Category Archives: Programe Incheiate

<< Programe de Cercetare

Grupul de istorie a imaginarului are drept obiective prioritare investigarea raporturilor dintre proiect si realitate in Evul Mediu, dintre acestea si reflectarea lor istoriografica, iconografica si in izvoarele narative, despre reflexele de care au beneficiat in documente.

Dintre proiectele in pregatire ale grupului mentionam:

<< Programe de Cercetare

Titre du Projet : 
European Images, Stereotypes and Prejudices
The Synoptic Multicultural Patrimony of Europe

Acronyme : 
EURIMAG

Type : Réseau d’excellence

A. Justification du projet : 
Centres de recherches (1) sur les imaginaires (2) européens (3)

1. Les centres de recherches.
L’objectif prioritaire de la recherche et de l’enseignement dans la Communauté Européenne est de dépasser la fragmentation nationale. A la différence des Etats Unis, ou la recherche est intégrée au niveau du pays, en Europe chaque pays dépense ses ressources sur des objectifs de recherche qui, bien de fois, recoupent et doublent des recherches semblables dans d’autres pays européens. Pour éviter ce gaspillage de fonds qui, unis, pourraient propulser ces centres a l’avantgarde de la recherche internationale, il faut envisager la création de réseaux fonctionnels, capables d’unifier sur des objectifs ciblés la recherche des savants des pays de l’Europe.
Or, dans le contexte des recherches en sciences humaines, le réseau CRI, réunissant trente-cinq Centres de recherche sur l’imaginaire, provenant de l’Europe (France, Belgique, Espagne, Italie, Portugal, Pologne, Roumanie) et du monde entier (Brésil, Israël, Corée), est une structure déja en place. Créé a partir du Centre de Recherche sur l’Imaginaire de Grenoble, fondé par le grand savant Gilbert Durand, ce réseau s’est développé par l’adhésion progressive de nouveaux membres, a mesure que de nouveaux Centres étaient fondés a travers le monde. Depuis le Congres de l’an 2000, le CRI a un programme de recherche unifié et une méthodologie, ou plutôt une palette de méthodologies mises au point en commun par ses chercheurs. Le Répertoire de Centres intégrés au CRI peut-etre consulté sur le site Internet du réseau, a l’adresse électronique :
www.univ-perp.fr/lsh/rch/cri-greco
Cela veut dire que, bien que sans disposer de fonds communautaires ou en provenance d’autres sources gouvernementales ou transnationales, ces centres se sont déja réunifiés utilisant des ressources propres. C’est le meilleur indice que le réseau n’est pas factice, ni construit pour la façade, seulement en vue d’un financement, mais qu’il a une cohérence organique, issue des intérets scientifiques communs de ses membres, qu’il est donc fonctionnel et a déja un historique et des résultats proéminents (il suffit de consulter la liste de publications de ses membres ou les volumes collectifs). 
Le probleme c’est que les fonds individuels de chaque centre ne suffissent pas pour entamer une recherche de grande ampleur. Aucun de ces centres et des universités qui les accueillent ne dispose de moyens pour financer des projets de taille européenne, comprenant des participants de tous les pays de l’Europe élargie. Un financement de la part de la Commission Européenne servirait a démarrer un projet d’envergure vraiment continentale, a donner un cadre et une stabilité institutionnelle européenne a un ensemble d’unités de recherche coagulées jusqu’a ce moment seulement par des efforts individuels et a assurer aux recherches développées dans le cadre du réseau une priorité mondiale. Si l’Europe désire se créer et se réserver des domaines d’excellence dans l’activité scientifique internationale, elle doit précisément venir en aide aux chaînes de centres qui ont fait déja des breches d’originalité dans les recherches contemporaines en sciences humaines.
Le projet EURIMAG vise a élargir a tous les pays de l’Europe l’activité des Centres de Recherches de l’Imaginaire. Utilisant la base logistique existante, il se propose de mettre en contact, d’aider a la création et de développer de Centres et des groupes dans tous les pays ou du moins dans les zones principales de l’Europe, centres qu’il réunirait dans un réseau d’excellence.    
Recrutant ses scientifiques et chercheurs dans tout l’espace européen, le réseau EURIMAG va contribuer a l’intégration communautaire autant par le theme de son projet, que par sa structure réticulaire implantée dans tous les centres du continent. La clé de voute de l’activité du réseau EURIMAG serait la création d’un Institut de l’Imaginaire Européen, dans un pays et une place encore a préciser, capable de centraliser, de coordonner et d’offrir toute la logistique nécessaire pour une recherche organique et intégrée.

2. Les imaginaires.
Si le mot < imaginaire > ne fait pas partie des mots-clé de la Commission Européenne, il faudrait l’inclure a tout pris. Il est un concept essentiel pour la compréhension du comportement humain individuel et de groupe. Une tradition de facture pesamment intellectualiste a longtemps abordé, et continue de le faire, l’etre humain en tant qu’etre rationnel, dont les actions dépendent de motifs et se soumettent a des mécanismes pleinement logiques et réductibles a des diagrammes intelligibles. Or, si nous voulons avoir une meilleure perspective et compréhension des comportements des individus et des masses il faut déconstruire ce mythe de la rationalité qui ne décrit pas une réalité, mais plutôt un idéal, une utopie anthropologique. S’il est bien vrai que les schémas rationnels (des théories anthropologiques aux systemes législatifs) peuvent servir de modeles cognitifs, pédagogiques et coercitifs qui indiquent la meilleure conduite a prendre dans diverses situations morales, sociales ou politiques, il est tout aussi évident que pour appréhender, anticiper et éventuellement influencer et diriger ces conduites individuelles et de groupe il faut investiguer leurs raisons inconscientes, leurs contenus imaginaires, leurs charges émotionnelles, etc. Sinon on risque a produire des jugements erronés et des mesures irréalistes, catastrophiques meme, et ceci surtout dans les situations a potentiel conflictuel. Les guerres des Balkans et de l’Orient de la derniere décennie, ou les problemes de la gestion de l’immigration et des minorités ethniques et religieuses en Europe témoignent d’une incompréhension endémique des complexes de représentations et d’images symboliques qui gouvernent la mentalité des autres. Il ne s’agit pas, bien sur, d’adopter une attitude condescendante envers les politiciens et les diplomates, ou de donner des leçons sur l’imagination et la pensée symbolique aux responsables militaires, mais le rôle de la recherche en sciences humaines et sociales est précisément celui de mettre en lumiere de tels mécanismes et, par cela, de modifier la perception globale du grand public.
Or, la recherche européenne, surtout celle française, regroupée dans le réseau CRI, détient une priorité mondiale dans le domaine de l’exploration de l’imaginaire social et culturel. Les investigations de l’imaginaire qui se font aux Etats Unis ont une toute autre dimension théorique et méthodologique, centrées comme elles le sont sur l’aspect positif, empirique et pragmatique, visant surtout les produits (les réclames, les images médiatiques, etc.) et moins les producteurs (les individus et les groupes, avec leurs mentalités spécifiques) des images et des symboles. Le fait qu’il n’existe meme pas une traduction convenable et acceptée en anglais du syntagme < recherches sur l’imaginaire > est symptomatique.
La science moderne de l’imaginaire a été fondée vers la moitié du XXe siecle, par les travaux d’une série de philosophes, théoriciens et historiens des religions tels Gaston Bachelard, Henry Corbin, Mircea Eliade, Charles Baudouin, Charles Mauron, Gilbert Durand, etc. Leurs recherches ont mis en évidence la nature spécifique, les mécanismes de génération, de fonctionnement et de transmission des images, les relations synesthésiques, symboliques et logiques qu’elles entretiennent avec les perceptions, les souvenirs et les idées, leur rôle et leur fonctions dans le cadre du psychisme individuel et collectif, leur manifestations psychologiques, sociales et artistiques. 
Pendant les dernieres trois décennies, le réseau CRI a réussi a transformer ces investigations individuelles en un travail de recherche collective. Une série de colloques, organisés sous le patronage de Gilbert Durand, ont pris soin de redéfinir le champ de priorités et les méthodologies de la discipline. Ces nouvelles directions ont été systématisées dans des volumes comme l’Introduction aux méthodologies de l’imaginaire (1998). L’imaginaire y est défini, par Joël Thomas, le coordonnateur du volume, comme < un systeme, un dynamisme organisateur des images, qui leur confere une profondeur en les reliant entre elles. L’imaginaire n’est donc pas une collection d’images additionnés, un corpus, mais un réseau ou le sens est dans la relation >. C’est un concept nouveau, capable de révolutionner les recherches dans les sciences humanistes.
En plus de ces lignes théoriques générales de la discipline, chaque laboratoire du réseau CRI a mis au point ses propres méthodes, adaptées aux buts précis qu’il poursuit (mythodologie et mythocritique, psychocritique, psychohistoire et psychogéographie, imagologie, imaginaire du quotidien, etc.). Pour avoir une idée de la diversité, la richesse et l’acuité de l’inventaire de méthodologies utilisées dans le réseau, il suffit de faire une lecture des titres de ces laboratoires.
Le projet EURIMAG part donc d’une base bien établie autant du point de vue logistique que théorique. Son ambition, comme le suggere le pluriel du titre < Images of Europe / Les imaginaires européens >, est d’amplifier ces recherches d’une maniere multiculturelle et multinationale.

3. L’Europe.
Est-ce que les Etats Unis de l’Amérique sont un modele pour des éventuels Etats Unis de l’Europe ? Et sinon, qu’est-ce qui fait la différence ? Et comment peut-on envisager cette différence non comme une sorte de manque ou d’obstacle mais comme un avantage qu’on peut mettre a profit ? Quelles sont les limites entre globalisation et uniformatisation, entre différence et nationalisme ? Les réponses, intuitives ou élaborées, a ces questions sont faciles a donner : l’Europe se distingue des Etats Unis en ce qu’elle est un conglomérat de nations et de populations séparées par des langues, par des histoires, par des coutumes, par des traditions économiques et politiques, par des cultures fortement personnalisées. Il est plus difficile pourtant de formaliser ces différences, de les construire dans des concepts opérationnels, qui expliqueraient, plutôt que les choses en soi, les images de ces choses dans le psychique des sujets. 
De meme qu’il y a une science de l’écologie de la nature, on peut envisager une écologie des représentations mentales des individus et des membres d’une micro- ou d’une macro-collectivité. L’Europe est une telle macro-collectivité, qui a besoin d’une analyse de l’écologie de ses représentations imaginaires a fin de comprendre ses réactions tout autant intégratives que schizofrénogenes. Les individus et les groupes réagissent également aux stimuli extérieurs, matériels, économiques, physiques, qu’aux images internes qu’ils se font d’eux memes, de la famille, de l’état, du monde, des forces objectives. Qui est-ce qui est dominant dans les revendications des organisations terroristes contemporaines, les facteurs et les buts extérieurs ou les motivations et les fins symboliques ? Qu’est-ce qui pousse telles nations ou majorités et minorités a désirer l’intégration européenne et d’autres a la rejeter ? Quelles sont les tensions, non seulement matérielles, mais imaginaires et symboliques, qui déterminent ou empechent l’intégration de certains groupes ethniques ou religieux d’immigrants (musulmans, tziganes, etc.) dans les pays de l’Europe et quelles sont les réactions non moins imaginaires envers eux des ressortissants des pays d’accueil ? Ce sont des questions auxquelles seulement une discipline globale de l’imaginaire européen peut donner des réponses. Ou, plus précisément, une discipline globale des < imaginaires européens >, capable de refléter les identités spectrales d’une constellation de peuples et cultures.

B. Objectif du projet : L’encyclopédie de l’imaginaire européen

Le but de ce projet est de dresser un panorama des imaginaires européens, dans un tableau global qui ne soit pas une synthese réductive, mais un kaléidoscope a vue prismatique. Des syntheses partielles, portant sur tel domaine (beaux-arts et courants littéraires en spécial), sur telle époque et sur tel groupe de pays, ont été faites, mais une encyclopédie des imaginaires européens en tant que systeme total n’a jamais été envisagée. C’est un travail capable de mettre en relief l’immense organisme, avec ses compartiments, ses étages, ses couloirs, ses escaliers et ses ascenseurs, ses grandes salles et ses chambres secretes, ses caves et ses greniers, etc. de l’écosysteme imaginaire de l’Europe. 
A ce moment, les centres de recherches sur l’imaginaire disposent des méthodologies nécessaires pour l’approche pluridisciplinaire de toutes les facettes de ce complexe psychologique, mais n’ont pas les moyens logistiques et financiers de couvrir sur l’horizontale tous les pays et les collectivités de l’Europe élargie. Il faut que le réseau amplifié d’EURIMAG acquisse et déploie des laboratoires ou des points de contact dans chaque région et groupe national qui a une individualité propre, pour pouvoir dresser la carte d’un paysage imaginaire osmotique dont le centre nerveux serait un Institut de Recherches sur les Imaginaires Européens.
Conçu comme une encyclopédie en 12 volumes, a etre publiée simultanément au début en français et en anglais et ensuite dans les autres langues européennes, ce panorama envisage l’imaginaire européen selon plusieurs points de vue, correspondant autant aux domaines qu’aux méthodologies, a savoir :

2. L’Imaginaire de l’éducation. Nous sommes a l’image de l’éducation que nous avons reçue. Les théories actuelles de l’enseignement ont heureusement dépassé les définitions et les visions pédagogiques essentialistes des siecles passés, qui prétendaient que nous devons etre éduqués a devenir ce que nous sommes déja. Bien qu’elles acceptent l’idée de différences natives et biologiques, les pédagogies contemporaines voient ces différences non comme des marques prédestinées, mais comme des données neutres, dont l’essor dépend de l’éducation familiale, institutionnelle et sociale de l’individu. Au lieu d’etre conçues comme une source d’inégalités, ces différences apparaissent plutôt comme un réservoir inépuisable d’innovations. Le défi qui se pose a l’éducation dans une communauté multinationale et dans une société globale est de trouver les ressources de malléabilité pour stimuler et encourager dans un sens créatif toutes ces différences et non de le hiérarchiser d’une maniere limitative et castratrice. 
Pour cela, dans le cadre des consensus pédagogiques internationaux, il est important de recueillir l’expérience de chaque école pédagogique nationale et locale. Il est important de savoir comment les individus sont-ils éduqués pour comprendre comment ils vont se comporter dans tel ou tel milieu et situation. Chaque pays et chaque école a développé un certain imaginaire de l’éducation, dans un ensemble ou les normes scientifiques et psychologiques se combinent a des désirs et fantasmes collectifs et a des principes et intentions idéologiques. L’analyse de l’imaginaire de l’éducation est nécessaire pour comprendre, améliorer et, s’il est nécessaire, déconstruire ces complexes pédagogiques pas tout a fait innocents. Si elle veut contrôler ses mécanismes meme, la construction d’une communauté européenne ne peut pas se passer de l’investigation du mode de fonctionnement de ses institutions d’éducation.

3. L’imaginaire de l’histoire. Il existe une histoire de l’imaginaire et un imaginaire de l’histoire. Pendant longtemps, l’histoire a été comprise comme un tableau des événements sociaux, politiques, économiques, etc. successifs, donc comme un inventaire de faits < objectifs >. Cependant, bien que l’individu et les groupes répondent aux événements extérieurs, l’historiographie de la derniere décennie a mis en évidence que ces événements sont toujours reçus comme des images intérieures et sont donc tres fortement modélisés par les catégories de l’imagination. Plusieurs analystes de l’imaginaire historique ont pu ainsi dégager les mythes, les fantasmes, les stéréotypes collectifs qui ont présidé a des moments majeurs de l’histoire, de la Révolution française aux totalitarismes fasciste et communiste.

6. L’imaginaire ethnique. Les études sur le spécifique ethnique et sur l’anthropologie des peuples ont été sérieusement critiquées et amendées, surtout apres les catastrophiques résultats politiques des idéologies nationalistes de la premiere moitié du XXe siecle. Néanmoins cette prise de conscience n’a pas pénétré que d’une maniere assez superficielle dans les couches profondes des populations de l’Europe. En témoignent les résurgences des nationalismes et des fondamentalismes qui touchent aussi bien les démocraties établies de l’Europe occidentale que les pays émergents de l’Est. Pour mettre en place des projets politiques capables de désamorcer de tels foyers de tensions, il faut comprendre les systemes interconnectés et conflictuels d’images qui opposent ou, dans les meilleurs cas, harmonisent les groupes. Ce volume de l’Encyclopédie relevera la carte des projections imaginaires de soi des populations de l’Europe élargie. Quels sont les mythes constitutifs de telle ou telle société, quels sont les symboles par lesquels se définit telle ou telle collectivité, quelles sont les images par lesquelles les individus perçoivent leur groupe ou leur pays et les groupes des autres ? Avant de tenter des projets politiques (ou des interventions militaires) il faut comprendre l’image culturelle et nationale de soi des partenaires, sinon les incompréhensions peuvent tourner au désastre.

7. L’imaginaire géographique. Au début du dernier siecle étaient de mode les < morphologies culturelles > qui différenciaient les cultures par les catégories de la perception de l’espace. Bien que cette approche essentialiste et réifiante ait été abandonnée, toujours est-il reste que les comportements des individus et des groupes s’étayent sur une certaine image de l’espace géographique qu’ils habitent. Si les catégories spatiales ne sont plus comprises comme des invariants anthropologiques, par contre elles doivent etre examinées comme des grilles de perception imaginaire. Quels sont les contours continentaux de l’Europe et du monde, y a t’il des frontieres naturelles entre les cultures et les religions, ou des < chocs de civilisations >, les gens du Nord sont-ils plus sérieux et travailleurs que les gens du Sud, les peuples de l’Est sont-ils moins civilisés que ceux de l’Ouest ? Ce sont des questions a visée politique aussi, parmi beaucoup d’autres themes (imaginaires de la mer, de la montagne, des marais et des fleuves, des forets et des champs, etc.) abordés par ce volume sur l’imaginaire géographique des différents peuples européens.

8. L’imaginaire littéraire. A l’instar de l’imaginaire des beaux-arts, celui des oeuvres littéraires est un peu mieux connu que les autres types d’imaginaire social et culturel. Les courants esthétiques, les poétiques des mouvements et des créateurs ont fait le sujet d’études comparatistes qui ont suivi leur diffusion a travers les diverses cultures et littératures européennes. Littérature classique, littérature médiévale latine, Renaissance et Baroque, Classicisme et Illuminisme, Romantisme et Avant-gardes, etc., ont fait l’objet de recherches déja centenaires. Mais il faut souligner que ces enquetes restent toutefois limitées, autant en ce qui concerne leur amplitude que leur méthodologie. Pour ce qui est de leur ouverture, meme quand elles sont le résultat d’un travail de groupe et pas d’un seul individu, ces syntheses sont d’habitude l’oeuvre de groupes recrutés dans un seul pays, et non de spécialistes de tous les pays. De l’autre côté, il faut souligner que les méthodologies ont évolué aussi, que des nouvelles approches, diffusionnistes, par < matieres > (de Bretagne, d’Irlande, classique, chrétienne, etc.), ont révolutionné la compréhension de la dynamique des paradigmes littéraires et nécessitent de nouvelles syntheses comparatistes.

9. L’imaginaire médiatique. L’ere informatique que nous vivons a beaucoup changé notre rapport au monde. La révolution de l’image et l’apparition de l’hyperespace a doublé le monde naturel d’un monde virtuel, d’un miroir qui ne respecte pas forcement l’original. S’il est vrai le globe tend a devenir un < village global > ou tout le monde est potentiellement informé de tout ce qui se passe dans tous les recoins de la planete, il n’est pas moins vrai que cette connaissance n’est pas directe, mais transformée et manipulée par les producteurs d’images. Et si on ne peut pas éviter les déformations, il faut au moins essayer de comprendre leurs mécanismes. Quelles sont les différences entre les scenes vécues et les images filmées, comment les réclames agissent-elles sur l’inconscient du public, quelle est la plage de réception et de résistance de différents groupes face aux < colonisations des imaginaires >, comment les nouveaux mythes et héros du monde actuel sont-ils créés par les grandes productions cinématographiques, les campagnes publicitaires et le systeme de < stars > ? Et quelles sont les différences de sensibilité, de perception et d’appréhension qui caractérisent les différents pays de l’Europe ?

10. L’imaginaire politique. En accord avec le progres des média, la politique est devenue elle aussi un art de la manipulation par images. Les pouvoirs politique, économique et militaire tendent a etre subordonnés au pouvoir de l’information. Les campagnes d’élections sont devenues des < super shows > avec des Misses et des Misters dirigés par des équipes de campagne d’image. Mais cette évolution contemporaine ne doit et ne peut pas cacher le fait que, meme dans le passé, l’acquisition des positions et des rôles politiques a été une question d’image, des < princes > celtiques de l’époque de Hallstatt aux rois de l’âge classique ou aux dictateurs du XXe siecle. De beaux livres ayant déja commencé a exposer cette face fantasmatique de la politique, ce qu’il reste a faire c’est de centraliser ces études dans une synthese capable de miroiter tous les imaginaires politiques de l’Europe.

