S T A K E S A N D P E R I L S P O S E D B Y I N T E R C U L T U R A L I T Y I N T H E W O R L D O F A C A D E M I A A N D B E Y O N D E N J E U X E T D A N G E R S D E L ’ I N T E R C U L T U R E L D A N S L E M O N D E U N I V E R S I T A I R E E T A U - D E L À
ABSTRACTS RÉSUMÉS
Organised by / Organisé par
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PROGRAMME
FRIDAY 4 MAY / VENDREDI, 4 MAI
09.00 –
10.00
REGISTRATION (Ferdinand Hallway) INSCRIPTION (Couloir Ferdinand)
10.00 –12.00
OPENING CEREMONY (Ferdinand Hall)
CÉRÉMONIE D’OUVERTURE (Salle Ferdinand)
Welcome speeches on behalf of the Rector’s Office, Dean’s Office, English Department, French Department, FEEA and conference organisers
Allocutions de bienvenue du Président de l’Université, du Doyen de la Faculté des Lettres, des représentants du Département d’Anglais, du Département de Français et de FEEA et des organisateurs de la conférence
Keynote speech / Conférence inaugurale Mariah LIGAS, Fulbright Junior Scholar
The Power of Representation and The Media-Culture Cycle: a Relationship of Ideas and Changing Times
Le pouvoir de la représentation et le cycle média-culture : une relation entre les idées et les temps qui changent
Keynote speech / Conférence inaugurale Louise OLIVER, British Council Iaşi
Celebrating 80 Years of Cultural Relations in Romania 80 ans de relations culturelles en Roumanie
12.15 –
13.30
Lunch (Titu Maiorescu or Gaudeamus student canteen)
Déjeuner (Restaurant universitaire Titu Maiorescu ou Gaudeamus)
13.45 –15.45
CONCURRENT PANELS SESSIONS PARALLÈLES
I. GENDER AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN
ÉTUDES DE GENRE ET REPRÉSENTATIONS CULTURELLES DES FEMMES
ROOM / SALLE 3.15Moderator / Modérateur: Oana COGEANU II. MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES (I)
SCIENCES DE L'INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION (I)
ROOM / SALLE “Al. Dima”Moderator / Modérateur: Mariah LIGAS
III. DISCOURSE STUDIES, APPLIED LINGUISTICS & TRANSLATION STUDIES
ANALYSE DU DISCOURS, LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUÉE, TRADUCTOLOGIE
ROOM / SALLE “G. Ivănescu”Moderator / Modérateur: Sorina POSTOLEA
IV. CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: CASE STUDIES
COMMUNICATION TRANSCULTURELLE : ÉTUDES DE CAS
ROOM / SALLE B504Moderator / Modérateur: Oana ALEXA
V. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION INTERCULTURELLE DANS LES AFFAIRES
ROOM / SALLE B607Moderator / Modérateur: Oana URSU
ROUND TABLE / TABLE RONDE
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND THEIR RELEVANCE IN BUSINESS LES DIFFÉRENCES CULTURELLES ET LEUR RÔLE DANS LES AFFAIRES FEAA, B BUILDING, ROOMB417 / FEAA, BÂTIMENT B, SALLE B417 Moderator / Modérateur: Luminiţa ANDREI COCÂRŢĂ
16.00 –
19.00
Walking city tour (with Mihai Bulai) Tour de la ville à pied (avec Mihai Bulai)
19.30 –21.30
Welcome dinner (Gaudeamus student canteen)
Dîner de bienvenue (Restaurant universitaire Gaudeamus)
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SATURDAY 5 MAY / SAMEDI 5 MAI
09.00 –
11.00
CONCURRENT PANELS SESSIONS PARALLÈLES
VI. CRITICAL THEORY IN LITERARY STUDIES AND BEYOND
LA THÉORIE CRITIQUE DANS LES ÉTUDES LITTÉRAIRES ET D’AUTRES DISCIPLINES ROOM / SALLE III.11
Moderators / Modérateurs: Lorelei CARAMAN (EN) & Brîndușa GRIGORIU (FR) VII. LITERATURES IN FRENCH & WORLD AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURES
LITTÉRATURES FRANCOPHONES, LITTÉRATURES DU MONDE, LITTÉRATURE COMPARÉE
ROOM / SALLE III.12
Moderator/ Modérateur: Dana MONAH
VIII. CULTURE, SOCIETY, ART: CONTEMPORARY DEBATES
CULTURE, SOCIÉTÉ, ART: DÉBATS CONTEMPORAINS
ROOM / SALLE “Al. Dima”Moderator / Modérateur: Athes HARALAMBIE IX. DISCOURSE STUDIES & APPLIED LINGUISTICS
ANALYSE DU DISCOURS ET LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUÉE
ROOM / SALLE “G. Ivănescu”Moderator / Modérateur: Sorina POSTOLEA
X. LANGUAGE AND BUSINESS CULTURE: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES
LANGUE ET CULTURE DANS LES AFFAIRES : APPROCHES INTERDISCIPLINAIRES
ROOM / SALLE B413Moderators / Modérateurs: Ruxandra PETROVICI (FR) & Carina BRÂNZILĂ (EN) 11.00 –
11.30
Coffee break (French Department) Pause-café (Département de Français)
11.30-13.30
CONCURRENT PANELS SESSIONS PARALLÈLES
XI. CULTURE, SOCIETY, ART: INTERDISCIPLNARY APPROACHES
CULTURE, SOCIÉTÉ, ART : APPROCHES INTERDISCIPLINAIRES
ROOM / SALLE III.11Moderators/ Modérateurs: Dana MONAH (EN, FR) & Diana GRADU (FR) XII. MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES (II)
