226 COMPTES RENDUS / BOOK REVIEWS

These are only a handful of the numerous profoundly innovative and undisputedly professional
studies to be found in Ruralism and Literature in Romania. The volume is a much needed one in the
Romanian cultural environment, not only because it brings justice to a lately underrated (if not
ignored) topic, but because it sets an example of virtuosity in handling multiple methodologies, most
of which are right up-to-date. The various research tools mastered in the volume vary from distant
reading, geo-criticism, quantitative studies, genre theory, critique of ideology, non-anthropocentric
reading, to socio-criticism, skopos theory in translation, transnationalism, and the list may go on.
Thus, Ruralism and Literature in Romania represents a model of professionalism in Romanian
literary research, while also successfully introducing a topic so identity-related, and therefore so
complex, to an international public.

Ionucu POP
Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Faculty of Letters

MIHAI IGNAT, O istorie antroponimică a romanului

românesc [An Anthroponymic History of the Romanian Novel],
Brașov, Editura Universității Transilvania din Brașov, 2019,
vol. I, 332 p. + vol. II, 309 p.

The concern for the symbolic potential of the names of literary characters has been a long one
for Mihai Ignat. Originally a doctoral thesis, his monographic study Onomastics in the Romanian
Novel appeared in 2009, followed by the first volume of An Anthroponymic History of the Romanian
Novel in 2016, and the second one in 2019, belonging to the same “simile-history”, as the author calls
it. It is not necessary to further tackle the meaning of “history” in terms of the methodology and the
panoramic principle that the scope of a “legitimizing meta-narrative”, in the words of Angelo
Mitchievici1, brings about. In fact, Ignat’s Anthroponymic History of the Romanian Novel underlines
the “collector spirit” that Mitchievici proposed for the “new” literary histories signed by Mihai Zamfir
(2011/ 2017), Petre Anghel (2014), Monica Lovinescu (2014), Răzvan Voncu (2014), Mircea
Anghelescu (2019) or Antonio Patraș (2019).
Mihai Ignatʼs History starts from “the idea that the proper names of the characters provide a
particular access path into the universe of a literary work, being a sufficiently interesting, rich and
profitable object of study from an exegetical angle” (vol. I, 5). It can be stated that the demonstrations
in the volumes support the author’s approach, being quite convincing in this respect. The arrangement
of the novels analysed from the perspective of anthroponymy in Ignat's History follows the
chronological order. Thus, the first volume deals with books published between 1705 and 1945, while
the second volume covers the period 1946-2000.
The selection, from Dimitrie Cantemir’s Hieroglyphic History (1705/1965) to The Story of the
Great Brigand (2000) by Petru Cimpoeșu, was motivated primarily by the representativeness of the
characters’ onomastics, in the attempt to highlight the “meanings, the aesthetic (expressive) value, the
functions (narrative, descriptive, characterological, etc.) of literary anthroponymy. Another goal was
that of determining the way characters are named or relate to their names or those of other characters,
discovering the fictional or extra-fictional universe of using proper names, description and
interpretation among the proper names of the literary imaginary, the stylistic, sonorous, semantic or
even etymological characteristics...” (vol. I, 5). Consequently, the hermeneutic success of the

1
Angelo Mitchievici, “Viața criticii și istoriei literare” [“The life of literary criticism and history”], România
literară, 2020, 14, https://romanialiterara.com/2020/04/viata-criticii-si-istoriei-literare/. Accessed September 5,
2020.
 COMPTES RENDUS / BOOK REVIEWS 227
incursions into the meanings of literary anthroponyms is determined by the relevance and richness of
the onomastic elements within the fictional discourse. We therefore find both analyses, presented in
the form of listings of the names of the characters introduced through retelling, to be innovative,
engaging and fascinating interpretations.
Another selection criterion that Mihai Ignat claims, especially suitable for the second volume, is
that of the “unfortunate ideological contamination” that motivates the absence of certain novels. Even
in the case of certain novels with thesis tendencies, Ignat ironically sanctions any slips without,
however, ignoring the strengths of the novels: “Lisandraʼs little girl is called, eccentrically, ‘Fiameta’
(which does not quite fit in with the communist mentality of the character). In fact, we learn from the
daughter herself that her name is ‘Dolores-Anda’, but her mother calls her ‘Fiameta’. We must also
note the over-cosmopolitan onomastic taste of someone called Lisandra Olt who fights on the
barricades of communism for a living [...]. This novel is part of a series of those which, ‘infected’ by
the ideology of its writing, without bearing a special aesthetic value, find compensation at least in
terms of onomastic expressiveness” (vol. II, 45-46).
Almost without exception, the analyses begin in an axiological key. The introductions to the
atmosphere of the novels provide both macro level hierarchies, illustrating a general positioning in the
field of Romanian literature, and particular ones, within the entire work of the author. Through case
studies, Ignat also aims, on the one hand, to recover some novels fallen into “unjust obscurity”, such
as Ioana Postelnicuʼs Bogdana (1939) or Iulia Soareʼs The Calaff Family (1956), and, on the other
hand, to reveal some overestimations: “far from being a ‘quick prose’, Mircea Ciobanuʼs Witnesses is
neither the work of an ‘exceptional prose writer of the inner life’ or an ‘eminent stylist’, but a rather
gray, monochord and carefully supervised (from a narrative standpoint) book about a book,
encompassing an obvious parabolic dimension” (vol. II, 52).
In fact, “the integrated interpretation”, or “contradicting or supplementing previous exegetical
interventions” (vol I, 5-6) is the basic method employed by Ignat. Arguing with other critics by
appealing to the meanings involved in the anthroponymic layer is common: “A novel overqualified in
point of aesthetic-hermeneutic value and, implicitly, in terms of proper names, insofar as it is
speculated that ‘Ion [John]’, ‘Marcu [Mark]’ and ‘Luca [Luke]’ would have evangelical connotations.
[...] Ion Bogdan Lefterʼs comment in this respect becomes friable not only because it is a single
argument or moment / event [...], but also because that ‘apostolic’ connotation is related to the
assumption made by Luca’s character that the taxi driver would look at him as a prophet or
enlightened person” (vol II, 234).
It is clear, however, that the onomastic register, as revealed by case studies, is not strictly
determined by the aesthetic successes of the novels. This does not mean that a structural unity
between the aesthetic, ethical and anthroponymic dimension is not possible, as is the case of the
Romanian novel signed by Matei Călinescu (Viața și opiniile lui Zacharias Lichter [The Life and
Opinions of Zacharias Lichter]) which “remains original even by onomastics or at least by the name
of its eccentric (and difficult to follow) main character, an example of standing against the communist
regime which the book avoids through an original formula of sui-generis, parable-portrait biography”
(vol. II, 69). An impressive analysis through the totalizing perspective proposed by the author –
treating the plans of the novel through the prism of coherence and structural unity – is to be found in
the study dedicated to the names in the novel Moromeții [The Morometes]: “... the impression in
reading is that the names, bearing a joyful sonority, are very suitable: Nilă is a bit heavy-minded,
Birică is honest and stubborn, against a background of common sense, Țugurlan is tough, fierce,
Bâldea is ugly. The role of the text seems to be to round the first impression, the phonetic one, by
adding semantic elements, i.e. through portrait features which provide the names with ‘roots’ in the
imaginary of the work [...] Moromeții is a realistic and monographic novel, aiming at accounting for
the world as a whole by including not just a few, but all the features and problems of the interwar
Romanian village. Thus, the existence of respectable doses in each category of proper names is not
purely coincidental (even if unconsciously materialized), because a copy of the world must
necessarily contain all its components, including the nominal aspect” (vol. II, 24-31).
228 COMPTES RENDUS / BOOK REVIEWS