11. L’imaginaire religieux. Avant le désenchantement moderne du monde et l’imposition de la perspective positiviste et athée, les sociétés humaines ont perçu pendant des millénaires l’univers dans les termes d’une explication religieuse. Beaucoup continuent de le faire encore aujourd’hui et on a argumenté que les athéismes et les scientismes actuels ne sont que des formes déguisées et détournées de comportements religieux. Mais le relativisme postmoderne nous a appris encore plus, a savoir que nous ne pouvons plus nous permettre de juger ces visions comme illusoires et pernicieuses, comme des formes inférieures et méprisables de cognition. Par contre, en tant que systemes explicatifs du monde, elles s’averent avoir été et etre des complexes cognitifs complets et auto-suffisants. Elles sont des modeles alternatifs qui constituent un réservoir inégalable de solutions au moment ou d’autres modeles, dominants, entrent en impasse. Si on veut conserver non seulement la richesse des diverses cultures européennes, mais aussi notre disponibilité de changer de point de vue, si nécessaire dans le contexte actuel de la globalisation, il faut savoir utiliser l’histoire des religions, l’anthropologie et l’ethnologie comme des instruments de pensée. Des croyances du néolithique et du chamanisme des chasseurs et des pasteurs aux religions polythéistes de l’antiquité et aux monothéismes du Livre, l’Europe offre un panorama éblouissant de visions religieuses, avec des dynamiques imprévisibles et révélatrices, que seulement un grand travail en équipe peut espérer de saisir dans son inextricable complexité.

12. L’Imaginaire scientifique et technologique. Dans son livre sur La formation de l’esprit scientifique, Gaston Bachelard a démontré que les idées et les théories scientifiques ne sont pas des constructions abstraites, érigées seulement avec des notions < neutres > et des relations logiques, mais qu’elles sont imprégnées par des représentations perceptives et imaginaires tres fortes, qui peuvent réorienter ou falsifier le sens des systemes les plus < scientifiques >. Ce qu’il est intéressant c’est que Bachelard, affirmé en tant que philosophe de la science, a trouvé bon de continuer ses travaux par la < psychanalyse > des éléments de la physique aristotélicienne (le feu, l’air, l’eau et la terre). La morale de cette évolution est qu’il est improductif de vouloir isoler et bannir l’imaginaire de la raison scientifique, que la maniere la plus sage d’approcher ce probleme est de reconnaître le spécifique de chaque forme de savoir et de le faire travailler ensemble. Révéler les fondements subliminaux et fantasmatiques des approches scientifiques et des créations technologiques n’est pas seulement un exercice d’inventorier les dimensions méconnues des activités humaines, mais aussi de pénétrer aux sources de l’intuition, de l’inspiration et de l’invention humaine.

Dresser un tel panorama pluri-perspectiviste de l’imaginaire des Européens n’est pas un simple travail d’érudition scientifique. Ce n’est pas une simple synthese, de grande envergure, certes, mais destinée a un public lettré ou spécialisé. Elle est plutôt le grand portrait de famille de l’Europe, que le continent ne peut pas éviter de se faire au moment des grandes retrouvailles représentées par l’intégration. Elle offre autant un point de récapitulation et de synthese de qui nous sommes, que des points de départ pour la compréhension et la solution des frictions et des problemes qui existent déja et qui ne cesseront pas de surgir.

C. Administration du projet.

            Pour la réussite d’un tel projet, il faut que les méthodes soient adaptées a la nature de l’objet. Pour réaliser l’encyclopédie multidisciplinaire et spectrale du complexe multiforme qu’est l’imaginaire européen, il faut concevoir une structure de recherche tres souple et pénétrante a la fois. C’est pourquoi le réseau EURIMAG est censé fonctionner sur des lignes de responsabilités réversibles, qui engagent la participation active de tous les membres et laisse au Bureau central un rôle plutôt d’harmonisation que d’imposition de fonctions et de tâches. 
Plus spécifiquement, le réseau EURIMAG est constitué par deux jeux d’unités, l’une de facture administrative (les Centres coordinateurs par état ou région), l’autre de facture scientifique (les douze Ateliers de recherche reflétant les dix domaines théoriques du projet). Les Centres coordinateurs offrent aux Ateliers les spécialistes du pays respectif dans chacun des domaines envisagés, alors que les Ateliers demandent aux Centres d’organiser pratiquement leurs rencontres, colloques, publications et autres activités de recherche, enseignement et diffusion. Ainsi par exemple, un Atelier dirigé par un responsable d’un pays sera accueilli par un Centre d’un autre pays, évitant la superposition des tâches de recherches aux corvées organisatrices et impliquant tout le monde dans un systeme de responsabilités a double sens.

Composantes :

I. Le réseau EURIMAG

1. Composition :
Les Centres de Recherches sur l’Imaginaire des pays de l’Europe qui désirent participer dans le projet EURIMAG

2. Attributions :
a. Le réseau EURIMAG est l’organisation mere qui, dans les cadres d’une Réunion générale, mandate le programme EURIMAG
b. Il investit les membres du Bureau de coordination de l’EURIMAG
c. Il fait des suggestions pour les directeurs des 12 Ateliers EURIMAG
d. Il supervise l’activité du Bureau de coordination l’EURIMAG, jugeant les Rapports annuels fait par le Bureau, le cas échéant pouvant sanctionner ou révoquer le Bureau, toujours dans les cadres d’un réunion générale
e. Il reçoit et apprécie le Rapport final du Bureau sur le programme EURIMAG et décide des mesures et plans ultérieurs du réseau

II. Le Bureau de coordination du Programme EURIMAG

1. Structure :
Directeur du Programe
Trois Coordinateurs par régions : 
– Europe du Nord
– Europe du Sud
– Europe de l’Est
Consultant juridique (finances, propriété intellectuelle, etc.)

2. Attributions :
a. Il contacte les Centres de Recherches sur l’Imaginaire et les invite a constituer le réseau
b. Il investit, a partir des propositions faites par la Réunion du réseau, les directeurs des Ateliers EURIMAG
c. Il centralise et coordonne les activités organisées par les Centres coordinateurs par états ou régions
d. Il centralise et coordonne l’activité des Ateliers
e. Il s’occupe des activités de finalisation du projet : traductions, préparation des volumes, publication, etc.
f. Peut a la limite constituer le noyau d’initiative pour la création de l’Institut de Recherches sur les Imaginaires Européens

III. Les Centres coordinateurs par pays ou régions

1. Composition :
Au moins un directeur de Centre ou un responsable d’activité pour chaque pays ou région de l’Europe qui fera le sujet des études organisées dans le cadre des Ateliers EURIMAG
(Liste provisoire : Allemagne, Autriche, Belgique, Bulgarie, Danemark, Espagne, France, Grande Bretagne, Grece, Finlande, Hongrie, Italie, Norvege, Pays-Bas, Pologne, Portugal, République Tcheque, Roumanie, Russie, Serbie, Suede, Suisse, Turquie)

2. Attributions :
a. Chaque responsable par pays désigne les spécialistes qui représenteront le pays dans chacun des Ateliers EURIMAG
b. Prend en charge l’organisation d’une ou de plusieurs activités des Ateliers EURIMAG (réunions de travail, colloques, conférences, publications, etc.)
c. Assure la traduction dans leurs langues respectives des textes produits par les membres des Ateliers EURIMAG

IV. Les Ateliers EURIMAG

1. Composition
Douze coordinateurs d’ateliers, personnalités de prestige qui ont des contributions décisives dans les domaines respectifs
Chaque atelier est constitué par les spécialistes dans le domaine respectif proposés par chaque Centre coordinateur national

2. Attributions :
a. Chaque coordinateur assure la coordination et l’unité théorique, méthodologique et de recherche des membres de son atelier
b. Il conseille et supervise les travaux des membres
c. Il fait la révision finale des travaux des membres et le travail de synthese
d. Il fournit au Bureau de coordination ou au responsable désigné par celui-ci le résultat du travail de recherche de son atelier, pour publication en volume, sur le website du réseau, etc.
e. Les membres des ateliers travaillent en équipe a l’élaboration du panorama des imaginaires européens, chacun apportant son expertise pour son pays ou région

D. Résultats et diffusion.

Les travaux de recherche qui se dérouleront dans le cadre du réseau EURIMAG se concrétiseront dans plusieurs types de résultats, qui seront diffusés et publiés de plusieurs manieres :

1. Présentations, conférences, colloques et symposiums organisés par les Ateliers de recherche et leurs membres

2. Cours, séminaires et thématiques de travail offertes aux étudiants des universités EURIMAG ou qui accueillent les professeurs et les chercheurs EURIMAG

3. Dissertations et doctorats sur des themes EURIMAG dirigés par les professeurs du réseau

4. La constitution d’un Consortium de Centres de Recherches sur l’Imaginaire, regroupant universités des plusieurs pays. Ce consortium peut envisager des programmes d’enseignement et d’échanges tel Erasmus Mundus

5. Articles et études individuels publiés par les chercheurs EURIMAG

6. Numéros thématiques dédiés aux themes de recherche EURIMAG par les revues éditées par les membres du réseau

7. Volumes collectifs dirigés par les coordonnateurs des Ateliers EURIMAG et autres spécialistes

8. Volumes individuels publiés par les membres du réseau EURIMAG

9. Traductions systématiques, éventuellement dans des collections spécialisées comme Mundus Imaginalis de Cluj (Roumanie), des principaux volumes de la théorie et de la méthodologie de l’imaginaire dans différentes langues de l’Europe

10. Un Digital Campus offrant la possibilité d’acces électronique a la base de données comprenant les résultats des recherches des Ateliers

11. L’Encyclopédie de l’Imaginaire Européen, en 12 volumes, a etre publiée simultanément en anglais, français et plusieurs autres langues européennes

12. La fondation de l’Institut de Recherches sur les Imaginaires Européens. Bien qu’un tel Institut nécessite des fonds (un endowment) supplémentaires, sa structure administrative et sa base logistique seront déja constituées par le réseau EURIMAG

<< Programe de Cercetare

Proposal summary page 

The ROMANIAN-EUROPEAN RESEARCH CENTRE for the STUDY

of COLLECTIVE IMAGES, STEREOTYPES and PREJUDICES

Proposal Acronym: 

ROMIMAG 

REINFORCEMENT OF THE ASSOCIATED CANDIDATE COUNTRIES RESEARCH CAPACITIES

FP6 thematic area addressed:

Citizens and Governance in a knowledge-based society

Proposal abstract:

 The Centre for Imagination Studies from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, the oldest and the largest university in Romania, conducts a research programme on Romanian collective images, stereotypes and prejudices.

The aim of the ROMIMAG project is to improve the research capacities of the Centre, to strengthen its material basis, to enlarge the topic of research at a national level, within the frame of the consortium of the main Romanian universities, and to integrate Romanian scholarship into European research. The research topic, addressing the thematic area Citizens and Governance, will also assist with Romania’s integration into the EC, as it offers an ecological study of the Romanians’ shared ideas, exposing their clichés and misconceptions towards ethnic, gender or religious minorities, as well as towards other European nations.

The ROMIMAG project envisages three sets of activities:

1. Integrating Activities. ROMIMAG will assemble in a research network Romanian scholars who are now working separately. It will also integrate Romania into a European network of similar centres (CRI-GRECO), through exchanges, translations, conferences, symposia, etc. Its final goal is to extend itself from a national (ROMIMAG) to a European FP6 programme (EURIMAG), addressing the images, the stereotypes and the prejudices of all the inhabitants of our continent.

2. Developing a Joint Research Program focused on Romanian collective representations. Based on cultural studies, this interdisciplinary approach consists of ten Workshops (Self images; Images of Eastern and Western Europe; Gender; Historical; Literary; Media; Socio-political; Religious; Visual Arts Representations).

3. Dissemination activities: oral, written and electronic publication. When accomplished, this research will provide the Romanian citizens and public and, more specifically, the NGOs, the civil society, the public institutions and the decision-makers with an analysis of the main trends of Romanian mentalities.

B.1. Objectives of the proposed project

 The aim of the ROMIMAG project is to improve the research capacities of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania, and more specifically of its Centre for Imagination Studies, to strengthen its material basis, to enlarge the topic of research at a national level within the frame of the consortium of the main Romanian universities, and to integrate the specialists from Cluj and Romanian scholarship in general into the European research.

The ROMIMAG programme concentrates on three classes of objectives:

I. Integrating Activities.

II. Research, Teaching and Training Activities.

III. Dissemination Activities.

B.1.1. Integrating Activities

The central objective of “Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area – Reinforcement of the Associated Candidate Countries’ Research Capacities” is addressed by a set of practical-administrative Integrating Activities:

a. Networking with other research centres in Member States and Associate Candidate Countries. Babes-Bolyai University has a consortium agreement with the other main universities in Romania (Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara), which allows them to organise joint research and teaching activities. In the ROMIMAG programme, the Centre for Imagination Studies collaborates with similar Centres from these universities and from other universities in Romania (cf. B.4.2 National partners). It will also collaborate with a network of similar centres from Eastern (Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary) and Western (Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland) countries (cf. B.4.3 European partners). The Centre for Imagination studies is also a member of the CRI-GRECO network (Centres de recherches sur l’imaginaire – Groupe de recherches coordonnées), which has more than 35 laboratories worldwide. Community funding will enable it to participate in the joint activities of this network.

b. Study visits of the researchers from the Centre to other institutions in MS and ACCs and vice-versa, in order to prepare cooperative activities and/or joint RTD proposals. The Centre for Imagination Studies envisages an extension of its joint research programme on collective images, stereotypes and prejudices from a national (Romanian) level to a European level. In order to do this, it will organise a symposium assembling representatives from Centres and Universities in almost all the European countries (cf. WP2). In this symposium, the participants will be invited to join in a network of excellence and to begin the actions for submitting a proposal to the 6th Framework Programme. A draft of this envisaged European programme (called EURIMAG) has already been sent to the partners of the Centre for Imagination Studies in the ROMIMAG programme.

c. Hosting scientists (teachers and researchers) from abroad for teaching, training and research activities. The Centre for Imagination Studies envisages a conference series programme in which it aims to invite ten foreign academics and researchers per year, for a period of three years, to give conferences on the main tendencies and the latest methodologies in the field of the collective representations addressed by the ROMIMAG programme (cf. WP3).

 d. Training for post-doctoral researchers and PhD students. The Centre for Imagination Studies has conceived a Senior and Junior Researchers Mobility programme, designed to send scientists form the centre to laboratories abroad, for specialised training. It will so offer the opportunity for 3 MA students, 3 PhD students and 3 academics per year to carry out a three-month research stage in one of the partner centres from Eastern and Western Europe (cf. WP4).

e. Workshops, conferences and seminars meant to disseminate and to enforce the results of the ROMIMAG research. Each of the 10 workshops of the ROMIMAG joint research programme will organise a common seminar open to the public, and a series of conferences (at the initiative of the workshop coordinators), in which they will present a series of talks and papers on the work done by their respective teams (cf. WP1).

f. Hiring of new young researchers to reinforce human potential. In order to stimulate young researchers’ activity and integration into national research, as well as to avoid “brain drain” phenomena, the Centre for Imagination Studies will offer a package of at least 3 assistant researcher positions to the students integrated in the ROMIMAG programme. They will be chosen from the best students currently enrolled in the MA and PhD programmes of the Centre (cf. WP14).

g. Upgrading and renewal of S&T equipment. In order to strengthen its material basis, the Centre envisages at least two activities: a Documentary Sources programme, focused on the acquisition from Western bookshops of a series of volumes that will constitute the scientific library of ROMIMAG network, at the disposal of all the senior and junior network researchers (cf. WP6); and a Durable equipment acquisitions programme, which will offer the Centre the possibility of constructing a digital campus for the electronic dissemination of the ROMIMAG research results (cf. WP7).

B.1.2. Research, Teaching and Training Activities

The objectives of ROMIMAG Integrating Activities are complemented and completed, on a theoretical level, by a Joint Research Programme aiming at establishing a global and comprehensive picture of the Romanian collective images, stereotypes and prejudices concerning the representation of the self and of the others (minorities, neighbours, different European countries, Europe as a whole).

The research subject tackles several topics of the thematic area “Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-based Society”: New forms of citizenships and cultural identities (European Citizenship and multiple identities; Cultural dialogue and the European Society); Options and choices for the development of a knowledge-based society (Social trends in the knowledge-based society and their implication for quality of life; Social cohesion in the knowledge-based society).

ROMIMAG aims to outline the panorama of the cultural perceptions that Romanians hold about themselves, about their neighbours and about Europe. The image of the self and the image of the others represent core concepts in defining national and group identity, as well as in understanding and assessing responses to complex political issues, such as the construction of the European Community. A successful European integration relies not only on correct economic and political approaches, but also on the good management of collective representations. An “ecological” study of these shared ideas and images should be able to isolate and expose the common stereotypes, clichés, covert misconceptions and prejudices against ethnic, gender, sexual and religious minorities, and against other European nations.

This study of collective representations and misconceptions is of special importance in candidate countries like Romania, which have emerged from a totalitarian political and social system and do not have as yet an established tradition concerning a theoretical consideration and the public instruments of democracy. Moreover, this study is of special interest in the Balkans, a strategic zone of Europe, particularly vulnerable to nationalistic manipulations because of its extremely composite ethnical texture. In order to keep under control and, eventually, to render innocuous the hazards of majority/minority and national outbursts and clashes, social and humanistic sciences should provide politicians and public organisations with analyses of the constellations of images that inform public mentalities, as well as with surveys of the mechanisms and directions of their evolution.

In its current activity, the Centre for Imagination Studies already runs 4 such research programmes (cf. B.4.1 Presentation of the coordinator). A Community funding will enable the ROMIMAG network to enlarge this activity to 10 thematic workshops. Based on cultural studies, this interdisciplinary approach encompasses the main fields of social sciences and humanities.

The workshops are:

Workshop 1. Romanians’ Self-Images

Starting from Romanticism until the first half of the twentieth century, ideologists and philosophers have been trying to identify what they thought to be the essence or the Platonic quintessence of a people, of a nation or of a race. This approach has been thoroughly criticised, especially after the nationalistic ideologies lead to catastrophes such as the Holocaust and the Second World War. In our post-modern era, we know that the idea and the image of a people is a problem of collective representations. Each group and nation has a specific, sometimes incoherent and polemical, image of itself. To offer just an example, Romanians hold about themselves two contradictory images: that they are a very hospitable, welcoming and generous people, and that they are a chauvinistic, primitive and retractile people. Each of these images encloses a very complex constellation of conscious and unconscious reasons and motives that would need a subtle psychoanalysis of the collective mentalities. In order to better understand themselves and maybe to improve their civic and political behaviour, groups and peoples should bring to light the unspoken motivations of their self-representations, to discharge their potential aggressiveness and violent tendencies. This workshop will target from multiple conjugated perspectives the images that different social and professional groups which form the Romanian society have about themselves and about their nation. It will also investigate the different images that Romanians have about national minorities (Hungarians, Gypsies, Jews, etc.) and the correspondent images that these minorities hold about the majority.

Workshop 2. Romanians’ Images of the Others 1 (Romania and the Balkans)

Together with the image of the self, the image of the others is an important element in the construction of the individual and of group identity. This workshop focuses on the representations that Romanians have elaborated about their national neighbours from the ex-Communist countries of South-Eastern Europe. The Balkans provide a very rich material for the work of historians, sociologists and cultural researchers. Situated at the crossroads of several continental empires (Rome, Byzantium, Ottoman, Habsburg, Tsarist and Soviet), this geographical space harboured a veritable ethnic and cultural melting pot, where different religions and civilisations hybridised in the most unexpected ways. However, the complexity of the Balkans has hardly ever been understood in its real and intrinsic implications. For most of the time, both Westerners and local inhabitants have utilised simplified and stereotyped formulas with a depreciatory and misleading effect (“Byzantinism”, “Balkanism”, etc.). A research into the actual psychology of these populations through the images they hold about each other would help a better understanding of the mechanisms of their collective representations. Balkan studies are not only a theoretical discipline, dealing with humanities and arts, they also constitute a sociological and ideological field of research. The investigation of this domain is especially appropriate in this very fragile and unstable zone of Europe, which has remained, as the last fifteen years have unfortunately proved it, a neuralgic space of the continent. It should also be able to change its perception from a hostile to an open one, emphasising the role of a cultural bridge that the Balkans represent between Europe and the Orient.

Workshop 3. Romanians’ Images of the Others 2 (Romania and Central Europe)

This third workshop dedicated to imagology studies complements the two previous ones. After the analysis of the representations that Romanians hold about their neighbours from South-Eastern Europe, this approach will tackle the images of Central and Western Europe. During the past centuries, and especially during Communism and its “iron curtain” that stifled the free circulation of persons, information and values, the West exercised a special influence and fascination on Romanians. The imaginary representations of the West materialized themselves into several sets of clichés and stereotypes spontaneously or ideologically generated, which can be regrouped into two classes, benevolent and hostile. To give just a sample, one of the recent images of the West relies on the myth of the “conspiracy theory”, issued by “crypto-communists” and by other nostalgics of the previous regime. In this trend of interpretation, the “capitalist” influence on Romania is satanised. The malfunctioning and the drawbacks of the Romanian economy and institutions are interpreted as international anti-Romanian “plots” backed by foreign Secret Services. This “conspiracy myth” tries to explain, for example, the mythopolitical continuity between the Yalta (1945) and Malta (1989) political meetings, where the American and the Soviet presidents divided the world into two ideological and political hemispheres. Alternatively, another Post-Communist image of the West is that of a paradisiacal space, of total freedom, where all the human possibilities find their realization. This myth supports, inside the Romanian mentality, the population’s longing for emigrating into the West or its obsession for joining the NATO and the EU.

