hugely insightful manner. The authors argue that, after winning the Cold War, Western liberalism faced a bitter failure resulting in the irreversible collapse of the Western ideal itself. Thus, once the illusion that the end of the Cold War was to become the beginning of an Era of Democracy and Liberalism, an illusion that the two authors wholeheartedly shared, collapsed, the world found itself face to face with a future fraught with anarchy and danger.

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Authors: Monica Alina TOMA

Over the years, numerous studies have explored the interesting film adaptation of Vercors’s short story "Le Silence de la Mer" by Melville (1949), but few articles have taken into consideration the new, intriguing adaptation of this famous writing by Pierre Boutron (2004). This article aims to explore the theme of love between enemies in the visions of Vercors and Boutron, starting from the theories of impossible love articulated by Albert Farchadi.

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Authors: Ramona Elena CHIȚU

Considering the constant concern expressed by worldwide policy makers and regulatory bodies in the education sector for the need to adjust learners’ knowledge, skills and competencies in an attempt to meet the 21st century challenges, one could no longer consider learning effective unless it is voluntary, self-motivated and a lifelong practice. For a long time now, teaching has gone beyond the bare conveyance of information, with the educators permanently striving to apply modern teaching methods and strategies, to ensure relevant and sensitive content, to not overlook students’ learning profile and to include relevant global social issues in all their teaching. This paper researches and presents a case study showing relevant data on students’ individual consolidation habits in terms of: students’ motivation to continuous self-improvement, frequency of self-study activities, preferred method/activity and desire to improve, against the author’s endeavour to raise students’ awareness of the importance of building self-study habits. The paper foregrounds the exploitation of conceptual and applied methods in LSP teaching, with the purpose of enhancing students’ predilections towards individual consolidation of newly-acquired knowledge. The beneficiary target group consists of first-year Economics students from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies - ASE, Romania, majoring in Management and Finance and Banking.

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Authors: Alina Alexandra APREUTESEI

The current paper presents an analysis of the realisation of requests in three European linguacultures - British English, Spanish, and Romanian - as expressed in weekly press releases during the Covid-19 pandemic. A comparative study that looks into the Request Speech Act, more precisely into its various forms of expression and its conventional realisation patterns, was conducted according to a cross-cultural pragmatic analysis framework. The conclusive observations underline the fact that each linguaculture constructs a culture-bound pattern for the realisation of the Request Speech Act, despite certain similarities explicable due to common origins or global linguistic influences.

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Authors: Antonia-Cristiana ENACHE, Marina-Luminița MILITARU,Raluca-Nicoleta ȘERBAN

Translation is a complex art and the translator often faces the many challenges of conveying the full depth and nuance of one language into another. In this article, we explore the intriguing terrain of translating English words and phrases into Romanian, shedding light on instances where direct equivalence proves elusive. Through an examination of real-life examples, we navigate the inherent complexities and idiosyncrasies of language. This study showcases a curated selection of English words and phrases that resist straightforward translation into Romanian. Drawing from various contexts, we delve into terms such as "entitlement," "serendipity," or "holier-than-thou," demonstrating the unique cultural and linguistic gaps that emerge during the translation process. We try to provide insightful analyses and proposed translations, considering the subtleties and cultural connotations that may be lost or gained. By dissecting these linguistic challenges, we aim to enhance the understanding of the intricate interplay between languages and cultures. As language continues to evolve and global communication grows ever more important, this exploration of untranslatable English terms serves as a compelling case study. It underscores the need for a nuanced and adaptable approach to translation, one that respects the richness of both the source and target languages. Through this investigation, we aim to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on the intricacies of language and cross-cultural communication.

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Authors: Roxana-Elisabeta Marinescu, Angelica Helena Marinescu

Synergy Journal is proud to offer a selection of articles presented at the International Conference entitled CONFLUENCES: INDIAN STUDIES AND ROMANIAN PERSPECTIVES. FROM CROSS-CULTURAL TO FEMINIST APPROACHES, organized by the ‘Rabindranath Tagore’ Cultural Center, in partnership with the Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication of Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) on 19 March 2022. This hybrid event gathered prestigious researchers in Indian Studies, History of Religions, Feminism and Gender Studies, Intercultural Communication, Literary, Film and Cultural Studies and was hosted by the National Library of Romania.

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Authors: Carmen MUŞAT-COMAN

This article aims to bring to light a brief history of the study of the Bengali language in Romania, useful to those who focus on the presence of Indian languages in our country. At the same time, it presents the works translated from Bengali, mainly from Rabindranath Tagore, and the work of the teacher, translator, writer, exegete of Eminescu’s work, Amita Bhose.

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Authors: Valentina MARINESCU,Anda Anca RODIDEAL,Ramona MARINACHE

Our article starts from the assumption that the ingredients of success in the case of the Indian cultural products are based on their “cultural value”. India’s value of cultural products is multidimensional and it does not strictly reside at the language level known by the public or by just part of it. Our analysis shows that the success of India’s popular culture is based on the perception of Romanian audiences of them as a cultural “mix” between the “local” (that is, Indian) elements and the appeal at a set of “global” (universal) values. More precisely, in the case of Romanian audiences for India’s cultural products (TV series) there was a validation of theories regarding the cultural hybrid motivations involved in media consumption, theories about the importance of cultural proximity in the consumption of popular culture’s products and theories emphasizing globalism and of these cultural products, making them desirable and wanted world-wide.

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Authors: Roxana-Elisabeta MARINESCU

This article presents some ideas on the future of feminism starting from the postcolonial/ postcommunist framework, based on similarities in the decolonisation and respectively transition periods in what regards approaches to gender and feminist practices, with a special interest in India and Romania. Some of these refer to belonging to the neoliberal paradigm and necessity to disrupt it, by strengthening the bottom-up work of the non-governmental organisations, encouraging alternative knowledge systems and giving a voice to so-far silent members of society and non-human others, while focusing on a feminist ethic of care and using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for change.

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Authors: Vibhuti PATEL

It is essential to critically reflect on cross cultural studies from feminist perspectives and understand the dimensions of universal standards of gender equality in different cultural contexts and interpretations. In the Indian context, women’s rights movement, women’s studies and gender studies have provided such space for reflections on cross-cultural perspectives. Women’s Studies as a discipline aims to theorise for the oppressed and direct its knowledge construction efforts for a gender transformative agenda. This article aims to provide a survey of the history of this discipline in India, and to critically present its main challenges, while underlining its most evident achievements.

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Authors: Preeti SHIRODKAR

The impact of Bollywood (the Indian Hindi film industry) on the national psyche as well as its international popularity cannot be overrated. So is the music that is an integral part of it. It outlives the movie and then becomes a part of the everyday life of people, being played in public places, at religious festivals, in personal and professional functions and interestingly being even adapted to other forms of expression (like bhajans/devotional music). At a more dangerous level, it surreptitiously births, embeds and reinforces stereotypes becoming the palimpsest that serves to define standards expected and exacted from women. This not only thus shapes the approach towards women but also significantly impacts women’s approach towards themselves. By referring to some of the popular and oft recalled Bollywood Hindi songs across the decades, this researcher would like to unearth the palimpsest and decode how it results in the ‘cast’ing convention and becomes the kaleidoscope through which Indian womanhood is viewed.