The common, or non -specialist reader is not aware of the importance of Romania in the history of the thought of the twentieth century, the theater, the myth, the history of religions (yoga and shamanism) and philosophy have enriched themselves with the thought of some Romanian thinkers. Eugène Ionesco, Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade and Ioan P. Culianu, are the names of authors and thinkers to whom we have to, linked by direct friendship do not have in common only Romanian nationality, they also share the condition of the exile, in different ways and at different times within the 20th century.
Ionesco arrives in France, in Paris, during the First World War, Cioran in the 1930s, Eliade in ’45, and finally Culiano left Romania in ’72, for Italy first, then Holland until the last few years in Chicago where he will be killed. They are all exiles, they left not only their country and their family but also, and above all, their mother tongue. Their works will be written in French or English, unless very rare exceptions will no longer write in Romanian. Among the many themes and ideas of reflections that a text arouses, the great exile (Jaca Book, 2024), speaks of this disorientation, which is not linked to the geographical and familiar space, but to something much more intimate and personal such as the mother tongue, in fact a language is lived and wears, and not being able to do it anymore is a condition of extreme pain and suffering. It is in this Parisian period, after ’45, that the scholar of religions published his greatest works, on yoga, alchemy and shamanism, assumes as a paradigm the ulissiac condition of the success, identifying himself with the hero of the Greek myth away from home, always forced to face dangers and challenges.
Having to bring the book back to a genre, the connection with the diaristic form, also cadenced by the date for each page or written thought, is immediate, a genre that needs a certain fascination by the reader to be well accepted, not everyone loves this fragmented form of writing and the writer falls within this category, Eliade manages to make this literary mode extremely interesting. The merit goes to the great theme of the performance, which for us Italians is the Dante’s theme par excellence, then for human types, great intellectuals and scholars, with whom he comes into contact and in relation, above all the presence of Emil Cioran is a constant
It is a full -bodied book, with four hundred pages, in which a sense of nostalgia dominates, at times of disillusionment, in which the will of work and writing dominates, “today I have not written even a page”, but in this context the wound of the loss of the origin of origin is insinuated, the difficulty of expressing itself in another language.
The difference that exists between scientific, academic writing, and the most creative and narrative one. Eliade feels that he will not be able to write original works, novels or stories, in a language that is not his own, different the speech for academic works, a certain neutrality, or zero degree of writing, can also be rendered in a language not proper, at the cost of a great effort.
The most significant teaching that emerges from these pages is the desire to mythically interpret personal events, Eliade is convinced that the suffering and difficulties he encounters have the value of an initiation, and that these must be faced with a mythical approach and vision. An example that will also be welcomed by the future pupil, also exiled, IP Culianu.
The great exile
Mircea Eliade
Jaca Book
ISBN: 9788816418868
pag. 512 – 26.60 €