Workshop 4. Gender Representations

Gender Studies have entered Romanian scholarship only after the fall of the Communist regime and on a rather limited scale (academic curricula are still partially closed to them, for lack of information and specialists). However, a crucial role in spreading this knowledge is played by individual researchers (generally young people having received a university degree in the West) and NGOs depending on external founding. (Still, a special mention deserves the Faculty of European Studies of Babes-Bolyai University, which created a chair of Gender Studies). The scarcity of professional efforts consecrated to Gender Studies reflects a more general unawareness of Romanian society about these issues. Sociological and psychological studies undertaken by professors from the Faculties of Psychology and of Sociology from Babes-Bolyai University have shown that Romanian women find themselves in a very uncomfortable position concerning their sexual identity and behaviour. Rather than their gender role in society, it is the common conception about their personal behaviour in the frame of the family which remains obsolete and patriarchal. For example, the idea and the juridical concept of “familial rape” are hardly conceivable for people of “deep Romania”. A study of the images of women in Romanian culture and society would certainly offer new lights and insights for larger classes of public.

Workshop 5. Historical Representations

It is possible to envisage both a history of the imaginary representations and a study of the imaginary representations of history. For a long period, historiography has been conceived as a panorama of successive political, social, economic, cultural, etc. events, i.e. like an inventory of “objective” data. However, if it is certainly true that individuals and groups respond to external processes and facts, the historical science of the last decades has shown that these processes and facts are always perceived as subjective and internal images. This means that historical representations are modelled by the categories and the values of the imagination. Consequently, several analysts of the historical imaginary have been able to expose the myths, the phantasms and the collective images that presided over the crucial moments of international history, from the French Revolution to the fascist and communist totalitarian regimes. Each nation and national group generates its own image on history. This workshop is dedicated to the collective perception of the Romanians about their own past and about European history.

Workshop 6. Media Representations

The information era we are living in has largely changed our relationship to the world. The revolution of the image and the apparition of the hyperspace have practically constructed a virtual duplicate of the real world, a mirror world that does not necessarily reproduce the exact shape of the original. It is true that media revolution has transformed the globe into a “global village” where everybody is potentially informed about everything is happening anywhere in the world. However, in contrast with the circulation of information in the traditional village, in the “global village” this information is not direct and genuine, but mediated and transformed by image-creators and transporters. In this context, if it is impossible to avoid deformations and manipulations, it is at least reasonable to try to comprehend and expose the mechanisms of deformation and manipulation. What is the difference between life events and shot images, how does advertising influence the perception of the public, how do movies and the star system create contemporary myths and heroes, how does publicity campaigns influence politics, how do different audience groups react to the different ways of “imaginary colonisation”? These kinds of questions should be addressed in order to understand the way the self-images of a people are generated or imposed. In its ambiguous revolution of 1989, Romania and also the world at large experienced a tragic sample of mass manipulation through the media.

Workshop 7. Literary Representations

Literary and visual arts imagination is generally better known than the alternative types of social and cultural imagination. Literary theory has shown that fiction works cluster in several constellations that describe the mood of a social group at a certain moment in history. Comparative literature has been able to pursue the evolution and the transformation through time of different successive esthetical and poetical trends and modes. Nonetheless, it should be highlighted that, however ambitious and vast, these approaches have, for most of the time, a local and national character and seldom envisage the European literature as a whole. The ROMIMAG programme should offer the international public an image of the Romanian literary imaginary in the frame of the larger European movements of ideas and themes. The resulting encyclopaedic volume will be the product of a teamwork focused especially on the main myths of Romanian national identity materialised in fiction writing.

Workshop 8. Socio-political and Ideological Representations

Paralleling the evolution of the media, politics have become an art of convin-cing and manipulating through images. The political, economic and even military powers tend to comply with the power of information. The election campaigns have become < super shows > featuring Misses and Misters sponsored and directed by image-makers. The research of this workshop will focus on the stereotypes of political imagination provided by the ideology, the mass media and the widespread literature in Romania. First and foremost, the relation between history and ideology will be considered, as the ups and downs of the former explain the dynamics of collective psychological response. While Freud interpreted hostility in the everyday life of individuals and groups as an Oedipean complex expressed by mental shifts, Erich Fromm distinguished between ‘positive aggression’, conceived as a natural drive functioning in childhood, adult life and sexual relations, and the ‘negative’ aspect of it, in which hostility is related to depressive and psychopathic personalities. In both cases, enmity is associated with psychogenic illness, except for the psychohistorical perspective, in which the inner or the outer enemy functions as a ‘poison container’, helping the group to cleanse itself from real and imaginary pollution. As such, the project would be methodologically indebted to depth psychology, to psychohistory, taken as bases for an interdisciplinary research including also the fields of imagination studies, political science, and the general historical framework of Cultural Studies.

Workshop 9. Religious Representations

Long before the positivistic and atheistic conception of the world became dominant, different human civilisations and cultures had apprehended the world through various religious visions. Still today, many people who pretend to be unbelievers continue to use magical and religious categories of thinking and representation of the world. Analysts have proved that even contemporary scientism is a diverted and disguised form of religious behaviour. More over, postmodern relativism has taught us the modesty of not judging and rejecting the religious visions of different people of the globe as archaic, obsolete, primitive, etc. Contemporary anthropologists tend to regard religions as self-sufficient and autonomous cognitive systems which engender a complete and functional comprehension of the world, adapted to the conditions of life of the communities that share them. They are alternative models of explaining the universe, which constitute a reservoir of suggestions and solutions that are very useful especially in periods of epistemological crisis. The analysis of religious beliefs is not only necessary for conserving the cultural diversity of the different people entering the European Community (and Romania has a rich heritage to offer to Europe), but it also constitutes a kind of anthropological practice for people who want to remain open to multiple points of view. The contemporary era of globalisation challenges people with multiple perspectives of the world. Anthropology, ethnology and the history of religions could be used as instruments for training contemporary people as “multiple subjects”.

Workshop 10. Visual Arts Representations

As for the literary representations, the evolution of European art, from Antiquity and the Middle Ages to Modernity and Postmodernity has benefited from extensive and sound research. Nevertheless, European scholarship has not yet been able to reconstruct the complex system of influences and transmissions that permeate and irrigate the whole European cultural space. A trans-disciplinary workteam, and later a multinational team should be capable of drawing up the global picture of the relationships between the various national art movements. Using powerful conceptual tools as those of semantic basin, streaming, partition, confluences, etc. created by Gilbert Durand and by other analysts of the imaginary, the paradigms of the European visual arts can be uncovered in their mutual historical evolution.

As such, the Joint Research Programme will comprise three types of activities:

a. Research. The coordinator of each thematic workshop, in agreement with the ROMIMAG Executive Committee, will conceive a research plan, a methodology, and will build a team of collaborators and contributors to the workshop. Each of the ten work teams will comprise between 20-30 researchers, from the main universities in Romania and from other specialized institutions throughout the country. The workshop teams will consist of two main categories: a group of senior researchers from the Romanian intellectual elite, who have expertise and authority in their respective fields; a group of doctoral students and graduate junior researchers, who will work under the supervision of the coordinator and of the senior researchers.

 b. Teaching. The research activity is conceived in synergic interaction with education, teaching and training. As the participants in the thematic workshops and other activities of the programme are university professors, they will be able to teach their findings in:

– Undergraduate courses in Gender Studies, Political Sciences, History, Comparative Literature, European Studies, Journalism, etc.

– Master programmes, such as those organised by the Centres in Cluj (History of Images – History of Ideas) and Bucharest (History of the Ideas and of the Mentalities). Topics drawing from the workshops will be also assigned for master dissertations.

– Doctoral courses and doctoral theses inspired from the research thematic.

c. Training. The formation and training of specific skills needed for research and administrative work is also a means of spreading the know-how and the experience gained within the ROMIMAG network. Junior researchers and graduate students participating in the ROMIMAG programme will be trained in:

– Doing research work

– Participating in teams and joint programmes

– Acquiring specific scientific methodologies

– Conceiving and writing team contributions

– Constructing electronic databases

– Utilising and mastering the websites from the digital campus

– Translating academic works into Romanian

B.1.3. Dissemination Activities

The strategy for spreading the knowledge and the awareness resulting from the ROMIMAG programme consists of several main actions:

a. “Written” publication.

– A ten-volume Encyclopaedia of the Romanian collective representations, representing the outcome of the research conducted by the ten thematic workshops (cf. WP8).

– Individual volumes of the scholars participating in the programme. The Centre for Imagination Studies in Cluj is currently publishing a book collection called “Mundus Imaginalis” at Dacia Publishing House; the partner centres have their own collections or publishing arrangements (cf. WP9).

– A series of translations (30 titles) of the main volumes from the international professional bibliography, hosted by “Mundus Imaginalis” (cf. WP5 and WP9).

– A series of translations (12 titles) into English of the main volumes of the Romanian scholars associated with ROMIMAG, to be published by a European editing house (cf. WP5).

– Special thematic issues of the academic reviews of the Centres and the Universities participating in ROMIMAG. The Centre for Imagination Studies in Cluj collaborates closely with the Echinox Cultural Foundation, which publishes two reviews, The Echinox Journal (a bi-annual book-form journal consisting of thematic issues of about 300 pages each, with texts in Romanian, English, French, Hungarian, German, or Italian), and with the Echinox review (a classical paper quarterly of the students from Babes-Bolyai University) (cf. WP10).

– Individual studies and papers in other Romanian academic and cultural reviews (we have access to practically all the best-known Romanian reviews).

– Contributions to Western collective volumes and academic journals (the CRI-GRECO network, for example, currently publishes several such journals).

b. Electronic publication. The databases of the workshops, the electronic documents of the papers and studies, as well as current information about the activities of ROMIMAG will be published on a central digital campus, which, for the time being, gathers three websites:

– The website of the Centre for Imagination Studies: www.lett.ubbcluj.ro/~phantasma

– The website of the Echinox Cultural Foundation: www.lett.ubbcluj.ro/~echinox

– The website of the D Media Student Association (“45 Years of Communism in Romania”):www.comunism.ro

When ROMIMAG starts functioning, the digital campus will offer links to all the Romanian Centres participating in the programme and to its European partners (cf. WP11).

– CD-ROM and DVD presentations of the research work.

c. “Oral” dissemination.

– Press conferences (cf. WP12).

– Public meetings and debates with leaders and members of student associations and unions, with NGOs and civil society institutions, and with political and governmental representatives and other decision-makers (cf. WP12).

– Conferences delivered by Romanian scholars and European academic guests (cf. WP3).

– Open sessions of the thematic workshops (cf. WP1).

– Seminars organised by the directors of the workshops (cf. WP1).

– An international conference, gathering the directors of the European centres and representatives from practically all the countries of the continent, meant to prepare the construction of a European Network (EURIMAG) and of a Consortium (for an Erasmus Mundus international master) (cf. WP2).

B.4. The consortium and project resources

In order to ensure the resources and the high level of competence necessary for its success, the ROMIMAG programme is based on a research network that gathers together the main Romanian universities, including their personnel, their equipment, and their financial and logistic capital; within these universities it links together complementary centres, faculties and departments, which allows for a trans-disciplinary ‘crisscrossing’ approach. We shall present the members of the network in order of the degree and importance of their implication in the programme.

B.4.1. The co-ordinator.

B.4.2. National partners.

B.4.3. European partners

B.4.1. The co-ordinator:

The Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj – The Centre for Imagination Studies (director Corin Braga)

ROMIMAG is a programme conceived, designed and coordinated by the Centre for Imagination Studies of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj. The Centre for Imagination Studies is a laboratory for studying social and cultural imaginary representations. Its creation starts from the premise that the majority of academic disciplines deal only with our rationalistic and positive ego, but completely ignore our imaginary and unconscious personality. In order to explore the individual and collective representations, the Centre uses several up-to-date methodologies and approaches (active and participative research, focus groups, etc.). In the postmodern age, research conducted into the imaginary representations plays a crucial role as regards:

 1. The deconstruction of social-political “mythologies”. The analysis of the imaginary is a powerful deconstruction device targeted at ideological, political and social stereotypes and clichés. Aware of the development of today’s world into a “global village”, and starting from the assumption that media images are not perceptive, direct, but “imaginative,” processed, transformed, we analyse images as they are engendered by the written press, by the advertising and movie industries, by cable and satellite television, the internet, etc. Research into the imaginary is essential to understanding the way images affect social groups and collective mentalities, especially in an age when the unprecedented expansion of the visual culture gives vent to a series of subliminal – ideological and political – manipulations of the public. 

 2. The reconstruction of the postmodern subject. The postmodern individual has to cope with the increasing celerity of contemporary life, i.e. with the schizophrenic necessity of being aware or even being present to diverse actions that occur in different places simultaneously. One has to find a way to develop a new and very demanding identity. But traditional logos and rationality offer only the model of an integrated homogenous subject. The reconstruction of a polymorphous subject should use the psychological techniques of the imaginary in order to unite and to keep together the divergent tendencies the postmodern subject has to deal with. Imagination studies have developed an entire range of extremely efficient analytical methods and instruments, which contribute to constructing a hermeneutics of the cultural imaginary from an intrinsic perspective. Our long-term project is to combine these methods with active and focus-group research.

Objectives. Through its components and programs presented below, the Centre aims at:

1. Conducting research on topics pertaining to the cultural-artistic, social/political and media imaginary (to be undertaken by academics, PhD and MA students, undergraduates)

2. Including the research areas into the academic curriculum (courses and seminars at the graduate level), as well as in the scientific workshops supervised by the Centre

3. Publishing the results of this research (either in books or in the printed and electronic journals edited by the Centre)

B.4.2. National Partners

The main universities in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi and Timisoara) have since the 1990s been integrated under a consortium agreement. This means that all the accords and contracts needed for the functioning of a Romanian network are already enforced and that the ROMIMAG programme can use these existing facilities.

B.4.2.1. The University of Bucharest

While Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj is historically the oldest institution of higher education in Romania, the University of Bucharest has the privilege of being situated in the capital of the country and of drawing together, as such, the very elite of Romanian intellectuals living in Bucharest. It enjoys considerable national and international prestige, acquired over almost 140 years. Its various departments and institutes are renowned for their activities in all the major scientific and academic domains. The University of Bucharest offers a wide array of courses at all the levels of higher education: 22 short-duration programmes, over 60 long-duration programmes, 12 long-duration distance-learning programmes, over 100 MA degrees and advanced study programmes, over 50 doctoral programmes, advanced postgraduate programmes, and programmes of professional conversion and perfection. It is integrated in a strong network of international research, including over 100 bilateral collaboration agreements with universities from over 40 countries, and participates in several European academic programmes (Erasmus, Lingua, Naric, Leonardo da Vinci, UNICA, AMOS, TEMPUS, TEMPRA, etc). The University of Bucharest is one of the most important centres of scientific research in the country. There are over 50 institutes, departments and research centres functioning within the University, most of which conduct joint research with similar centres in other countries. The Bucharest partner of the Centre for Imagination Studies in Cluj is:

The Centre for the History of the Imaginary

The Centre for the History of the Imaginary was created in 1993 and is directed by Professor Lucian Boia from the Faculty of History in Bucharest. Its objective is to organise research teams in the fields of the collective imagination and of the history of ideas and representations. It lays special emphasis on political and historical “mythologies”, on the problems of group and national identities, and on the public images of the others. The MA degree programme associated with the Centre has an interdisciplinary character, linking history to other domains such as anthropology, sociology, psychology and literature. Its main topics are: the characteristics of modern civilization; the formation of the European elites; the relationship between history and cinema; catastrophic climatic scenarios and theories from Antiquity to the modern times; new directions in international historiography, etc. The PhD degree programme run by the Centre is focused on the History of Ideas and of mentalities. In collaboration with several Romanian and European centres, such as New Europe College in Bucharest and the “Centre de recherches sur l’imaginaire” in Grenoble, the Centre for the History of the Imaginary has organised common symposia and conferences, and has published volumes such as L’Ile (1999), Nation et nationalisme en Europe Centrale et de Sud-Est (2002), L’Imaginaire des Points cardinaux (2003). Its scientific staff rallies well-known Romanian academics and researchers such as Zoe Petre, Andrei Pippidi, Mirela Murgescu, Aurora Liiceanu, Adrian Cioroianu, Simona Corlan-Ioan (who is the executive director of the Centre).

B.4.2.2. The University of Craiova

The “Mircea Eliade” Centre of Studies on the Imaginary and Rationality

Situated at the core of the historical region of Oltenia, the University of Craiova is a well established institution of higher education in Romania, ranking among the top Romanian Universities (together with those in Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi and Timisoara).

The “Mircea Eliade” Center of Studies on the Imaginary and Rationality is a research unit associated with the Department of Philosophy of the University of Craiova. It was inaugurated on November 4, 1998, in the presence of a group of professors from the Bourgogne University in Dijon, and it started its activity in the autumn of 1999, by organizing conferences in the fields of philosophy, aesthetics and image theory. The centre is a multi-focal structure which edits publications and organizes symposia and seminars on the role of the imaginary and rationality in the creation of philosophical, scientific and artistic works. Its panel consists of program supervisors and researchers from the faculties of History, Philosophy, Geography, Law, Letters, as well as from other similar faculties and centres in Romania and abroad, such as the “Gaston Bachelard” Centre from the University of Dijon.

Director: Assoc. Prof. Ionel Buse

Scientific committee: Academy Prof. Gheorghe Vladutescu, vice-president of the Romanian Academy; Prof. Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Lyon, co-president of the “Gaston Bachelard” Research Centre on the Imaginary and Rationality of Dijon; Prof. Maryvonne Perrot, co-president of the “Gaston Bachelard” Centre; Prof. Ramona Boca-Bordei, University of Dijon; Prof. Ion Ceapraz, University of Craiova.

Programme and publication coordinators:

The imaginary and rationality: Ionel Buse – Symbolon and Caietele Mircea Eliade

Philosophy of science: Ion Ceapraz and Catalin Stanciulescu – Logos

Political philosophy: Marian Buse

Studies on Gaston Bachelard: Sonia Cuciureanu – Caietele Gaston Bachelard

The imaginary of the surrealism: Ioan Lascu – Caietele suprarealismului

Literature of the minorities: Dana Dumitriu – Carrefour des langues, carrefour des littératures

Literature and the imaginary: George Popescu, Geo Constantinescu, Victor Buciu

History: Doru Liciu, Sorin Damean – Istorie si imaginar (History and the Imaginary)

Translators: Victor Olaru, Ioan Lascu, Dorin Ciontescu, Laurentiu Ciontescu-Samfireag, George Popescu, Geo Constantinescu, Simina Badea, Dorina Panculescu

International partners: Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Maryvonne Perrot, Ramona Boca-Bordei, Jean Libis, Dragomir Costineanu, Sorin Alexandrescu, Eric Emery, Jean-Pierre Sirroneau, Chantal Delsol, Jean-Luc Narbonne, Giselle Vanhese, Alain Pessin, Danielle Rocha Pitta, Luciano Maia, Jacques Thiers.

B.4.2.3. The West University in Timisoara

The West University in Timisoara ranks among the largest universities in Romania and has a consortium agreement with the universities in Bucharest, Cluj and Iasi. Situated in the westernmost city of Romania, the very place the Romanian revolution of 1989 spread from, it is renowned for its open and innovative spirit, and its aims of integration into the Western civilisation. It has a series of Faculties: Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography, Letters, History and Theology, Sociology and Psychology, Economic Sciences and Law, Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication Studies, Visual Arts, Music and Sports, and a series of research centres and programmes such as: the Centre for Studies in History and Archaeology in Timisoara (CSIATIM), the Centre for Francophone Studies (CEFTIM), The Romanian Institute for Adults’ Education (IREA), The Laboratory for Crystallographic Measurements (LDCCS), etc. A group of academics from The West University also form a research team organised as:

The “Third Europe” Foundation in Timisoara

“The Third Europe” Foundation is an apolitical and non-profit, non-governmental organisation, whose aim is to contribute towards reforming the academic and cultural life in Romania and promoting intercultural civic values and community solidarity based on the values of pluralism.

The objectives of “The Third Europe” Foundation are:

1. Research. The interdisciplinary and multiethnic work groups of “The Third Europe” Foundation undertake research projects deploying comparative theoretical and applied study approaches in the following domains: cultural studies, history, anthropology, political science, and gender studies.

2. Editing. The editing programmes of “The Third Europe” Foundation offer to the public, specialists and authorities several series of specialised publications: thematic anthologies, encyclopaedic works, workbooks, case studies, information materials, sociological surveys, etc.