The diachronic arrangement proposed by Mihai Ignat has the advantage of clearly capturing the
evolution of the Romanian genre and, at the same time, of the three “traditions” or predominant
onomastic regimes: “explicit denomination, with semantics”, “discreet, unostentatious denomination”
and “sound-type onomastics with special acoustics”. From the process of “autochthonizing” Western
models through Romanian onomastics in the pioneering novels of our literature, to the use of initials,
cryptonyms, hypocorism, enclitic articulations of names, feminine use of masculine names, acronyms,
nicknames or sophistry, Ignat observes the tendency of anthroponyms to adapt to the illustrated genre.
As a consequence, the subsumption of various assumptions on other dimensions of the epic is
outlined in the argumentative approach: “We can easily homologate S. Damianʼs glosses on farce and
satire as implicit comments on the carnival of onomastics in Călinescuʼs last novels” (vol. II, 19). In
the commentary dedicated to the novel Lunga călătorie a prizonierului [The Long Journey of the
Prisoner] (1971) signed by Sorin Titel, Mihai Ignat reinterprets well-known hermeneutical
perspectives on the parabolic character, Kafkaesque lineages, depersonalization and identity-
emptying or allegorical implications, premises launched by Petru Mihai Gorcea, Eugen Simion,
Cornel Ungureanu and Valeriu Cristea to support the coherence and motivations of the onomastic
void.
In addition to assigning anthroponyms to a certain literary genre, Mihai Ignat also discusses the
stylistic particularization of the names of the characters from the perspective of the imprint of
originality and the specificity of novelists. While “Rebrenization” would involve a harsh acoustics,
“the hardness of the component vowels of many of the names, their greyness and their load of ‘lead’”
(vol. I, 50) echoing the anti-polished style adopted by the author, the euphony of Hortensia Papadat
Bengescu’s character onomastics accompanies the text’s phraseological musicality. An interesting
analogical analysis is also offered by Mihai Ignat when he distinguishes between the onomastic layers
employed by Marin Preda and Liviu Rebreanu.
As the case studies are very numerous, a systematization of the functions of the names that
Mihai Ignat identifies would require a lot of space. I shall only mention a few of the attributes I find
relevant. Thus, onomastics can convey feelings such as malice, affection and snobbery, various
habits, picturesqueness, authenticity, aesthetic expressiveness, emphasis on the parabolic dimension,
allegorical intentions, marking the rupture with the world, or, on the contrary, the integration into it,
the achievement of stylistic originality, the comic or tragic effect, symbolic meanings, the parodic
allusion, landmarks of the hermeneutic horizon, a particular rhythm or sonority, a form of
manifestation of the obsession with identity, etc.
Certainly, for the present fictional space under analysis, An Anthroponymic History of the
Romanian Novel convincingly illustrates the possible meanings and materializations of the Latin
dictum with which Mihai Ignat opens his volume, namely nomen est omen. Moreover, even after
reading the possible connotations of proper names or nicknames, it is impossible for the reader not to
be aroused, at least for a fraction of a second, by curiosity about his/her own name.

Senida POENARIU
Transilvania University of Brașov
Faculty of Letters

ȘTEFAN FIRICĂ, Autenticitatea, sensuri și nonsensuri

(Teorii românești interbelice în contexte europene)
[Authenticity, Sense and Nonsense (Romanian Interwar
Theories in European Contexts], București, Editura Tracus
Arte, 2019, 412 p.
None of the waves of criticism that discuss the concepts, evolution, and typology of the
Romanian novel has triggered a more heated debate than the phases of evolution of the genre in the