3. Civic education. TOC is an independent education institution within the Third Europe Foundation, whose aim is to contribute to reforming the Romanian higher education system, by providing alternative and innovative solutions.

4. Information. “The Third Europe” Foundation provides the public with relevant resources concerning Central and South-Eastern Europe, in different forms: libraries, audio-video and multimedia archives, databases, Internet collections.

5. Assessment and consultancy. “The Third Europe” Foundation offers services of consultancy and assessment concerning multi-ethnic and religious communities to the interested institutions and to both governmental and non-governmental organisations.

The five programmatic objectives of “The Third Europe” Foundation are carried out within two institutional frames: The Centre for Comparative Central and South-East European Studies and The House of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Both of them branch into institutional sub-structures. Within the Centre functions Timisoara Open College (TOC) and “The Third Europe” Institute. The House of Central and South-eastern Europe includes the information unit (library, archive, data base), the Observatory for Regional Policies and Travers (the area for public events: debates, seminars, conferences, workshops, etc.).

This organisational structure is module-based and flexible. Thus, the formative projects are supported and continued by means of a high-level research activity, which involves the teachers and graduates of Timisoara Open College. In its turn, research has an inherent formative dimension: it is done in multiethnic work groups, promoting dialogue by means of interdisciplinary and comparative approaches. The results of this double action (formation and research) materialise in the editing and publishing activity of the Foundation, as well as in its capacity to offer substantial material for information and consultancy to the general public, to governmental and non-governmental organisations, and to the local administration. Most of the activities of the Foundation take place in The House of Central and South-eastern Europe and are addressed to the mass-media, to regional policy makers, and to the leaders of ethnical and religious communities through the Observatory for DKMT Regional Policies and Practices programme (open seminars, colloquia, workshops, conferences, etc.).

Institutional complementarities:

The Centre for Imagination Studies in Cluj has expertise in the study of the socio-political and cultural-literary images and representations; it also has a programme on Balkan studies; its academic partners from Babes-Bolyai University pool in their proficiency in gender and media studies; the Centre for the History of the Imaginary in Bucharest contributes with historical and ideological expertise; the Excellency Centre for the Study of Images in Bucharest focuses on visual arts and advertising images; the “Mircea Eliade” Centre of Studies on the Imaginary and Rationality in Craiova covers the fields of philosophy and of the history of religions; the “Third Europe” Institute in Timisoara is specialised in Central European studies and in “imagology” (i.e. the image of the others); the other partners will also contribute new insights and thematic and methodological points of view.

Individual complementarities and excellence:

The coordinators of the ten thematic workshops also have scientific and professional expertise and skills that complement each other. Assoc. Prof. Ruxandra Cesereanu, the proposed coordinator of the workshop on the Romanians’ self-images, has distinguished herself in this field, publishing an important book about the “Violent Imaginary of the Romanians”. She has also published books on “The Image of the Communist Gulag in Romanian Culture” and on “Torture in the Twentieth Century,” and has edited several volumes about the social minorities in Romania (prostitutes, people with physical disabilities, homeless people, shelters for abandoned children, asylums for old people, etc.). Professor Mircea Muthu, the proposed coordinator of the first workshop on Romanians’ images of the others (Romania and South-Eastern Europe), has dedicated a thirty-five-year research activity to the cultural image of the Balkans and has published eight volumes on these topics, concluding with the scholarly trilogy “Balkanism”. Adriana Babeti, the coordinator of the second workshop on Romanians’ images of the others (Romania and Central Europe), as the leader of the very dynamic research group “The Third Europe”, has an extensive experience and competence in the analysis of the relationships between Romanians and other nations from Central Europe. Professors Mihaela Mudure and Eniko Magyar-Vincze, alternatively assigned to run the workshop on gender representations, are well-known Romanian scholars in feminist studies. The coordinator of the workshop on historical representations, Professor Lucian Boia, the director of the Centre for the History of the Imaginary in Bucharest, is an international specialist in the field, with several volumes on these topics published abroad, in French and in English. As professors of journalism studies, both Miruna Runcan and Doru Pop, the proposed coordinators of the workshop on media representations, have a thorough expertise in the field of public images. The proposed coordinator of the workshop on literary representations of the others, Assoc. Prof. Ioana Both, has already published several books and scholarly studies on the collective myths and stereotyped images conveyed by Romanian literature. Professor Stefan Borbely, the head of the workshop on socio-political representations, is well known in Romania as an analyst of the political imagination of the Communist period, and he has introduced the methodology of psychohistory into Romanian scholarship. Assoc. Prof. Ionel Buse, the proposed coordinator of the workshop on religious representations, is the founder and director of an institute dedicated to the analysis of the philosophical and religious imaginary. Finally, Assoc. Prof. Corin Braga, the founder and the director of the Centre for Imagination Studies and the designer of the ROMIMAG programme, has published several books, in Romanian and in French, on the literary, mythical and philosophical imagination.

Each of the coordinators, as well as the other scholars on the panels and boards of the network, have a high level of competence in terms of professional qualifications and research experience. Besides the scientific expertise, they have also sufficient authority and “savoir faire” in order to gather in their research teams the best Romanian specialists in their respective fields.

B.4.3. European partners

The ROMIMAG network also comprises a series of European partners:

1. Michel de Montaigne University, Bordeaux 3, France

 Laboratoire pluridisciplinaire de recherches sur l’imaginaire appliquées a la littérature (LAPRIL)

 Director : Prof. Gerard Peylet

2. The University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Centre de Recherche en Éducation (CIEd)

Director: Prof. Alberto Filipe Ribeiro de Abreu Araújo

3. The Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Pasts, Inc. – Center for Historical Studies

Director: Prof. Sorin Antohi 

4. The Oetvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary

Centre Interuniversitaire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur l’Europe (CIERE)

Director: Prof. Csákó Mihály

5. The University of Geneva, Switzerland

Institut Européen de l’Universite de Geneve (IEUG), Groupe de travail sur les imaginaires européens

Coordinator : Dr. Stella Ghervas

6. The Jagellonian University, Krakow, Poland

Equipe de recherche sur l’imaginaire symbolique (ERIS)

Director: Prof. Barbara Sosien

7. The University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Etnologija pri Znanstvenem Institutu

Prof. Bojan Baskar

8. Loughborough University, UK

Communications Research Centre (CRC)

Assoc. Prof. Sabina Mihelj

9. The Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Centre de Recherche sur l’Imaginaire

Director: Myriam Watthee-Delmotte

10. Jean Moulin University, Lyon 3, France

Faculte de philosophie

Doyen: Prof. Jean-Jacques Wunenburger

11. Libera Universita di Lingue e Comunicazione, Milano, Italy

Istituto di arti, culture e letterature comparate

Assoc. Prof. Renato Boccali

12. The University of Perpignan, France

Voyages, Echanges, Confrontations, Transformations (VECT)

Prof. Joel Thomas

13. The New University of Bulgaria, Sophia

Department of new Bulgarian studies

Assoc. Prof. Boyan Manchev

While the Romanian partners are directly involved in the Joint Research programme, complementing themselves in a multidisciplinary approach that gathers the elite of Romanian scholarship in respective fields of research, the European partners are implicated only indirectly in the research topic (forcefully, the domain of Romanian imaginary should be tackled firstly by Romanian researchers), providing the methodologies, the bibliographies and the learning needed for consistency with European human sciences.

A consortium agreement has not been established between the European partners; however, during the international symposium that ROMIMAG will organise in order to propose and to prepare the creation of the EURIMAG network, the construction of a consortium will be envisaged.

As a global appreciation, it should be said that, in the present state of affairs, the Centre for Imagination Studies in Cluj and its counterparts in Romania have reached a critical mass of complexity, sophistication, know-how and resources, and that a Community grant will allow them to enter in a fusion process, creating ROMIMAG. After this is accomplished, the Romanian network will find itself on a second threshold, that of reaching the critical mass for producing a chain reaction, which would result in a European network: EURIMAG.

<< Programe de Cercetare

PROIECT DE CERCETARE

I.  OBIECTIVE PROPUSE

Baza teoretică. Premiza de la care pleacă programul “Theology and Science in the Romanian Ecclesiastical Imageries” este că punctul de întâlnire între ştiinţă şi religie este ceea ce cercetătorii ultimelor decenii au numit imaginarul. Imaginarul este un concept central pentru analiza comportamentului uman individual şi de grup. O tradiţie filosofică apăsat intelectualistă a impus ideea că omul este o fiinţă raţională, ale cărei acţiuni depind de mecanisme logice, reductibile la diagrame inteligibile. Or, acest mit al raţionalităţii nu descrie o realitate, ci mai degrabă un ideal, o utopie antropologică. Pentru a înţelege şi a descrie creaţiile umane, precum şi pentru a anticipa şi eventual a influenţa conduitele persoanelor şi ale grupurilor, trebuie investigate motivaţiile lor inconştiente, conţinuturile imaginare şi simbolice, încărcăturile emoţionale. Cercetarea imaginarului vine să suplinească această lacună majoră din filosofia şi psihologia europeană. 
Cum conceptul de imaginaţie are o lungă istorie, el a primit evident şi mai multe definiţii de-a lungul timpurilor. În sensul cel mai larg, se poate spune că imaginaţia este funcţia psihică creatoare de imagini. Platon deja distingea între idei şi imagini, înţelegând prin primele nişte reflectări corecte şi apropriate ale esenţelor, iar prin ultimele nişte copii, adesea deformatoare, ale acestora. Din această valorizare a luat naştere o atitudine dispreţuitoare şi condescendentă faţă de imaginaţie, considerată adeseori, în raport cu raţiunea şi cu intelectul, ca fiind un fel de “nebună a casei”, o sursă de erori şi falsuri. E adevărat, au existat în istorie curente şi filosofii, precum neoplatonismul, hermetismul Renaşterii sau Romantismul, care au acordat fanteziei un rol important, de “regină a balului”, dar în general ea a fost desconsiderată ca o funcţie inferioară şi imprecisă a sufletului.
Astăzi, însă, ştim că gândirea prin imagini este mai genuină, mai largă, mai nuanţată calitativ decât gândirea prin idei şi noţiuni. Ea foloseşte senzaţiile şi percepţiile organelor noastre de simţ, aşadar reprezentările noastre senzoriale, fiind mai aproape de “lumea exterioară”, spre deosebire de intelect, care foloseşte simboluri şi concepte abstracte, adică nişte traduceri într-un limbaj secund ale reprezentărilor perceptive. Cu alte cuvinte, raportul tradiţional s-a inversat şi acum imaginaţia este văzută ca fiind mai aproape de adevăr decât intelectul, deoarece foloseşte nişte unităţi de sens (imaginile) mai apropiate de obiectele realităţii exterioare sau interioare, fizice sau meta-fizice, decât sunt unităţile de sens ale raţiunii (ideile). Percepem lumea şi reacţionăm la ea întâi prin imagini, cu toată cohorta de nuanţe, senzaţii şi afecte care le însoţesc, şi abia apoi prin idei şi raţionamente. Recunoaşterea acestui adevăr poate schimba multe lucruri în cele mai neaşteptate domenii, spre exemplu în sociologie sau politologie, dar şi în ştiinţele “dure”. 
Tocmai pentru a se pune accentul pe funcţia investigatoare şi prospectivă a imaginaţiei a fost introdus termenul, mai dinamic, de imaginar. Imaginarul este capacitatea noastră de a crea imagini noi, exploratoare, vizionare. În paradigma actuală, se accentuează tot mai mult tendinţa de a privi ficţiunea şi ficţionalizarea, imaginea şi imaginarul, ca o formă alternativă de cunoaştere, mai greu de controlat dar mai exuberantă şi poate mai promiţătoare decât cunoaşterea raţională. Mai puţin cunoscută în spaţiul american, cu termeni câteodată greu de tradus în engleză, cercetarea imaginarului constituie o prioritate europeană, ce tinde însă să se extindă şi spre alte zone ale planetei.
Ştiinţa modernă a imaginarului a fost fondată la jumătatea secolului XX, prin eforturile unor filosofi, teoreticieni şi istorici ai religiilor precum Gaston Bachelard, Henry Corbin, Mircea Eliade, Charles Baudouin, Charles Mauron, Gilbert Durand şi alţii. Situată între percepţie şi raţiune, între reprezentarea senzorială şi noţiunea intelectuală, imaginea a fost abordată dintr-o perspectivă complexă, menită să-i pună în evidenţă natura specifică, mecanismele de generare, de funcţionare şi de transmitere, relaţiile sinestezice, simbolice şi logice pe care le întreţine cu percepţiile, amintirile şi ideile, rolul şi funcţiile în cadrul psihismului individual şi a celui colectiv, concretizările sale psihologice, sociale sau artistice. 
O dată cu dezvoltarea societăţii postmoderne, relevanţa şi importanţa acestor cercetări a crescut în mod vertiginos. Lumea actuală evoluează spre ceea ce se numeşte satul global, o societate în care, la fel cum locuitorii satului tradiţional cunoşteau toate întâmplările importante din localitate, oamenii din toate părţile lumii pot primi, prin canalele mediatice, informaţii despre orice eveniment desfăşurat în toate colţurile pământului. Spre deosebire însă de satul tradiţional, unde transmiterea informaţiilor era directă, interpersonală, nemediată, în satul global informaţia este indirectă, mediată, transformată. Sistemul de reclame, reţelele de distribuţie a filmelor, ziarele şi revistele, televiziunile prin cablu şi prin satelit, Internetul, toate aceste instrumente mediatice nu mai furnizează imagini perceptive despre indivizi şi evenimente, ci doar imagini imaginare, procesate în studiouri şi redacţii, capabile să transporte mesaje suplimentare, subliminale, expuse manipulării comerciale sau ideologice. Campaniile politice şi războaiele electronice, modele şi sistemul de promovare a vedetelor sunt nişte exemple banale în ceea ce priveşte felul în care imaginile ne influenţează şi ne modelează viziunea asupra realităţii.
Imaginarul constituie aşadar “rădăcina” marilor noastre activităţi cognitive, el poate fi văzut ca punctul de întâlnire dintre ştiinţă, religie, arte plastice, literatură şi alte domenii ale spiritului uman. Gaston Bachelard este unul dintre primii cercetători care au pus în lumină faptul că paradigmele ştiinţifice cele mai abstracte şi matematizate pleacă de la un complex de pre-supoziţii de natură imaginară. Toate marile sisteme cosmologice, modelul geocentric al pitagoreicilor şi creştinilor, modelul heliocentric al lui Copernic-Kepler-Galilei, modelul Kant-Laplace, modelul termodinamic, modelele relativiste contemporane etc. au la bază un set de apercepţii imaginare care sunt comune cu gândirea religioasă dominantă în perioada respectivă, dar şi cu întreaga paradigmă cognitivă a epocii.
Obiective generale de cercetare. Pornind de la aceste premize, programul “Theology and Science in the Romanian Ecclesiastical Imageries” şi-a propus ca în cei trei ani de studiu să se aplece asupra următoarelor trei direcţii de cercetare:
– Anul I. Imaginarul religios.
– Anul II. Imaginarul plastic-artistic.
– Anul III. Imaginarul ştiinţific.
Scopul nostru este ca, prin analiza primastică a imaginarului subiacent celor trei domenii să atingem punctul de contact transdisciplinar dintre ştiinţă, religie şi artă, locul unde devin manifeste schemele profunde ale gândirii umane.

II. REZULTATE OBTINUTE. METODE DE VALORIFICARE

După cum reiese din planul general, acest prim an a fost dedicat studierii mecanismelor imaginarului religios. Cercetarea a presupus următoarele etape:
1. Constituirea nucleului de lucru, reunind câţiva din membrii Centrului de Cercetare a Imaginarului de la Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai din Cluj. Aceştia sunt: prof. dr. Corin Braga (director), prof. dr. Ştefan Borbély, conf. dr. Ruxandra Cesereanu, prof. dr. Ovidiu Pecican, lector dr. Doru Pop, drd. Andrada-Fătu Tutoveanu. Acestui nucleu i s-au adăugat pr. Ioan Chirilă (decanul Facultăţii de Teologie ortodoxă), conf. dr. Liviu Maliţa (decanul Facultăţii de Teatru şi Televiziune), lector dr. Vasile Rus şi lector dr. Carmen Fenechiu (de la Catedra de Limbi clasice).

2. Acest grup a stabilit direcţia de cercetare, conceptele şi metodele puse în lucru. Apoi a stabilit lista de colaboratori din străinătate şi din România, care au fost contactaţi în vederea realizării unui volum tematic din revista academică Caietele Echinox dedicat imaginarului religios.

3. Grupul a planificat o serie de conferinţe şi participări la colocvii menite să pună în valoare cercetările în sfera imaginarului religios. Dintre acestea, amintim:
– Simpozionul comemorativ “Mircea Eliade”, organizat de prof. Ştefan Borbély la Facultatea de Litere din Cluj în 13 martie a.c., la care au prezentat lucrări Ştefan Borbély, Corin Braga, Mircea Muthu şi Martha Petreu
– Conferinţa “Imagination, imaginaire, imaginal. Three French Concepts for defining Creating Fantasy”, ţinută de Corin Braga la Symposium “Art in the new field of visibility”, Netherlands Media Institute, Montevideo Time Based Arts, Amsterdam, 19-20 ianuarie
– Coorganizarea de către Corin Braga, cu partenerii francezi Anna Caiozzo şi Nicolas Weyl-Parrot, a Colocviului “Autour de Picatrix. Image et magie”, la Université Diderot – Paris 7, în 11-12 mai
– Conferinţa “Trois méta-typologies : Archétype, anarchétype, eschatype”, ţinută de Corin Braga la Deuxieme Congres du Réseau Européen d’Etudes Littéraires Comparées, organizată de Université Blaise Pascal şi de Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, la Clermont-Ferrand, în 6-9 septembrie
– Conferinţa “Gnostic Elements in Mircea Eliade’s Thinking” ţinută de Ştefan Borbély la  International Seminar on History of Religions to Mark the Centenary of Mircea Eliade, New Delhi, India, Jawaharlal Nehru University, în 8-10 oct. 
– Conferinţa “A Methodological Challenge to Edward Said’s Orientalism” ţinută de Ştefan Borbély la simpozionul “Orientalism Revisited”, Calcutta, Victoria Memorial, în 12 oct.

            4. O parte din rezultatele acestei cercetări au fost reunite în volumul tematic al revistei Caietele Echinox, publicată în franceză şi engleză, vol. 12, 2007, cu titlul “L’imaginaire religieux”. Redăm în continuare contributorii şi sumarul acestui volum :
– Jean-Jacques Wunenburger (Université Jean-Moulin – Lyon 3, Franţa), Le jeu sacré 
– Philippe Walter (Université Stendhal – Grenoble 3, Franţa), Imaginaire, religion et superstitions. Plaidoyer pour la < longue durée >
– Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu (University of Western Ontario, Canada), vs. Myth 
– Arnaud Huftier (Université de Valenciennes, Franţa), Une autre essence : le rapport au sacré des récits fantastiques populaires 
– Ionel Buşe (University of Craiova, Romania), Mythes et symboles de la mort initiatique dans le conte de fées 
– Hugo Francisco Bauzá (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina), La mitología clásica y su proyección contemporánea
– Ruxandra Cesereanu (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Cultic Conflicts between Gods in the Greek Tragedy
– Carmen Fenechiu (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), The Term Numen in Lucan’s The Civil War
– Mihaela Ursa (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Women in the Religious Imaginary.  From “the Crown of Creation” to “the Gate of Hell”
– Ştefan Borbély (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Early Christianity and the Comparative Religion of Ash 
– Alin Suciu (Faculty of Theology, Laval University, Canada), Mysticism and Theosis in pre-Plotinian times? 
– Ionuţ Daniel Băncilă (Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany), Some Aspects of Manichaeism as Religion of Beauty
– Mădălina Vârtejanu-Joubert (Centre Gustave Glotz, Paris, Franţa), Le concept de pouvoir dans le judaisme : Réflexions sur la Bible comme modele
– Ana Bărbulescu (University of Bucharest, Romania), Bound by a Unifying Conflict: the Sage and the Min in Tannaitic Times
– Philippe Gardette (Centre P.-A. Février, Université de Provence, Franţa), Un entre deux religieux dans le dialogue judéo-chrétien: les judaisants a Byzance, approche et enjeux
– Cristina Ciucu (University of Bucharest / Université Lyon 3 et INALCO, Paris, Franţa), Neo-Platonism and the Cabalistic Structure of the Divine Emanation 
– Silviu Dan Lupaşcu (University for Architecture and Urbanism Ion Mincu, Bucharest, Romania), Les identités multiples du Messie dans les espaces religieux abrahamiques 
– Anna Caiozzo (Université Diderot – Paris 7, Franţa), Images et imaginaires du mal dans les représentations de l’Orient musulman 
– Ioan Chirilă (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Présence du Logos dans l'< image > 
– Jean-Marc Joubert (Institut catholique d’études supérieures, La Roche sur Yon, Franţa), Un exemple d’image patristique de la déification : Le fer embrasé par le feu
– Carmen Raluca Aştelian (University of Bucharest, Romania), < Ce mystere en paix écouté > 
– Răzvan Ionescu (University of Bucharest, Romania), Le théodrame / Theodrama. Le déroulement du cérémonial liturgique vu comme théodrame 
– Ovidiu Pecican (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), A Greek Monastery in Palestine and Its Possessions in Hungary at the Beginning of the 13th Century
– Vasile Rus (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Ugo di San Vittore ed il paradosso del mistico dotto
– Daniel Fărcaş (Université de Paris IV – Sorbonne, Franţa), L’oil dans l’imaginaire mystique de Maître Eckhart
– Daniela Dumbravă (University of Florence, Italy), Thek’ou-t’ou, a Political and Religious Ceremonial at the Court of the Ch’ing Dynasty 
– Corin Braga (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Derniers refuges terrestres des utopies classiques :le Continent Austral Inconnu et les pôles géographiques 
– Andrada Fătu-Tutoveanu (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), The “Infernal Chemistry” of the 19th Century. The Opiates between the “Witchcraft Paradigm” and the Development of Modern Toxicology
– Dan Dana (University of Bucarest, Romania), Le Zalmoxis de Lucian Blaga, entre construction et révolte : un aspect du débat sur le < spécifique national > dans la Roumanie d’entre-deux guerres
– Liviu Maliţa (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), The Religious Imaginary in the Romanian Post-War Dramaturgy
– Doru Pop (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Holy Advertising

5. De asemenea, tot în cadrul atelierului de cercetare a imaginarului religios, au fost publicate în acest an o serie de cărţi, în colecţia Mundus Imaginalis pe care Centrul de Cercetare a Imaginarului o coordonează la editura Dacia din Cluj:
– Jean-Pierre Sironneau, Milenarisme şi religii moderne, Cluj, Dacia, decembrie 2006, colecţia Mundus Imaginalis vol. 14
– Maryvonne Perrot, Bachelard şi poetica timpului, Cluj, Dacia, 2007, vol. 15
– Cristian Bădiliţă, Sacru şi melancolie, Cluj, Dacia, 2007, vol. 16
– Philippe Walter, Limba  păsărilor, Cluj, Dacia, 2007, vol. 17
– Corin Braga, 10 studii de arhetipologie (ediţie revăzută şi adăugită), Cluj, Dacia, 2007, vol. 18
– Ştefan Borbély, Mitologie generală, vol. II, Calendarele mitologiei. Riturile de fertilitate, Cluj, Limes, 2007

III. Theoretical issues and contributions:

General aspects:
Avant le désenchantement moderne du monde et l’imposition de la perspective positiviste et athée, les sociétés humaines ont perçu pendant des millénaires l’univers dans les termes d’une explication religieuse. Beaucoup continuent de le faire encore aujourd’hui et on a argumenté que les athéismes et les scientismes actuels ne sont que des formes déguisées et détournées de comportements religieux. A partir des croyances du néolithique et du chamanisme des chasseurs et des pasteurs jusqu’aux religions polythéistes de l’antiquité et aux monothéismes du Livre, l’histoire mondiale offre un panorama éblouissant de visions religieuses, avec des dynamiques imprévisibles et révélatrices, d’une complexité inextricable. Le relativisme postmoderne nous a appris que nous ne pouvons plus nous permettre de juger ces visions comme illusoires et pernicieuses, comme des formes inférieures et méprisables de cognition. Par contre, en tant que systemes explicatifs du monde, elles s’averent etre des complexes cognitifs complets et autosuffisants. Elles sont des modeles alternatifs qui constituent un réservoir inégalable de solutions au moment ou d’autres modeles, dominants a un moment ou autre, entrent en impasse. Si l’on veut conserver non seulement la richesse des diverses cultures, mais aussi notre disponibilité de changer de point de vue, si nécessaire dans le contexte actuel de la globalisation, il faut savoir utiliser l’histoire des religions, l’anthropologie et l’ethnologie comme des instruments de pensée. 
Dans l’immense champ des domaines confédérés des recherches sur l’imaginaire, l’imaginaire religieux détient une position privilégiée. Mise au point par des savants comme Henry Corbin, Mircea Eliade ou Gilbert Durand, l’analyse des constellations de mythes et de symboles du < homo religiosus > dispose d’un riche jeu de méthodes et herméneutiques, dont la mythanalyse, la mythocritique et la mythodologie. Les recherches sur la fantaisie religieuse offrent une nouvelle perspective a la science de la religion (la < Religions­wissenschaft >), offrant au chercheur une position < télescopée > et une saisie nouvelle de son domaine. Elles permettent une analyse phénoménologique des rituels et croyances religieuses, en tant que phénomenes de l’imaginaire humain, sans impliquer le difficile probleme de trancher sur la réalité métaphysique et ontologique des figures surnaturelles qui apparaissent dans ces croyances. 
En Roumanie, apres 1989, les études religieuses ont pris un extraordinaire essor. Il s’est formé maintenant une nouvelle génération de jeunes chercheurs, avec des études dans les plus prestigieuses universités occidentales, qui ont appris les langues grecque et hébraique, copte et arabe, hindou et tibétaine, etc., et qui sont intégrés dans des groupes internationaux de recherches sur les manuscrits antiques et les religions du monde. Bien que cette réintégration de l’intelligentsia roumaine dans le circuit international se manifeste dans tous les domaines, la phalange la plus compacte, cohérente et visible  paraît etre celle des historiens des religions. 
Le prestige de la science des religions parmi les jeunes érudits roumains a plusieurs explications. Comme facteur de fond on peut penser a un < retour général du refoulé >, apres quarante-cinq ans de dictature communiste et d’athéisme forcé. Une autre explication serait l’héritage folklorique beaucoup plus massif dans cette zone < latérale > de l’Europe que dans les autres parties du continent et donc une sensibilité plus fraîche envers les phénomenes religieux. Enfin, et non en dernier lieu, les fantasmes professionnels des jeunes chercheurs sont souvent dominés par l’ascendant et l’auréole de savants comme Mircea Eliade et Ioan Petru Couliano. Ces figures tutélaires se sont constituées, pendant la dictature, en modeles de réussite académique et intellectuelle. On pourrait dire que Mircea Eliade a créé un empire – l’histoire des religions -, et que le trône, laissé vacant par la mort tragique de Ioan Petru Couliano, invite a une émulation de succession. Ce volume desCahiers de l’Echinox se propose d’offrir sinon un panorama, au moins une image rapide des préoccupations de la nouvelle génération de chercheurs roumains dans l’histoire des religions.  (Corin Braga)

Individual studies:

1. Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu, University of Western Ontario, Canada
vs. Myth 
Abstract: Myth is neither story nor a twisting of truth; myth is the virus of the other. As such, it viruses culture: it both makes it possible by transforming fear into anxiety, and attempts to overwhelm it, by rationalizing anxiety as mythical fear and elation. Polemics, rather than dialectics, can face the cunning of myth, for polemics flows against the virus of the myth, and a culture that does not fight this virus is not worth the name.
Keywords: myth; language; truth; virus; Franz Kafka; Claude Lévi-Strauss; Hans Blumenberg; Mircea Eliade; Roland Barthes; Roberto Calasso; Ariadne; Prometheus.

2. Ionel Buşe, University of Craiova, Romania
Myths and Symbols of Esoteric Death in Folktales
Abstract: The symbolism of esoteric death in archaic societies implies the access of man to spirituality. Mircea Eliade identifies a connection between mythical cosmogony and the secret ceremonies of initiation in post-existence. Using specific rituals, archaic man reenacted the exemplary models revealed to him by gods in illo tempore. In the Romanian folktales, the symbolism of the esoteric death falls under this general pattern. The protagonists prepare to reach the otherworld, following a rite of passage from one ontological level to another; they are confronted with a series of trials; they fight with death-demons; and sometimes they die and are miraculously reborn.
Keywords: Myth; Romanian folktales; religious symbolism; esoteric death; Mircea Eliade.

3. Ruxandra Cesereanu, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Cultic Conflicts between Gods in the Greek Tragedy
Abstract: The divide between humans and gods is commonplace in the Greek tragedy: at the beginning, as directors of tragic performances, the gods cause the transformation of humans into moving troupes, robotized and manipulated, armies of industrious insects to the benefit of some religious cult. When conscience and revolt surge in humans, the gods are offended and act punitively. However, sometimes the gods get involved in controversies among them precisely because of the mortals, the issue to be debated upon being arguably the pertinence or the lack of pertinence, at a certain moment, of a religious cult and of its worshippers. Although they may take humans as a pretext, the clashes between gods are always of a religious nature. They are violent precisely because they lead to the extinction or the banning of a religious cult in favor of another. Such clashes appear above all in some of the Greek tragedies such as The Eumenides – from Aeschylus’ trilogy The Oresteia – and Euripides’ Hippolytus and The Bacchae.
Keywords: Greek tragedy; Aeschylus; Euripides; Erinyes; Eumenides; Apollo; Athena; Orestes; Hippolytus; Phaedra: Theseus; Artemis; Aphrodite; Bacchae; Dionysus; Pentheus.

4. Carmen Fenechiu, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The Term Numen in Lucan’s The Civil War
Abstract: The paper intends to investigate, as its title suggests, the uses of the term numenin Lucan’s epic: “The Civil War”. The morpho-syntactic analysis of the verses where numen is employed reveals three senses of this notion: “power”, “divinity”, “statue”. Moreover, the examination of these passages uncovers not only the meanings of numen, but also the Stoic conception which underlies the poem.
Keywords: Stoicism; Seneca; Lucan; numen; divine power; deification.

5. Mihaela Ursa, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Women in the Religious Imaginary
From “the Crown of Creation” to “the Gate of Hell”
Abstract: This paper investigates the way in which, in order to be contained, unsettling projections about women inside the religious imaginary are confined to specific areas, which I call “reservation fields”, since these allow their survival, at the same time keeping them under control by means of cultural policies. My case studies focus upon the projection of Eve (in the Judeo-Christian cosmogony) and Pandora (in Hesiod’s Greek cosmogony), as problematic women, to say the least. Both are traditionally understood as “bad” women, who allow evil into man’s world. Several patterns of cultural selection and manipulation are analyzed and – hopefully to a certain degree -dismantled throughout the paper.
Keywords: Sexual / gender identity; reservation fields; cosmogonical models; “evil / good” woman; logic of doubt; “mystory”; Pygmalion; Galatea.

6. Ştefan Borbély, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Early Christianity and the Comparative Religion of Ash 
Abstract: The paper investigates the anthropological roots of the symbolism of ash in the four Christian gospels, and in the early custom of the Ash Wednesday anointing ritual, as related to the archaic symbols of fire, palm tree, and the Egyptian myth of resurrection focused on the cosmological role of the Phoenix. By analyzing the ritualistic content of the old Jewish Festival of the Tents (Sukkot), whose traces appear in the Christian gospels in a few passages related to Christ’s imminent death, the paper also suggests that, in a specific anthropological context, Jesus might have been the sacrificial victim of an early harvest feast, which explains his vivid association to the ashes in the ritual of the Ash Wednesday and in the early Christian re-writings of the legends concerning the Phoenix.
Keywords: Ash; Ash Wednesday; Gospels; Jewish festivals; early Christian symbols; Phoenix.

7. Ioan Chirilă, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The Presence of the Logos in the “Image”
Abstract: The concept of captivity determined by image, of excessive imagophagy, and even of image dependence, is of great actuality. Contemporary ordinary images aim for the senses and, therefore, we can speak nowadays about an idolatry of the image. From an anthropological and iconological perspective, image reception takes place at the intersection of seeing with the background intrinsic to the receptor, which includes images, words, and decryption keys for symbols. This collective background comprises the complex and yet extremely simple image of Paradise. In a synthetic exegetic approach of the prophetic excerpts that refer to this theme, we have tried to identify the iconic dimension of the symbolic structures used by prophets in order to restore the theonomic aspect of creation, and of moral acting. In the prophetic uttering, the Paradise motifs express a restoration of the creation’s natural way of being. It is precisely this fact that determines us to see the icon as the sign of the restored meaning of our existence and a presence or a source of grace. The icon creates the connection between men and the Logos, between us and His image inside us.
Keywords: Logos; image; icon; Paradise.

8. Ovidiu Pecican, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
A Greek Monastery in Palestine and Its Possessions in Hungary at the Beginning of the 13th Century
Abstract: This paper discusses the case of a monastery in the Banat region, near the lower Danube, at the beginning of the 13th century. At that epoch, the Hungarian Kingdom expanded on the territories previously ruled by the Bulgarian Czardom. The monastery presented here entered under Roman ecclesiastical jurisdiction, suffering a tormented reorganization. Its evolution is presented in com­parison with a similar monastery in Cyprus.
Keywords: South-eastern Europe; Central Europe; Orthodoxy; Catholicism; monastery.

9. Vasile Rus, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Hugh of Saint Victor and the Paradox of the Mystical Doctor 
Abstract: Within the Christian tradition, Hugh of Saint Victor can be placed in between scholasticism and mysticism. He is the living image of a learned mystic, who demonstrates how one can reach the contemplation of God through physical sciences, without putting the divine mystery on a secondary plane. He offers the sample of an instructed mystic, who tries to transform his knowledge into contemplation.
Keywords: Scholastics; mystics; theology; contemplation; prayer; revealed truth; liberal arts.

10. Corin Braga, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The last terrestrial locations of the classical utopias: Terra Australis Incognita and the Poles
Abstract: Utopias can be seen as the Modern avatars of the Christian myth of the Terrestrial Paradise. If for the people of the Middle Ages, the Garden of Eden was irrevocably hidden by God after the original sin, for the people of the classical age, Utopias were ideal cities built by men through their own forces and ingenuity. The continuity between the two topics is also marked by the locations that the medieval theologians and the classical utopists attributed to them. In this paper, I will show that some bizarre locations of the Terrestrial Paradise, the antipodes and the poles of the globe, were inherited by a series of utopias from More and Andreae to the anonymous Relation d’un voyage du Pôle Arctique au Pôle Antarctique par le Centre du Monde.
Keywords: Terrestrial Paradise; Utopia; Terra Australis Incognita; extraordinary voyages.

11. Andrada Fătu-Tutoveanu, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The “Infernal Chemistry” of the 19th Century.
The Opiates between the “Witchcraft Paradigm” and the Development of Modern Toxicology
Abstract: During the 19th century, in the absence of a legal interdiction and of scientific research on its effects, drug use acquired a multileveled mental representation of its positive and negative aspects. My study focuses on the change which took place during that period regarding the representation of drugs, from a mysterious, dangerous chemistry (what we call “the paradigm of witchcraft” and magic) to a scientific vision, through the birth and development of toxicology. The first section of the article deals with the evolution of the literary/cultural and social representations of poisons and drugs (opiates in particular), in parallel with the scientific developments. The main subject of discussion is the inheritance of a certain imagery regarding drugs, the “obsession” of finding a panacea in both paradigms, as well as the association of opium to a miraculous remedy and then to a “demonic” substance. The second section deals with the ambivalent relation of the modern artist to the drug, which is due to the perception of opiates as both a way of access to Paradise, and as a diabolic attraction.
Keywords: Romanticism; Witchcraft; Opiates; Laudanum; Morphine; Heroine; Addiction; Toxicology; Panacea; Poison.

12. Dan Dana, University of Bucarest, Romania
The Zalmoxis of Lucian Blaga, between Construction and Revolt:
An Aspect of the Debate on the “National Specificity” in Inter-war Romania 
Abstract: This study explores the debate concerning the “national specificity” in inter-war Romania, especially on the subject of the revaluation of the Dacian heritage, in the context of the quest for autochthonism, in a cultural milieu dominated by nationalism. The poet and the philosopher Lucian Blaga (1895-1961) was very interested by the Dacian ancestors, as witnessed by his essay on the “Revolt of the non-Latin element”, or the play Zamolxe, both published in 1921. The writer challenged the current view which privileged the Latin element in the typology of the Romanians. Five years later, the monograph Getica of the historian Vasile Pârvan became the very source of the fascination for the Dacians in the Romanian culture before WWII. Numerous titles invaded the cultural market, both scientific and amateurish, and a new current, the thracomania, became fashionable. One of the champions of Dacianism was the theologian Ioan Coman, who saw the Dacian religion as announcing Christianity in its orthodox form. Once again, Blaga entered the dispute, attempting to tone down nationalist and intolerant Dacianism; he offered the model of a lucid intellectual engaged in an animated cultural debate.       
Keywords: Lucian Blaga; Zalmoxis; Dacians; Romania; nationalism; religion.

13. Liviu Maliţa, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
The Religious Imaginary in the Romanian Post-War Dramaturgy
Abstract: The paper presents a typology of the religious imagination of the Romanian playwrights after the Second World War. The period is divided into two phases, the communist and the post-communist dramaturgy. In the first phase, Romanian drama was shaped by the pressure of the official ideology and censorship, which imposed important changes to the traditional religious symbolism. In the second phase, after 1989, Romanian drama reflected the deconstructive trend of late modernity. All in all, Romanian dramaturgy is marked by the absence of a religious tradition. 
Keywords: Romanian dramaturgy; Communism; Orthodoxy; Lucian Blaga; Marin Sorescu; Alina Mungiu Pippidi.

14. Doru Pop, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Holy Advertising
Abstract: This paper is focused on the transfer of signs and connotations from the sacred to the profane as it is explicit in the Romanian media and advertising industry. Advertising is considered a religion of the post-industrial capitalism, thus advertising and marketing practices are interpreted as means of substituting religious thinking. The central hypothesis is that advertising – by means of psychological pressure and social persuasion – has integrated Christianity as a cultural product within the commercial space. The author takes into consideration three levels: the impact of advertising on commodities industry, the expressions of popular culture, and its manifestations in the mass media. These levels are observed by interpreting advertising products from the top ten companies in Romania, ranging from personal hygiene and cosmetics, alcohol and soft drinks, chemical products from cleaning, household appliances and communication technologies. The paper describes how the secularization of sacred symbols has spread fast in Romanian media and in the advertising business, discusses the process of draining significations from Christian icons, and interprets the consequences of religious metaphors exploited for commercial ends. Starting from the mercantile rhetoric of contemporary advertising and the language of commercials, the paper criticizes the materialistic idolatry and the simulacrum of spirituality.
Keywords: consumption; media; advertising industry; marketing practices; cultural analysis; popular culture; Christianity; religious metaphors.

IV. PERSPECTIVE
După cum am arătat la capitolul obiectivelor programului, următorii doi ani vor fi dedicaţi analizei imaginarului plastic-artistic şi a celui ştiinţific. Scopul acestor analize transdisciplinare şi prismatice va fi stabilirea punctelor de convergenţă între imaginile religioase, ştiinţifice şi artistice, trunchiul comun al gândirii prelogice de factură imagistică, ce asigură convergenţa acestor moduri diferite de cogniţie.
Marea provocare pe care identificarea unui asemenea trunchi comun o va ridica va fi stabilirea naturii constantelor şi invarianţilor regăsibili în imaginarul ştiinţific, religios şi artistic. Sunt aceşti invarianţi de natură antropologică sau de natură culturală? Cu alte cuvinte, avem de-a face cu nişte scheme arhetipale comune întregii rase umane, regăsibile, în diverse variante, la diferiţi indivizi, indiferent de locul, timpul şi mediul cultural respectiv, sau avem de-a face cu topoi, cu teme şi motive transmise şi reproduse pe cale culturală, dependente aşadar de formaţie, educaţie şi mediu? Ştim că ipoteza antropologică a arhetipurilor prezente în bagajul genetic al conştiinţei umane, în varianta teoretizată de psihiatrul C. G. Jung, a fost serios şi dur criticată de către psihologi şi epistemologi de alte orientări şi formaţii. 
Dar ar fi interesant şi provocator de explorat în ce măsură cercetările actuale de neuroteologie (cf. Matthew Alper, The God part of the Brain, 1996; James H. Austin, Zen and the Brain, 1999; A. Newberg & E. D’Aquili, Why God won’t go away, 2001; R. Joseph,Neurotheology. Brain, Science, Spirituality, Religious Experience, 2002, etc.), care explorează cu tomografe de înaltă rezoluţie activitatea creierului în stările “mistice” (transă şamanică, extaz mistic, meditaţie yoghinică, rugăciune etc.), aduc lumini noi asupra ipotezei existenţei unor patternuri cerebrale ale experienţelor religioase. Indiferent de rezultat, însăşi existenţa unor asemenea cercetări este o formă de îmbinare a religiei cu ştiinţa.

<< Programe de Cercetare

Centrul de Cercetare a Imaginarului
Facultatea de Litere
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj

Grant UBB 2006-2008
Propunator: Ruxandra Cesereanu

Gulag si Holocaust in constiinta romaneasca
– Context  European si mondial –

Proiectul “Gulag si Holocaust in constiinta romaneasca – Context european si mondial” vizeaza doua momente cheie din traumele politice ce au marcat Europa in secolul XX. De-abia dupa prabusirea comunismului, Romania a putut sa isi recupereze memoria trecutului recent si sa isi evalueze pozitia fata de acesta. Pe de o parte, numai in ultimii ani, datorita infiintarii unei Comisii de Studiere a Holocaustului in Romania, s-a reusit elaborarea unui Raport emblematic pentru victimele regimului fascist din Romania din perioada 1940-1944. Pe de alta parte, trecutul comunist al romanilor si ranile produse de acesta sunt luate abia acum in vizor in mod adecvat, contabilizand perioada 1944-1989. 
In acest sens, proiectul de fata propune o panorama sintetica a reactiilor sociale, politice, morale ale romanilor fata de cele doua tare ale secolului XX, comunismul si nazismul. El pune in dezbatere chestiunea totalitarismului, cu cele doua extreme ale sale (stanga si dreapta), intr-un demers comparatist de anvergura, folosind ca model, pe de o parte Raportul Elie Wiesel pentru Holocaust, iar pe de alta parte studiile lui Stephane Courtois (autorul Cartii negre a comunismului), care a sintetizat intr-o ampla cercetare informatiile despre toate Gulagurile comuniste. 
Proiectul prevede ca, in cadrul Centrului de Cercetare a Imaginarului de la Facultatea de Litere, sa functioneze doua ateliere, unul investigand Holocaustul, iar celalalt Gulagul romanesc, precum si reactiile fata de acestea la nivelul autoritatilor si al mentalitatii publice. Un al treilea atelier se va ocupa cu realizarea unui film documentar despre supravietuitorii Gulagului si Holocaustului in Romania. Demersul este pluridisciplinar, iar strategia vizeaza integrarea cercetarii romanesti in cercetarea internationala de varf, aducand o contributie proprie la analiza violentelor politice, etnice si rasiale din secolul trecut, avand in vedere ca secolul XXI continua sa fie marcat de memoria acestor traume.

Termenii Gulag si Holocaust (un termen echivalent pentru Holocaust este acela de Shoah) au devenit astazi emblematici pentru ideea de extremism de stanga si de dreapta. Este vorba despre niste termeni-efigie, deoarece continutul lor s-a amplificat fata de acceptia originara. Astfel, Gulagul (termenul este preluat din limba rusa si semnifica Directia Generala de Munca a Lagarelor din URSS) este utilizat metonimic pentru a desemna spatiul prototipal al detentiei comuniste sub toate formele ei (lagar de munca, inchisoare, colonii de munca, deportare). Holocaustul (termenul provine din ebraica si inseamna Sacrificiu) este utilizat pentru a desemna spatiul si timpul (dar si metoda) in care au fost exterminati in principal evreii odata cu instaurarea regimurilor de tip nazist, inainte si in timpul celui de-al doilea razboi mondial. Daca in cazul Gulagului s-au folosit metode variate, Holocaustul are drept specific metoda de exterminare in special a evreilor prin intermediul camerelor de gazare (de aici, propunerea, venita din partea unor istorici dupa care termenul Holocaust insemnand Sacrificiu este inadecvat, intrucit evreii nu s-au sacrificat singuri, ci au fost sacrificati, ca respectivul termen sa fie inlocuit cu cel de Shoah, care inseamna Catastrofa). 
Paralela intre comunism si nazism este binevenita pentru a intelege sistemul totalitar si consecintele sale. Istoricul acestui paralelism este sinuos, insa, de-a lungul secolelor XX si XXI. Dupa incheierea celui de-al doilea razboi mondial a existat o punere in pagina a celor doua totalitarisme, apoi, de la jumatatea secolului XX, Holocaustul a fost proclamat a fi oroarea secolului, paralelismul intre Gulag si Holocaust fiind considerat inadecvat. La sfarsitul secolului XX si inceputul secolului XXI au inceput sa apara cercetari care demonstrau ca cele doua extremisme au mai multe puncte comune decat deosebiri. In acest sens, s-a sustinut si demonstrat ca Pactul Ribbentrop-Molotov, intre Germania nazista si imperiul sovietic stalinist, nu a fost o intamplare, ci a subliniat tocmai afinitatile celor doua isme si ingemanarea lor. Acest pact a demonstrat o reflectare in oglinda a comunismului si nazismului. Obsesia pentru puritate ideologica ori rasiala si solutia lichidarii adversarilor vizau si intr-un caz si in celalalt confectionarea unui om nou pe care atat comunismul cat si nazismul ravneau sa-l obtina in eprubeta social-politica a vremurilor respective. 
Hannah Arendt, in Originile totalitarismului (1951), a fost cel dintai cercetator care a facut paralela intre comunism si nazism, intre Gulag si Holocaust, considerand ca acestea au depins decisiv de panslavism, respectiv de pangermanism. Hannah Arendt a deconstruit structura comunismului si nazismului prin intermediul catorva coeficienti precum existenta maselor atomizate, functionarea propagandei, teroarea, existenta Partidului Unic, existenta Conducatorului ca lider totalitar, existenta Politiei politice si functionarea sistemului concentrationar. Alti analisti de marca, precum Alain Besancon (1980), Francois Furet (1995) si Ernst Nolte, au facut, la sfarsitul secolului XX, acelasi paralelism. Alain Besancon, in Nenorocirea secolului. Despre comunism, nazism si unicitatea Shoahului, a evidentiat faptul ca deconstructia nazismului a beneficiat de o bibliografie impresionanta la nivel international, in timp ce aceea a comunismului a fost deficitara. Alain Besancon a fost interesat in analiza sa comparativa de o paralela amanuntita intre comunism si nazism la nivel de represiune, factorii comparati fiind concentrarea victimelor in spatii aparte, operatiunile mobile de ucidere, tehnica masacrului (promovata atat de comunismul de tip leninist-stalinist, cat si de nazismul de tip hitlerist), deportarea, executia judiciara, anonimatul impus victimelor si reducerea acestora la conditia de cifra, distrugerea morala, mentala si sufleteasca a victimelor. Un alt istoric, Pierre Chaunu, a afirmat ca bolsevismul si nazismul au constituit niste gemeni heterozigoti, iar asertiunea sa a facut cariera in istoria paralelismului adecvat intre cele doua extremisme. In ceea ce ii priveste pe Francois Furet (autorul lucrarii Trecutul unei iluzii) si Ernst Nolte (autorul lucrarii Fascismul in epoca sa, 1963), acestia au sustinut la sfarsitul secolului XX o celebra polemica pe marginea comunismului si nazismului, publicata sub titlul Fascism si comunism. Polemica (1998) a pornit de la afirmatia lui Ernst Nolte cum ca nazismul ar fi fost o reactie stricta la comunism si ca, daca comunismul leninisto-stalinist nu ar fi existat, nici nazismul hitlerist nu ar fi luat nastere. Francois Furet a respins vehement aceasta idee, precizand faptul ca o catastrofa istorica (precum nazismul) nu poate fi explicata cauzal prin intermediul altei catastrofe istorice (comunismul). 
In ultima decada, cercetarile au capatat noi nuante. Spre exemplu, la inceputul mileniului trei un alt cercetator, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, a publicat lucrarea Noi mituri. De la Nietzsche la Stalin (2001), in care sustine ca filosofia supraomului (care a fost de obicei atasata strict nazismului) este valabila si pentru bolsevici. Atat comunismul, cat si nazismul au incercat sa inculce ideea de om nou, indusa ideologic, dar si practicata cu forta, prin intermediul unui entuziasm ideologic destructiv la nivelul societatii. In Romania, doua reviste cu precadere au publicat texte de comparatism politic despre comunism si nazism, este vorba de revistele 22 si Observator Cultural. Alaturi de acestea as mai mentiona, de asemenea, revistele Memoria, Magazin istoric si nu in ultimul rand Caietele Echinox. Revista 22 a publicat, de pilda, in 2003, eseul cercetatorului Martin Malia, preluat din The National Interest, si intitulat tocmai Despre nazism si comunism. Martin Malia afirma ca indiferent de ideologie, genocidul este genocid, si ca intre comunism si nazism exista un semn de egalitate din acest punct de vedere. Intre cercetatorii romani care s-au pronuntat asupra unei paralele intre comunism si nazism, comparand implicit Holocaustul si Gulagul (la nivelul memoriei ororii) trebuie amintit in mod special Caius Dobrescu, al carui eseu intitulat chiar Holocaust si Gulag, publicat in 2004, in revista Observator Cultural, a fost binevenit pentru analiza profunda implicata la nivel de mentalitate. Caius Dobrescu este interesat, in analiza sa, mai ales de receptarea occidentala a Holocaustului (versus nereceptarea Gulagului in spatiul occidental, decat la nivel minimal) si, in oglinda, de receptarea Gulagului in Estul european (versus nereceptarea Holocaustului decat la nivel minimal in fostele tari comuniste). Tensiunea nascuta intre comemorarea Holocaustului, demonstreaza Caius Dobrescu, si comemorarea Gulagului nu este doar o disfunctie de suprafata, o neintelegere pasagera, ci reveleaza o diferenta profunda de dispozitii interioare, de modele de comprehensiune si de identificare empatica tinand de forme de societate in care secularizarea a luat cursuri diferite. Ceea ce desparte cele doua pozitii este modalitatea in care suferinta provocata a fost conceputa, rememorata si retraita pana astazi. Un alt autor care a incercat o sinteza, e adevarat, doar asupra regimurilor comuniste si a ororilor produse de acestea, este Vladimir Tismaneanu in volumul sau Stalinism pentru eternitate (2005). De altfel Tismaneanu a fost numit, in aprilie 2006, de catre presedintele Traian Basescu, in functia de coordonator al unui colectiv de istorici menit sa intocmeasca un Raport privind victimele comunismului din Romania.
Prin proiectul Gulag si Holocaust in constiinta romaneasca – Context european si mondial, propus in cadrul Centrului de Cercetare a Imaginarului de la Facultatea de Litere, se urmareste racordarea la cercetarile de mentalitate de ultima ora, care sa explice traumele declansate de functionarea totalitarismului cu cele doua directii ale sale. Proiectul are ca scop initial realizarea unui simpozion international pe tema propusa, si, ca scop final, realizarea unei baze de date la nivel national si international, necesara intelegerii problematicii complexe a urmarilor legate de violentele politice, rasiale, etnice. Interactiunea culturala, protectia drepturilor fundamentale ale omului, lupta impotriva rasismului si intolerantei, construirea unui climat de intelegere si respect reciproc privind unitatea si diversitatea culturala, globalizarea cunoasterii, afirmarea libertatii umane sunt alti coeficienti luati in dezbatere. Nu in ultimul rand, proiectul de fata atinge arii tematice prioritare precum politica externa a Romaniei, modele de integrare europeana, relatia intre cultura romaneasca si cultura europeana, politici regionale si politici europene, relatia intre identitatea nationala si identitatea europeana.

Cele doua ateliere de cercetare din cadrul Proiectului Gulag si Holocaust in constiinta romaneasca – Context european si mondial, precum si cele doua mastere presupun o etapizare a metodologiilor de lucru, fapt care permite o reala initiere a masteranzilor si doctoranzilor in cercetarea de inalta performanta.
Astfel, intr-o prima faza, de strangere de date, echipele de lucru vor aplica metodele cercetarii bibliografice, anume cercetarea colectiilor de reviste la biblioteca, fisarea articolelor, clasarea lor pe diferite criterii (cronologic, tematic, alfabetic).
Intr-o a doua faza, aceste seturi de fise vor fi introduse in baze electronice de date, operatie ce presupune un nou set de operatii, anume conceperea unui program de gestiune a datelor si a unor motoare de cautare, introducerea datelor pe calculator, constituirea unor indici pe baza unor tipuri de cautari diferite, publicarea bazei de date pe website.
A treia faza consta in interpretarea teoretica a acestor date. Aceasta presupune folosirea unor metode precum studiile culturale, istoria ideilor si a mentalitatilor, psihoistorie, istorie, sociologie, mitanaliza, politologie, jurnalism. Pentru aceasta va fi nevoie de o pregatire teoretica adecvata, asigurata de cursurile predate in cadrul masterelor, precum si de o bibliografie tematica. Conducatorii de ateliere si de mastere vor asigura nu doar o lista de titluri, ci si un reader si, in masura posibilitatilor, exemplare si fotocopii ale principalelor titluri in domeniu. 
Prin organizarea unui simpozion international, precum si prin conferintele individuale sustinute de cercetatori straini la Cluj sau cercetatori romani in strainatate se va crea un flux de informatie si o integrare a cercetarii romanesti in tendintele mondiale si europene legate de tema Gulagului si a Holocaustului.
Centrul de Cercetare a Imaginarului va coopera direct cu Institutul de Istorie Orala, atat in ce priveste baza de date, cercetarea bibliografica, fisarea etc, cat si in privinta celor doua mastere. Facultatea de Teatru si Televiziune va fi implicata in mod direct in realizarea filmului documentar cu supravietuitorii Gulagului si Golocaustului in Romania.

<< Programe de Cercetare

IMAGINARUL ROMANESC / IMAGINARUL EUROPEAN
Grant CNCSIS 2005-2007

Abstract
The project Romanian Imaginary / European Imaginary designed by the Center for Imagination Studies at the Faculty of Letters in Cluj addresses the priority fields number 7 and 8 from CNCSIS research agenda. On the one hand, it assesses the conditions and the opportunities of the cultural integration of Romania into the European Community; on the other hand, in doing this, it makes use of the methodologies of cultural and artistic cognition. Its core concept is the imaginary or the imagination (the English language does not have a plain and obvious translation for the French word imaginaire). This concept was coined by philosophers such as Gaston Bachelard and Gilbert Durand and has been developed by contemporary scholars such as Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Michel Maffesoli, Philippe Walter, Joël Thomas, Pierre Brunel, etc.
The objective of the project is to construct a cluster of five research programs in order to draw up a map of the Romanian cultural identity in a European context. For this, the Center has to organize five research teams (which already exist in an incipient form): Balkan Imaginary (coordinator Mircea Muthu), Romanian Historical Imagination (coordinator Ovidiu Pecican), Social Imagination (coordinator Stefan Borbely), Political and Ideological Imagination (coordinator Ruxandra Cesereanu) and Religious Imagination (coordinator Corin Braga).
By working out this program, our Center aims at being included in EURIMAG, a vast project (the Encyclopedia of the European Imaginaries) planned by the GRECO-CRI (Groupes de Recherches Coordonnees – Centres de Recherches sur l’Imaginaire) network. Our Center has joined this network, consisting of 35 laboratories worldwide, since 2002. By this joint work, Romanian scholarship integrates international top research, contributing its own expertise to an inter-disciplinary analysis of the European multicultural imaginary.

Conceptul de imaginar este un concept central pentru analiza comportamentului uman individual si de grup. O traditie filosofica apasat intelectualista a impus ideea ca omul este o fiinta rationala, ale carei actiuni depind de mecanisme perfect logice, reductibile la diagrame inteligibile. Or, acest mit al rationalitatii nu descrie o realitate ci mai degraba un ideal, o utopie antropologica. Pentru a intelege, a anticipa si eventual a influenta si dirija conduitele persoanelor si ale grupurilor trebuie investigate motivatiile lor inconstiente, continuturile imaginare si simbolice, incarcaturile emotionale etc. Cercetarea imaginarului vine sa suplineasca aceasta lacuna majora din filosofia si psihologia europeana. Situate intre perceptie si ratiune, intre reprezentarea senzoriala si notiunea intelectuala, imaginile, simbolurile, fantasmele constituie un substrat fara de care nu poate fi inteleasa activitatea psihicului (Cf. Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Filozofia imaginilor, 2004). 
Stiinta moderna a imaginarului a fost fondata la jumatatea secolului XX, prin eforturile unor filosofi, teoreticieni si istorici ai religiilor precum Gaston Bachelard, Henry Corbin, Mircea Eliade, Charles Baudouin, Charles Mauron, Gilbert Durand si altii. Ei au abordat imaginatia dintr-o perspectiva complexa, menita sa-i puna in evidenta natura specifica, mecanismele de generare, de functionare si de transmitere, relatiile sinestezice, simbolice si logice pe care le intretine cu perceptiile, amintirile si ideile, rolul si functiile sale in cadrul psihismului individual si al celui colectiv, concretizarile sale psihologice, sociale sau artistice. In ultimii cincizeci de ani, cercetarea imaginarului s-a impus ca o disciplina de varf atat in stiintele naturii (psihologie), prin explorarea functiilor somnului REM (Rapid Eyes Mouvement), somnul paradoxal, somnul cu vise, cat si in antropologie si in stiintele umaniste, prin crearea unor metode de investigare a imaginarului colectiv, cum ar fi mitanaliza, mitocritica, psihocritica, arhetipologia generala, imagologia.
In ultimele decade, o data cu dezvoltarea societatii postmoderne, relevanta si importanta acestor cercetari a crescut in mod vertiginos. Lumea actuala evolueaza spre ceea ce se numeste satul global, o societate in care, la fel cum locuitorii satului traditional cunosteau toate intamplarile importante din localitate, oamenii din toate partile lumii pot primi, prin canalele mediatice, informatii despre orice eveniment, desfasurat in orice colt al pamantului. Spre deosebire insa de satul traditional, unde transmiterea acestor informatii era directa, interpersonala, nemediata, in satul global informatia este indirecta, mediata, transformata. Sistemul mondial de reclame, retelele de distributie internationala a filmelor, ziarele si revistele cu circulatie universala, televiziunile prin cablu si prin satelit, Internetul, toate aceste instrumente mediatice nu mai furnizeaza imagini perceptive ale indivizilor si evenimentelor, ci doar imagini imaginare, imagini procesate in studiouri si redactii. Aceste imagini devin capabile sa transporte mesaje suplimentare, subliminale, expuse manipularii comerciale sau ideologice. Campaniile politice si razboaiele electronice, modele si sistemul de promovare a vedetelor sunt niste exemple banale in ceea ce priveste felul in care imaginile ne influenteaza si modeleaza viziunea asupra realitatii.
In fata acestor noi provocari teoretice, in Europa a aparut o noua generatie de cercetatori ai imaginarului, cum sunt Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Michel Maffesoli, Philippe Walter, Joël Thomas, Pierre Brunel, Helder Godihno, Paul Carmignani, Claude-Gilbert Dubois, Jacques Boulogne etc. Pornind de la modelul Centrului de Cercetare a Imaginarului creat de Gilbert Durand la Grenoble la sfarsitul anilor 60, acesti cercetatori precum si alti omologi ai lor din diverse tari ale Europei au creat o retea de Centre de cercetare a imaginarului in Franta, Spania, Portugalia, Italia, Belgia, Elvetia, Polonia, Grecia si Romania. Centrul de cercetare a imaginarului de la Facultatea de Litere din Cluj a fost integrat in aceasta retea incepind din anul 2002. 
Reteaua GRECO-CRI (Goupes de Recherches Coordonnees – Centres de Recherches sur l’imaginaire) a pus la punct o strategie de cercetare colectiva. O serie de simpozioane desfasurate la sfarsitul anilor 90 sub patronajul lui Gilbert Durand au redefinit conceptul de imaginar, campul de prioritati si metodologiile de lucru ale disciplinei. Aceste directii au fost sistematizate in volume precum Introduction aux methodologies de l’imaginaire (1998). Coordonatorul volumului, Joël Thomas, defineste spre exemplu imaginarul ca un sistem, un dinamism organizator al imaginilor, care le confera profunzime legandu-le intre ele. Imaginarul nu este asadar o colectie de imagini aditionate, un corpus, ci o retea in care sensul rezida in relatie. O asemenea definitie dinamica, reticulara, este capabila sa revolutioneze stiintele umaniste si face din cercetarea europeana a imaginarului o prioritate mondiala, fara echivalent in studiile de peste ocean.

Proiectul Imaginarul romanesc / Imaginarul european propus de Centrul de Cercetare a Imaginarului de la Facultatea de Litere din Cluj vizeaza in egala masura domeniile prioritare 7 si 8 din nomenclatorul CNCSIS. Pe de o parte, el evalueaza premisele si conditiile integrarii culturale a Romaniei in Comunitatea Europeana, pe de alta parte, o face folosind metodele cunoasterii prin arta si cultura.
Constructia comunitatii europene, primirea de noi membri, conditiile si modalitatea integrarii acestora, constituie probleme complexe ce necesita analize nuantate si multidisciplinare. Spre deosebire de Statele Unite ale Americii, tarile Europei alcatuiesc un conglomerat de natiuni si de etnii despartite de limbi, de istorii, de obiceiuri, de traditii economice si politice, de culturi, religii, literaturi si arte puternic personalizate. La fel cum exista o stiinta ecologica a mediului ambiant, la fel se poate concepe o ecologie a reprezentarilor mentale specifice membrilor unor colectivitati. Europa este o asemenea macro-colectivitate care necesita o analiza a ecologiei sale imaginare pentru a-i putea intelege atitudinile si comportamentele. Indivizii si grupurile reactioneaza in egala masura la stimulii exteriori, materiali, fizici, economici, geografici, si la imaginile interne pe care oamenii si le fac despre sine, despre familie, despre stat, despre locul lor in lume. 
Tarile Europei de Est, aflate intr-o perioada de tranzitie, lipsite de niste repere social-politice ferme, sunt in mod special vulnerabile la manipularile imagistice. Balcanii in special s-au dovedit a fi o zona foarte instabila, in care mesajele ideologice au avut un efect devastator asupra mentalului colectiv. Toate discursurile agresive, care conduc in mod potential la explozii de violenta, confruntari si razboaie, sunt in primul rand de natura simbolica si vizuala. Cele mai puternice efecte in declansarea unor psihoze colective il au nu atat programele elaborate, discursurile rationale, cat imaginile simbolice (steaguri, statui, afise etc.), fotografiile de ziar si reportajele de televiziune. Cercetarea imaginarului are drept sarcina elaborarea unor metodologii stiintifice capabile sa patrunda mecanismele manipularii fantasmatice.
Toate domeniile culturii reprezinta din acest punct de vedere niste revelatori ai identitatii de grup a diverselor popoare. O analiza spectrala a acestor domenii, a constelatiilor imaginare specifice fiecarei culturi, permite formalizarea si cuantificare diferentelor, gruparea lor sub concepte operative. Ce impinge anumite natiuni sau populatii sa doreasca sau sa respinga integrarea europeana? Care sunt tensiunile, nu atat materiale, cat mai ales imaginare si simbolice, care determina adaptarea sau inadaptarea anumitor grupuri etnice sau religioase (cum sunt musulmanii, rromii etc.) in tarile de adoptiune? Care sunt reactiile nu mai putin imaginare, stereotipiile si prejudecatile localnicilor fata de noii venitii? Unor asemenea intrebari le poate da raspunsuri doar o abordare globala a imaginarului european. 
Cercetarea multidisciplinara a imaginarului romanesc, in tabloul mai larg al imaginarului european, ar permite asadar stabilirea asemanarilor si diferentelor culturale dintre romani si celelalte natiuni comunitare. Ea face posibila delimitarea identitatii noastre nationale in cadrul celorlalte identitati europene, aratind liniile de convergenta, ce fac posibila integrarea, si cele de divergenta, ce pot duce la discrepante si disensiuni. Inteleasa la nivelul simbolic al imaginarului, cultura se dovedeste astfel a fi un factor esential si inevitabil, desi destul de putin inteles si explorat, pentru integrarea euro-atlantica a Romaniei.

Proiectul vizeaza compatibilizarea activitatilor de cercetare ale Centrului de Cercetare a Imaginarului din Cluj in vederea integrarii sale intr-un program european initiat de centrele din reteaua GRECO-CRI. Intitulat Images of Europe / Les imaginaires européens (EURIMAG), acest program isi propune realizarea unei panorame sau enciclopedii a imaginarului european sub multiplele sale fatete. El prevede organizarea a doisprezece ateliere tematice, inchinate imaginarului istoric, geografic, etnic, politic, mediatic, tehnico-stiintific, literar, artistic, religios, cotidian, educational si imagologic (imaginea celuilalt). Coordonatorii celor doisprezece ateliere urmeaza sa intre in contact cu o serie de responsabili reprezentind fiecare tara a Europei, pentru ca acestia sa le intermedieze relatia cu specialisti din tara respectiva pentru fiecare domeniu. 
Centrul clujean va constitui punctul de contact pentru Romania al consortiului EURIMAG. Pentru aceasta, prin prezentul proiect, Centrul urmareste (re)organizarea activitatii sale in cinci ateliere, care intr-o forma sau alta functioneaza deja, insa cu mijloace financiare insuficiente. Cele cinci ateliere sunt:

1. Imaginarul balcanic
Coordonator: Prof. dr. Mircea Muthu 
Sud-Estul Europei si Balcanii constituie un material de studiu deosebit de bogat atat pentru politolog si sociolog, cat si pentrul istoricul ideilor si al mentalitatilor. Aflat la rascrucea istorica a mai multor imperii (roman, bizantin, otoman, habsburgic, tarist si sovietic), acest spatiu s-a constituit ca un adevarat melting pot, in care influentele culturale si elementele de civilizatie s-au hibridat in moduri neasteptate. Tipologic, se poate vorbi de un homo balcanicus, rezultatul unor anumite combinatii de factori etnici, religiosi, politici, istorici, educationali si culturali. 
Complexitatea omului balcanic a fost insa rareori inteleasa in toate nuantele si implicatiile ei. Cel mai adesea, atat Occidentul cat si localnicii au folosit formule simplificatoare, devenite stereotipuri si clisee (bizantinism, balcanism etc.), cu efect depreciativ. A cerceta complexitatea reala a acestui tip ar permite o mai buna intelegere a reactiilor unor populatii pe care politica internationala a dovedit ca nu le intelege si nu le stapaneste. Balcanologia se poate releva a fi nu doar o stiinta teoretica, de morfologie culturala, ci si una politica si sociologica, atat de necesara in aceasta zona instabila si fragila, care a ramas, dupa cum a dovedit-o deceniul care a trecut, tot un butoi de pulbere al Europei.
Prin lucrarile sale dedicate balcanologiei, in special prin trilogia Balcanism literar romanesc (Dacia, 2002), Mircea Muthu se inscrie intre cercetatorii de renume mondial care s-au ocupat de deconstructia si reinventarea conceptului de sud-est european, cum sunt Maria Todorova si Larry Wolf.

2. Imaginarul istoric
Coordonator: Prof. Ovidiu Pecican
Cercetarile actuale disting intre o istorie a imaginarului si un imaginar al istoriei. Multa vreme, istoria a fost inteleasa ca un tablou al evenimentelor politice, militare, sociale si economice succesive, ca un inventar al faptelor asa-zis obiective. Totusi, desi este adevarat ca individul si grupurile reactioneaza la evenimentele externe, istoriografia din ultimul deceniu a pus in evidenta faptul ca aceste evenimente sunt receptate ca imagini interioare, fiind asadar profund modelate de categoriile imaginatiei. Mai multi analisti ai imaginarului istoric au putut astfel degaja miturile, fantasmele, stereotipiile colective care au prezidat momentele majore ale istoriei, de la Revolutia franceza la totalitarismele fasciste si comuniste. Un pionier al acestei noi abordari este, la noi, istoricul Lucian Boia. Folosind conceptul lui Pierre Nora de locuri ale memoriei, Ovidiu Pecican desfasoara o cercetare similara, soldata cu publicarea mai multor volume precum Realitati imaginate si fictiuni adevarate in Evul Mediu Romanesc (2002).
Fiecare stat si fiecare grup national are propria sa imagine asupra istoriei. Cum arata miturile romanesti asupra originilor in comparatie cu cele franceze, germane sau maghiare? Cum percep romanii, prin contrast cu celelalte popoare europene, mari momente ale istoriei cum au fost cruciadele, caderea Bizantului, revolutiile burgheze, razboaiele mondiale, prabusirea imperiului sovietic, terorismul international? Perspectiva romanilor asupra istoriei nu poate sa lipseasca dintr-un volum enciclopedic inchinat imaginarului istoric.

3. Imaginarul politic. Imaginea Occidentului in Romania comunista
Coordonator: Prof. Stefan Borbely
Proiectul reprezinta prima incercare autohtona de a sintetiza interdisciplinar strategiile reprezentationale ale imaginatiei politice ostile promovate de catre mass media din Romania in perioada Razboiului Rece. Imaginea negativa a Statelor Unite din vremea respectiva nu reprezinta doar o parte a recuzitei de stereotipii cu care propaganda comunista a infruntat capitalismul ca model social si economic, ci o strategie privilegiata de circumscriere a inamicului exponential, in contextul lumii politice bipolare care s-a conturat dupa terminarea celui de-al doilea razboi mondial. 
Structurat pe trei dimensiuni principale de lucru, proiectul isi propune sa investigheze urmatoarele domenii de cercetare: Conceptualizarea teoretica a imaginatiei ostile; Analiza canalelor sale politice si psihologice de persuasiune publica; Analiza comparata a imaginilor Statelor Unite din documentele si mentalitatea publica a tuturor tarilor din fostul bloc rasaritean, inclusiv Uniunea Sovietica; Analiza diacronica a modalitatilor prin care stereotipiile imaginatiei ostile orientate impotriva Statelor Unite s-au conturat in viata publica romaneasca in timpul celor doua segmente autohtone ale Razboiului Rece (1945-1964, respectiv 1964-1991). 
Reprezentant in Romania al Asociatiei internationale de Psihoistorie, Stefan Borbely a condus deja mai multe echipe de masteranzi pe teme cum sunt Reconstituirea Festivalului Mondial al Tineretului din 1953 (2003) sau Tito si titoismul (2004) si a publicat o serie de studii in acest sens, cu precadere in Caietele Echinox.

4. Imaginarul social si mediatic
Coordonator: Conf. Ruxandra Cesereanu
Era informatica a schimbat radical modul de raportare a individului la lume si la societate. Revolutia imaginii si aparitia ciberspatiului a dublat lumea reala cu o lume virtuala, cu o lume de imagini care nu respecta foarte exact originalul. Studiile asupra comunicarii fac posibila intelegerea mecanismelor si legilor de constructie a imaginarului social. Care sunt diferentele dintre evenimentele traite si scenele fotografiate sau filmate, cum actioneaza reclamele asupra inconstientului public, care este plaja de receptare si de rezistenta a diferitelor grupuri in fata colonizarilor imaginare, cum creeaza marile productii cinematografice si sistemul starurilor miturile contemporane ale eroului, care este rolul campaniilor publicitare in orientarea gustului public? 
Conferentiar la Facultatea de Jurnalism, Ruxandra Cesereanu a explorat mai multe asemenea teme in volume individuale cum este Imaginarul violent al romanilor (2003) sau coordonand activitatea unor echipe de studenti soldate cu volume colective cum este Farame, cioburi, aschii dintr-o Curte a Miracolelor. Flashuri despre graffiti, prostitutie, copiii strazii, cersetorie, vagabondaj, fenomenul homeless, batranii din azil (2004).

5. Imaginarul religios
Coordonator: Conf. Corin Braga
Inainte ca viziunea pozitivista si atee sa produca desvrajirea lumii moderne, civilizatiile umane au perceput timp de milenii universul prin prisma unei viziuni religioase. Multi oameni continua sa o faca si astazi, fiind demonstrat faptul ca ateismele si scientismele contemporane nu sunt decat forme deghizate si deturnate de comportamente religioase. Relativismul postmodern ne-a invatat chiar mai mult, si anume ca nu ne mai putem permite sa judecam viziunile religioase ca iluzorii si pernicioase, ca forme inferioare de cunoastere. Dimpotriva, in calitate de sisteme explicative ale lumii, ele constituie niste complexe cognitive complete si auto-suficiente. Ele sunt niste modele alternative care alcatuiesc un rezervor pretios de sugestii si solutii in special pentru momentele cand sistemele dominante intra in impas. Daca dorim sa pastram nu doar bogatia diverselor culturi europene, ci insasi disponibilitatea noastra de a schimba punctele de vedere (atitudine atat de necesara in contextul actual al globalizarii), trebuie sa invatam sa folosim istoria religiilor, antropologia si etnologia ca instrumente de creare a unui subiect multiplu. 
Corin Braga s-a aplecat asupra dinamicii miturilor si simbolurilor religioase prin volumele sale dedicate arhetipurilor si anarhetipurilor (1999, 2004).

Centrul de Cercetare a Imaginarului isi propune sa desfasoare, pe parcursul a trei ani, 5 programe de cercetare. Obiectivele urmarite in cadrul fiecarui proiect anual urmaresc realizarea unor activitati combinate de cercetare, predare, difuzare si publicare a rezultatelor obtinute, precum si de asigurare a bazei materiale si de cheltuieli de capital.
Implicarea membrilor Centrului de cercetare a imaginarului si responsabilitatile care le revin fiecaruia:

1. Directorul Centrului
– Initiaza proiectul Centrului si asigura compatibilizarea lui cu proiectul international EURIMAG
– Asigura coordonarea tuturor activitatilor si legatura dintre responsabili si membri
– Asigura partea administrativ-financiara a proiectului, impreuna cu responsabilii din institutiile colaboratoare

2. Coordonatorii de ateliere:
– Organizeaza echipele de masteranzi si doctoranzi
– Prezinta baza teoretica si metodologia cercetarii
– Impart sarcinile de lucru
– Supravegheaza activitatea de cercetare si redactare
– Coordoneaza lucrarile de dizertatie si textele produse de membrii echipelor
– Organizeaza ateliere, simpozioane si conferinte ale atelierelor respective

3. Masteranzii si doctoranzii cuprinsi in echipele de cercetare:
– fac cercetarea de biblioteca si teoretica a temei atelierului respectiv
– introduc aceste informatii pe calculator, in vederea intocmirii bazelor de date
– isi prezinta rezultatele sub forma de dezbateri, seminarii, simpozioane, lucrari de examen si de licenta etc.
– redacteaza studii care vor fi publicate in volume tematice ale Caietele Echinox

4. Responsabilii diverselor activitati conexe:
– Seful Catedrei de Literatura Comparata (conf. Corin Braga) asigura, impreuna cu profesorii conducatori de doctorate cu frecventa (prof. Mircea Muthu, prof. Ion Vartic, prof. Vasile Voia), repartizarea doctoranzilor cu frecventa ai catedrei in atelierele de cercetare
– Directorul de studii al Masterului Istoria imaginilor – Istoria ideilor (prof. Vasile Voia) asigura, impreuna cu directorii de ateliere (prof. Mircea Muthu, prof. Stefan Borbély, conf. Ruxandra Cesereanu, prof. Ovidiu Pecican, conf. Corin Braga), organizarea echipelor de masteranzi in cadrul atelierelor
– Directorul Cercului Eranos (prof. Stefan Borbely) organizeaza sedintele si dezbaterile pe marginea temelor cercetate
– Seful Catedrei de Literatura Comparata, impreuna cu ceilalti participanti la proiect, se ocupa de organizarea simpozionului internation GRECO-CRI si a conferintelor individuale
– Directorii Caietelor Echinox (conf. Corin Braga, prof. Stefan Borbely) coordoneaza editarea si publicarea numerelor tematice rezultate din activitatile atelierelor
– Directorul colectiei Mundus Imaginalis de la editura Dacia (conf. Corin Braga) se ocupa de publicarea volumelor rezultate din cercetare
– Administratorul Websiteului Centrului de Cercetare a Imaginarului (Florin Stefan Morar) prelucreaza si afiseaza bazele electronice de date

<< Programe de Cercetare

Université Babeş-Bolyai, Cluj, Roumanie 
Faculté des Lettres

Centre de Recherches sur l’Imaginaire
www.lett.ubbcluj.ro/~phantasma
Directeur: Corin Braga

Programme
du
Colloque international
Les imaginaires européens
Cluj, 22-24 septembre 2005

Jeudi, 22 septembre 2005 :

9h-10h30. Séance I. Salle Aula Magna. Université Babes-Bolyai
Ouverture du Colloque
Allocutions :
Andrei MARGA, Le Président du Conseil Académique de l’Université Babeş-Bolyai
Emil Boc, Le Maire de Cluj-Napoca
Mircea Muthu, Le Doyen de la Faculté des Lettres
Corin Braga, Le Directeur du Centre de Recherches sur l’Imaginaire

Conférence inaugurale :
Jean-Jacques Wunenburger (Lyon, France), Le mythe de l’Europe, l’Europe du mythe

10h30-11h.
Pause café

11h-13h30. Séance II. Salle Aula Magna. Université Babes-Bolyai
Président de séance : Jean-Jacques Wunenburger
Remo Ceserani (Bologne, Italie), Denis De Rougemont and his idea of Europe
Michel VIEGNES (Grenoble, France), La Vision française de l’Europe, des ‘Etats-Unis d’Europe’ de Victor Hugo au Non a la constitution européenne 
Sorin Antohi (Budapest, Hongrie), Europes imaginaires: geographies symboliques et ontologies ethniques
Renato BOCCALI (Milan, Italie), L’Europe entre utopie et hétérotopie

15h-17h. Séance III. Salle Popovici. Faculté des Lettres
Présidente de séance : Myriam Watthee-Delmotte
Claude-Gilbert Dubois (Bordeaux, France), Les stratifications culturelles de l’imaginaire européen
Sorin Alexandrescu (Bucarest, Roumanie), Paysages européens: visualité et découverte de l’Autre 
Stella GHERVAS (Geneve, Suisse), Les valeurs peuvent-elles fonder un imaginaire européen?
Pierre ZIRKULI (Budapest, Hongrie), Les mots de l’Europe. Projet d’un dictionnaire plurilingue historico-sémantique

17h-17h30.
Pause café

17h30-19h30. Séance IV. Salle Popovici. Faculté des Lettres
Président de séance : Remo CESERANI
Alberto Filipe Ribeiro de Abreu ARAÚJO & Joaquim Domingues (Braga, Portugal), Des messages de l’imaginaire. Approches mythiques a la tradition lusitanienne
Laurence van Ypersele (Louvain, Belgique), Les figures du traître : I. L’imaginaire de la haine : la répression des inciviques belges, 1914-1918
Myriam Watthee-Delmotte (Louvain, Belgique), Les figures du traître : II. Les incidences littéraires : le questionnement éthique dans l’ouvre d’Henry Bauchau
Jean-Louis OLIVE (Perpignan, France), Projections européennes et ombres tsiganes, jeux et flux de territorialisation antagonistes

Vendredi, 23 septembre 2005:

I. Module français: Salle Popovici. Faculté des Lettres
9h-11h.  Séance Va.
Président de séance : Michel VIEGNES

Hugo Francisco BAUZÁ (Buenos Aires, Argentine), L’art funéraire romain et l’imaginaire européen

Paul CORNEA (Bucarest, Roumanie), Le Paradis des affamés : il Paese di Cucagna
Anna Caiozzo (Paris, France), L’image des Européens dans les représentations du Proche-Orient médiéval
Ionel BUSE (Craiova, Roumanie), Lieux mythiques: l’Atlantide de Platon

11h-11h30. 
Pause café

11h30-13h30.  Séance VIa.

Président de séance : Hugo Francisco BAUZÁ

Martine YVERNAULT (Limoges, France), Imaginaire et écriture du reve dans la littérature anglaise de la fin du XIVeme siecle

Denis Lopez (Bordeaux, France), Science ou imaginaire ? : représentations du Cosmos dans la littérature française du XVIIe siecle
Barbara Sosien, (Cracovie, Pologne), Pour un mythe romantique polonais: le héros solitaire ou la lutte solidaire? La victoire ou l’échec? 
Corina Moldovan (Cluj, Roumanie), Rhétoriques fin de siecle

II. Module anglais: Salle du Conseil. Faculté des Lettres
9h-11h. Séance Vb.
Président de séance : Thomas Alkemeyer

Andrei Oisteanu (Bucarest, Roumanie), Nations & Stereotypes. Ethnic and Ethic Characteristics

Stefan Borbély (Cluj, Roumanie), The Court Jester – Anthropology and power

Ovidiu PECICAN (Cluj, Roumanie), Between magnanimitas and blagorodie. Nobility in Romanian Middle Ages

11h-11h30. 
Pause café

11h30-13h30. Séance VIb.
Président de séance : Stefan Borbély
Boris Lanin (Moscou, Russie), Russian Utopia and Anti-Utopia at the Threshold of the Centuries 
Sabina Mihelj (Loughborough, Grande Bretagne), Mass Media and the Symbolic Geographies of Europe : The Case of Yugoslavia
Bojan Baskar (Ljubljana, Slovenie), Imagining the Balkans in Trieste

15h-18h. Discussions stratégiques. Salle Popovici. Faculté des Lettres
Modérateur : Corin BRAGA
EURIMAG. Le projet “Images, stéréotypes et préjugés de l’Europe”

18h-18h30.
Pause café

18h30-19h30.
Projet de Mastere ERASMUS MUNDUS.

18h.  Association des Ecrivains de Cluj (rue Universităţii 1) 
Lancement du livre de Andrei OiŞteanu, L’image du Juif dans la culture roumaine (traduction hongroise)

Samedi, 24 septembre 2005:

I. Module français : Salle Popovici. Faculté des Lettres
9h-11h30. Séance VIIa.

Président de séance : Paul CORNEA

Mircea MUTHU (Cluj, Roumanie), Quelques stéréotypes: balkanisme, byzantinisme, orientalisme
Boyan Manchev (Sofia, Bulgarie), La nouvelle Odyssée. Le continent et l’aventure
Ahmed BEN NAOUM (Perpignan, France), Une ambassade espagnole aupres de Timour Lang : perception et représentation de l’Islam non arabe par un voyageur européen du Moyen-Âge

Simona CORLAN-IOAN (Bucarest, Roumanie), Europe découvre les Terres inconnues. La construction de la nouvelle identité européenne pendant le XIXe siecle

Corin BRAGA (Cluj, Roumanie), Le < mythe noir > des Amériques : du < bon sauvage > a la < beste effarable >

11h30-12h.
Pause café

12h-14h.  Séance VIIIa.
Président de séance : Jean-Louis OLIVE

Gheorghe Lascu (Cluj, Roumanie), A propos du Roumain typique

Kazimierz Jurczak (Cracovie, Pologne), Les Roumains vus par les Polonais aujourd`hui. La tentative de rationalisation d`un stéréotype
Adriana BABETI (Timisoara, Roumanie), Imaginaire collectif aux confins. Mythes solaires, mythes ténébreux. Une étude de cas: le Banat
Ruxandra CESEREANU (Cluj, Roumanie), L’imaginaire de la banlieue (mahala) chez les Roumains

II. Module anglais: Salle du Conseil. Faculté des Lettres
9h-11h. Séance VIIb.
Président de séance : Sorin ALEXANDRESCU
Horea POENAR (Cluj, Roumanie), A Room with a View. World-Making Imagination
Thomas Alkemeyer (Oldenburg, Allemagne), The Embodiment of the Imaginary in Sport

Doru POP(Cluj, Roumanie), Birdie Mnum-Mnum. Self-Identity Change by Media Stereotypes

11h-11h30.
Pause café

11h30-13h30. Séance VIIIb.
Président de séance : Boris Lanin

Sanda BERCE (Cluj, Roumanie), The Change of the Narratological Imaginary in the British Contemporary Novel: the year 2000 and Beyond (A Hypothesis)

Mihaela URSA-POP (Cluj, Roumanie), Fictions of the Subject in Contemporary Imaginary of Literary Theory

Carmen Borbély (Cluj, Roumanie), Theriomorphic Bodies: (En)Gendering Monstrous Corporeality in Contemporary British Fiction

Apres-midi :
Visite de la ville. Guide : Radu Ardevan (Cluj, Roumanie)

Dîner-Cocktail

Partenaires:

Consiliul Local şi Primăria Municipiului Cluj-Napoca
Ministerul Educaţiei şi Cercetării
CNCSIS
Fundaţia Culturală Echinox
Il Café, Cluj

Title of the Project
FILMIC AND LITERATURE IMAGERY.
A CYBER-CULTURAL APPROACH

Proposers
Assoc. Prof. Ruxandra Cesereanu, Ph. D. (Cluj) & Assoc. Prof. Ion Manolescu, Ph. D. (Bucharest)

Host University 
Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Faculty of Letters
Department of Comparative Literature
Phantasma, The Center for Imagination Studies

Master Degree Course

Title – Filmic and Literature Imagery

Host – Assoc. Prof. Ruxandra Cesereanu, Ph.D. (Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Journalism; Faculty of Letters, Department of Comparative Literature)

Guest – Assoc. Prof. Ion Manolescu, Ph.D. (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters)

Syllabus

1. Image Theory and Practice in the Cinema. General Presentation. The Sacred Cinema – Sayat Nova by Serghei Paradjanov (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 7, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
2. Andrei Tarkovski – Nostalghia – Images of the East and the West (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 14, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
3. Federico Fellini – E la nave va – The Image of Europe before the First World War (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 21, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
4. Ingmar Bergman – The Seventh Seal – Images of the Middle Ages (Ruxandra Cesereanu, October 28, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
5. Lars von Trier – Europa – The Image of Europe after the Second World War (Ruxandra Cesereanu, 4 November, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
6. Wim Wenders – Der Himmel Uber Berlin – The Image of Europe during the Cold War (Ruxandra Cesereanu, November 11, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
7. An Introduction to Techno-Culture and Cyber-Culture (Ion Manolescu, November 18, 2005, 16:00-20:00)
8. Derek Jarman – Caravaggio – The Chiaroscuro Technique (Ruxandra Cesereanu, November 25, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
9. Alain Resnais – L’annee dernier a Marienbad – Pre-Postmodern Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, December 2, 2005, 16:00-19:00)
10. Cognitive Theory of the Mind Imaginary (Ion Manolescu, December 9, 2005, 16:00-20:00)
11. Alexandr Jodorowski – The Holy Mountain – Baroque Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, December 16, 2005, 16.00-19.00)
12. Peter Greenaway – The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover – Postmodern Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, January 6, 2006, 16:00-19:00)
13. The Status of Filmic Imagery in Cyber-Culture (Ion Manolescu, January 12, 2006, 16:00-20:00)
14. David Lynch – Mulholland Drive – Anarchetypical Image Techniques (Ruxandra Cesereanu, January 19, 2006, 16:00-19:00)
15. Conclusions of the Mind-Brain Debate in the Study of Imagery (Ion Manolescu, February 3, 2006, 16:00-18:00)

Description of the course

This course, entitled Filmic and Literature Imagery. A Cyber-Cultural Approach, is, starting with the 2005-2006 academic year, curricularly integrated in the “History of Ideas – History of Images” Master’s Degree program, which is jointly hosted by the Comparative Literature Department of the Faculty of Letters in Cluj, and by Phantasma, The Center for Imaginary Studies. This unique, experimental course represents a major breakthrough in the Romanian scholarly milieu on several accounts. First of all, it is an interdisciplinary course. Ruxandra Cesereanu brings a theoretical and practical perspective on image and visual culture, while Ion Manolescu introduces a cyber perspective on filmic and literary imagery, combining insights from recent theoretical developments in the areas of cognitive philosophy and psychology, with a primary focus on the mechanisms of mental image production. Furthermore, we have to emphasize that the cyber-cultural analysis of the iconic discourse is not as yet actively undertaken in any of the graduate programs of the Romanian Universities. It is for this reason that the course entitled “History of Filmic Imagery” represents a premiere. Last, but not least, the course successfully associates two outstanding Romanian academic institutions, the Universities of Bucharest and Cluj, as well as two different disciplinary perspectives in the field of visual culture, namely those of researchers Ruxandra Cesereanu and Ion Manolescu.

Objectives of the course

1. to present the theoretical paradigms of filmic imagery
2. to analyze, through case studies, some of the most important films (and directors) who have developed their own visual ars poetica 
3. to analyze the image of Europe through special films dedicated to this issue
4. to describe the techno-cultural processes which contributed to the refinement of cyber culture
5. to present and debate on cognitive theoretical insights into the origins of mental images
6. to discuss the status of filmic and literary imagery in cyber culture

Course Bibliography for Ruxandra Cesereanu

Baxter, John, Fellini, London, Fourth Estate, 1993 

Bergman, Ingmar, Images: My Life in Film, translated by Marianne Ruuth, London, Bloomsbury, 1994

Bergman, Ingmar, The Magic Lantern, translated by Joan Tate, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1988

Bondanella, Peter E., The films of Federico Fellini, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002
Burke, Frank, Fellini’s Films. From Postwar to Postmodern, London, Twayne Publishers, 1996
Cook, Roger, F., Gemunden, Gerd, Cinema of Wim Wenders – image, narrative and the postmodern condition, Wayne State University Press, 1997
De Baecque, Antoine, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ed. de l’Etoile, Paris 1989
Graf, Alexander, Cinema of Wim Wenders – the celluloid highway, Wallflower Press, 2002

Greenaway, Peter, Steinmetz, Leon, The World of Peter Greenaway, Journey Editions, Boston and Tokyo, 1995

Jarman, Derek, Caravaggio, London, Thames and Hudson, 1986

Lawrence, Amy, The Films of Peter Greenaway, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997
Le Fanu, Mark, The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, BFI, London 1987
Lippard, Chris, ed., By Angels Driven. The Films of Derek Jarman, Westport, Greenwood Press, 1996
Stevenson, Jack, Lars von Trier, University of California Press, 2002
Tarkovsky, Andrei, Sculpting in Time, Faber, London 1989
Tarkovsky, Andrei, Time within Time: the Diaries 1970-86, Faber, London, 1994
Turovskaya, Maya, Tarkovsky: Cinema as Poetry, Faber, London 1989
Wenders, Wim, The Act of Seeing, Faber and Faber, London, 1992

Wiloquet-Maricondi, Paula and Mary Alemany-Galway, Peter Greenaway’s
Postmodern/Postructuralist Cinema, Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2001

Course Bibliography for Ion Manolescu

Dennet, Daniel C., Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness, Bradford Books, 2005
Dery, Mark, Escape Velocity. Cyberculture at the End of the Century, Hodder & Stoughton, 1996
Gray, Chris Hables, Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age, Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2001
Gray, Chris Hables (ed.) with Figueroa-Sarriera, Heidi J. & Mentor, Steven, The Cyborg Handbook, Routledge, 1995
Halberstam, Judith; Livingstone, Ira (eds.), Posthuman Bodies, Indiana UP, 1995
Ihde, Don, Instrumental Realism: The Interface between Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology, Indiana UP, 1991
Johnson, Mark, The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason, University of Chicago Press, 1987
Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Squire, Larry R. (eds.), Findings and Current Opinion in Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT Press, 1998
Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Smith, Edward E., Cognition Psychology: Mind and Brain, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, January 2006
Kurzweil, Ray, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Viking Adult, 2005
Kurzweil, Ray; Grossman, Terry, Fantastic Voyage: The Science behind Radical Life Extension, Rodale Press, Incorporated, 2004
Minsky, Marvin, The Society of Mind, Simon and Schuster, 1985
Penley, Constance; Ross, Andrew, Technoculture, University of Minnesota Press, 1991
Penrose, Roger, Shadows of the Mind, Oxford UP, 1994
Ross, Andrew, Strange Weather: Culture, Science, and Technology in the Age of Limits, Verso Books, 1991
Sardar, Ziauddin; Ravetz, Jerome R., Cyberfutures. Culture and Politics on the Information Superhighway, Pluto Press, 1996

Scientific Events

1. November 24-27, 2005

Prof. Philippe Walter, Ph. D., Grenoble University, France, Director of the Center for Imagination Studies in Grenoble
Conference on “Le sang du dragon. Siegfried, Finn et Tiresias”, presented at Phantasma, The Center for Imagination Studies in Cluj

2. December 9, 2005

Ion Manolescu, Ioan Stanomir, Paul Cernat, Angelo Mitchievici
Conference on “Literary Communist Imagery”, presented at Phantasma, Center for Imagination Studies

3. January 19, 2006

Prof. Basarab Nicolescu, Ph. D., Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Conference on “Transdisciplinarity”, presented at Phantasma, Center for Imagination Studies

4. under reserve – February 2006

Mircea Cartarescu
Conference on “Oneiric Images”

<< Programe de Cercetare

To the Concept Foundation, Bucharest
The Cultural Policy sub-component
of the Arts and Culture Network Program

1. Project title
ECHINOX – A Multicultural Cluster –

2. Project summary
Our project applies to the specific multicultural context of Transylvania. With the “two-wave” European integration of the Eastern countries, with Hungary inside the European Community and Romania outside of it, the gap between the two cultures is at the risk of widening. Our aim is to create a program of media and cultural means (a set of on-line, traditional paper and book form reviews) that bring together young cultivated Romanian, Hungarian and German people from Transylvania. Its starting point is the multicultural university “Babes-Bolyai” in Cluj (UBB), and it is meant to irradiate from the local to the regional zone and then to the whole of Europe.

3. Situational analysis and connections with cultural policy issues
European integration implies as a preliminary step regional integration. However, given the “two speeds” of development of the ex-communist Eastern countries, Hungary and Romania are likely to fall into two different zones, separated (even if temporarily) by deeper political and juridical borders (the visa regime, for example). Besides diplomatic and economic cooperation, culture and education are a fortunate way to widen larger contacts between individuals and communities. As Transylvania is a privileged space of multiethnic cohabitation, it is reasonable to start a collaboration program from its very core, the city of Cluj. 
Governmental policies do not meet the global requirements of such a task. This is why public and private initiatives are needed. Our project is to join an NGO, The Echinox Cultural Foundation in Cluj, with an established institution, “Babes-Bolyai” University in Cluj, in a multicultural project that goes beyond the specific educational academic activity. The two partners complete each other. On the one hand, “Babes-Bolyai” University has a sound practice and a reputable tradition of multilingual teaching, which draw together Romanian, Hungarian and German people. On the other hand, since its very creation in 1968, the Echinox review has published texts in all the three languages, to which it has added, in the last decade, pages in French, English and Italian. 
We target a specific public, students and the academic staff, because they are the most effective purveyors of innovative ideas. Due to its multi-linguistic aspect, the message of cultural cooperation between young students and scholars is supposed to spread in circular waves: from the university core in Cluj, to the main urban centers in Transylvania, then through the borders between Romania and Hungary, and finally to the Western countries.

4. Objectives 
The long-term aim of the project is to amplify an already existing institutional place of scientific and cultural dialogue between people from Transylvania, Romania, Hungary and the Western countries. 
The short-term aim of the project, for which we submitted this sponsoring proposal, was to develop the already existing structure of the Echinox review into a multilayered activity. This objective has been completed. Starting with 2001, the Echinox Cultural Foundation is editing three different media forms:

– An on-line review. We created a website that reflects the whole activity of our Foundation. Its e-address is www.lett.ubbcluj.ro/~echinox. 
It was designed by Cristina Varga. 
It has several main pages:
– a page for on-line publishing of the Echinox review 
– a page for on-line publishing of the Echinox journal
– a page for the Histogram of the Echinox. We present the history of the Echinox group from its birth in 1966-7 until today. We also include a dictionary with short CVs of the over 150 student-members of the editorial board.
– an archive page, which contains the e-edition of several back issues, and an Index that allows a complex search (by name, by literary species, by date, by issue) into the whole collection of the review
– a description page of the Foundation, with its members and its functioning statute. 
– a page for an “electronic café” that comprises: 
– a Debate Forum for launching and discussing up-to-date problems, as topics for genuine and spontaneous contacts between young people from Romania, Hungary and all the web community; 
– an on-line café for electronic publishing of individual works and for offering free opinions about them; 
– an advertising page for announcements concerning the current activity of the Foundation (conferences etc.); 
– a page for e-mail contacts with all the members of the editorial board. 
The website has been launched on the internet and registered at some of the main research engines (yahoo, google, alltheweb, webcrawler etc.).

– A classical paper review, the Echinox Review. It is a review with issues published every other month, conceived as a mirror of the cultural problems of the moment. It offers samples of creative writing and views about the latest evolutions in the majority and the minority literatures, it provides translations from one language to another, it sketches a panorama of the recently published books. While the on-line review is open to spontaneous dialogues, the paper review is dedicated to elaborate creative and educational dialogues, stimulating the standard literary abilities of expression. 
Its director is Horea Poenar, assistant professor in literary theory at the Faculty of Letters. The editorial board, which functions as an “editing school”, comprises mainly students from the Babes-Bolyai University.

– A book-form review, the Echinox Journal. It is a bi-annual journal, consisting of thematic issues of about 250 pages each. It publishes academic studies, in a scholarly shape, dedicated to research topics. It is a multi-linguistic periodical, with texts in Romanian, English, French, Hungarian, German, or Italian. We envisage it as a means of spreading and making known local scholarship to the Western public. We already sent about 50 courtesy copies of our first volume at worldwide libraries, universities and research centers, inviting them to subscribe.
The journal is directed by Corin Braga and Stefan Borbély, associate professors in comparative literature at the Faculty of Letters.

We conceive these three publications as a concentric cultural device, able to spread in radial waves from Cluj to Transilvania, to Romania, to Eastern and then to Western Europe. The on-line review stimulates spontaneous creativity and the dialogue on “the spur of the moment” of a large (on-line) public; the Echinox review addresses a more specific public, students in the humanities, stimulating an educated dialogue; the Echinox Journal publishes the scholarly results of academic research work performed by MA and PhD students or the university staff and academic researchers. Jointly, they represent a three-level collaboration between ethnically different people living in the same area.
The project brought together several governmental and non-governmental institutions. These are: The Echinox Cultural Foundation (ONG); The Center for Imagination Studies at the Faculty of Letters in Cluj (Excellency Research Center); The Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj; The Romanian Association of Comparative Literature; The Dacia Editing House in Cluj. Combining individual interests and efforts with institutional logistics and financial means provided a strong momentum to the whole project and amplified its impact on the public.

5. Participants and target groups
We can talk about three kinds of participants: the working team, the contributors, and the public.
The working team comprises the executive directors (Corin Braga, Stefan Borbély, Horea Poenar), the editorial boards (about 25 students), and the computer specialists (the web-designer, the page-constructors etc.)
The list of contributors we managed to attract features worldwide professors and researchers (Richard Rorty, Victor Neumann, Virgil Nemoianu, Suzanne Travers, Edward Kanterian, Claude Karnoouh, Christian Moraru, Tomas Varnagy, Paul Cornea, Mircea Martin, Horváth Andor, Monica Spiridon, Ion Bogdan Lefter, Augustin Ioan, Nicoale Mecu, etc.) and local students and junior researchers.
The public is targeted at different levels. The electronic review targets the on-line Romanian, Hungarian and German communities. It is also accessible to the whole web community. 
The Echinox review addresses students and people interested in literature and culture. We publish each issue in 700 copies. 200 copies are distributed freely, as courtesy copies, to different persons and institutions, in Romania and abroad. The remaining 500 copies are distributed all over the country, through a commercial selling system.
The Echinox Journal focuses on academically trained public (researchers, academic staff etc.). We publish it in 700 copies also. 200 are offered freely to different persons and institutions: contributors, university staff, cultural personalities, literary and scientific reviews, editorial boards, research centers and institutes, libraries (including Washington, Harvard, Paris, Rome, Budapest, Vienna, London, Germany, Israel). The other 500 copies are sold through the commercial distribution network of the Dacia Publishing House.

6. Media coverage
We had a good public and media impact. 
In September 2001, the first volume of the Echinox Journal, on “Postcolonialism & Postcomunism”, received the Prize for the Best Romanian Review at the National Book Fair in Oradea.
Some main national cultural and literary reviews dedicated us several articles, which ranch from information presentations to case studies. For example: Ion Bogdan Lefter et alia, in Observator cultural, 61, 2001 and 86, 2001; Ion Pop, in Romania literara, 29, 2001; Cezar Paul-Badescu, in Dilema, 445, 2001; in Vatra, 6-7, 2001; in Calende, 1-2-3-4, 2001, in Cuvantul libertatii, 3546, 2001. Some other presentations will be published in reviews from Canada and Belgium. (Please see attached photocopies)
We should also notice a good public reception which reached us by informal ways of communication (oral praises, personal contacts, phones, e-mails etc.).

7. Follow-up activities
The grant we were awarded was intended just to help us start the new three-folded formula of the Echinox. Of course we shall continue editing the Echinox review and the Echinox Journal. We identified several sponsors who are willing to help us. 
The Echinox website will be soon completed and totally functional. The Echinox review will be published with the help of the Babes-Bolyai University, which finally agreed on a formula of collaboration. The Echinox journal will be published volume by volume, finding in each case a sponsor for the topic we want to discuss. We have resources for another two issues, and we have promises or hopes of sponsoring from several institutions, such as the Community of the Romanian-Germans from Germany or the Sindan Cultural Center. On the other hand, the Echinox journal is also a publishing organ of the Center for Imagination Studies in Cluj, so that it could raise funds from there too.

8. Additional information or explanation
The Echinox review has functioned in a unique formula: since 1968, it has gathered in its editing board the most gifted individuals from each generation of alumni from “Babes-Bolyai” University. It has formed what could be termed a school, whose members amount to more than 200 persons now living in Romania, in Hungary and abroad. Many of them are today well-known writers of the Romanian (Ion Pop, Ion Vartic, Mircea Baciu, Mihai Barbulescu, Iulian Boldea, Ioana Bot, Ion Buduca, Ruxandra Cesereanu, Dumitru Chioaru, Al. Cistelecan, Aurel Codoban, Sanda Cordos, Ion Cristofor, Dan Damaschin, Nicolae Diaconu, Mihai Dragolea, Dinu Flamand, Ioan Grosan, Emil Hurezeanu, Vincentiu Iluttiu, Al. Th. Ionescu, Marius Iosif, Ruxandra Ivancescu, Marius Lazar, Virgil Leon, Liviu Malita, Andrei Marga, Stefan Melancu, Virgil Mihaiu, Ciprian Mihali, Ioan Milea, Ion Mircea, Ioan Moldovan, Ion Muresan, Vasile Musca, Mircea Muthu, Nicolae Oprea, Aurel Pantea, Laura Pavel, Ovidiu Pecican, Gheorghe Perian, Marta Petreu, Al. Pintescu, Petru Poanta, Virgil Podoaba, Adrian Popescu, Ioan Simut, Aurel Sorobetea, Traian Stef, Lucian Stefanescu, Mircea Ticudean, Eugen Uricaru, Alexandru Vlad etc.), of the Hungarian (Asztalos Ildikó, Balló Aron, Balogh András, Boér Géza, Bretter Zoltán, Egyed Péter, Gaál György, Hodor Adél, Horváth István, Kereskényi Sándor, Keszthelyi András, Lörincz Csaba, Magyari Tivadar, Néda Zoltán, Németi Rudolf, Rostás Zoltán, Sántha Attila, Szöcs Géza) and even of the German (Georg Aescht, Helmut Britz, Bernd Kolf, Peter Motzan, Klaus Schneider, Maria Schullerus, Anton Seitz, Werner Söllner) cultures. Their emotional relationship with Echinox may function as a powerful logistic means of enhancing the effects of our activity.

Cluj, November 25, 2001 Corin Braga
Executive Director