SCIENCES DE L’INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION (II) ROOM / SALLE “Al. Dima”
Moderator / Modérateur: Athes HARALAMBIE 13.45-
15.00
Lunch (Titu Maiorescu or Gaudeamus student canteen)
Déjeuner (Restaurant Universitaire Titu Maiorescu ou Gaudeamus)
15.15-17.15
PANNEL SESSION
XIII. LITERATURES IN ENGLISH
LITTÉRATURES ANGLOPHONES
ROOM / SALLE III.11Moderators / Modérateurs: Dana BĂDULESCU & Paul ULANOVSCHI 17.30 –
18.30
Farewell ceremony & Group Photos (III.11)
Cérémonie de clôture et photos de groupe (III.11)
20.00 –21.00
Theatre improvisation (Institut Français) – English speakers welcome in the true
Interculturalia spiritThéâtre d’improvisation (Institut Français) – ouvert aussi aux participants anglophones, dans le pur esprit d’Interculturalia
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Abstracts
I. GENDER AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN ÉTUDES DE GENRE ET
REPRÉSENTATIONS CULTURELLES DES FEMMES ... 8
Andreea ALBU - A New Typology of Heroine: Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse ... 8
Iulia BÎNDAR (m. LUNGU) - The Fallen Woman: The Whore Metaphor in Restoration Poetry and the Bible – a comparative study ... 8
Ştefana IOSIF - From the Shabbat Candles to the Light of Freedom – The Jewish-American Woman and Feminism ... 8
Florina NĂSTASE - Female Ennui in Mary Gaitskill's Secretary ... 9
Laura Victoria STOICA - ‘We are all children of blood and bone’: Using War as Metaphor for the Redefinition of the African-American Female Body ... 9
Maria VARVARA - Turkish Women in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Letters ... 10
II. MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES (I) SCIENCES DE L'INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION (I) ... 10
Daniel-Lucian JEREGHEA - Gray Matter, Video Games and Violence – the Real Solution to the Equation of Aggression ... 10
Lorena MARCIUC - The selfie Phenomenon – a Disease of the 21st Century ... 10
Dean MIHAILOVICI - Media Manipulation and Bias in the 2016 US Presidential Election ... 11
Roxana-Elena MOCANU - Newsgames between Digital Activism and Journalism. A Case Study on The Voter Suppression Trail ... 11
Ana MUNTEANU - Disability Studies and Media: A Marxist, Feminist, and Psychoanalytic Perspective on Adverts with Deaf People ... 12
Andrei NEGUŢ - Introducing the 'Switch' Narreme ... 12
Andreea-Cristina OLTEANU - Language Barriers in Video Games ... 12
III. DISCOURSE STUDIES, APPLIED LINGUISTICS & TRANSLATION STUDIES ANALYSE DU DISCOURS, LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUÉE, TRADUCTOLOGIE ... 13
Martha AVGOUSTI - Translating Health and Medical Websites: Culture-specific and Translation- specific Issues ... 13
Diana BAHAN & Elena-Sabina ONOFREI - Sources, Types, and Consequences of Translation Errors. Case Studies ... 13
Alexandra Georgiana MOISE - Translating Legal Texts. An Analysis of EU Regulations and Directives .... 14
Mădălina Antoneta TARNOVESKI & Diana PETRESCU - Translators as Intercultural Mediators. Culture-specific Terms in the Translation of Tourist Websites ... 14
IV. CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: CASE STUDIES COMMUNICATION TRANSCULTURELLE: ÉTUDES DE CAS ... 15
Laura CIHODARU & Iulian LUCA - Doing Business with the British and the Chinese – Some Tips .... 15
Sara JOURHMANE & Hussam DAHMAN - Singapore: the Miracle of Asia ... 15
Delia JUJU, Alexandra SOFRONI & Ştefan MĂLIN - The 1992 LA Riots – The Cultural Clash ... 15
Ștefania LUNGU & Maria GÂRBEA - In Search for a Cultural Model - Germany or Sweden? ... 16
Andreea POPESCU & Elena LUCA - Business Culture: Romania vs the Republic of Moldova... 16
Andrei Florin POPOVICI & Amalia MUNTEANU - Chrysler, Daimler and the Failed Merger ... 16
V. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION INTERCULTURELLE DANS LES AFFAIRES... 17
Milos KOBILAROV - A Tragic Break-Up: The Former Yugoslavia, in Retrospect ... 17
Nicolas MANOLACHE - Cross-Cultural Blunders in Business ... 17
Rafael MUNTEANU - Masculinity vs. Femininity in the Japanese and Swedish Cultures ... 17
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Bogdan-Claudiu PĂULEȚ & Florin-Alexandru POIANĂ - Are We Growing Closer or Are We
Breaking Apart? ... 17
Diana Maria POPESCU - Cross-Cultural Communication in Business: Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Italy ... 18
Cristina SNATINSCHI - The Effects of Inappropriate Intercultural Communication on Society. Can We All Live Together? ... 18
VI. CRITICAL THEORY IN LITERARY STUDIES AND BEYOND LA THÉORIE CRITIQUE DANS LES ÉTUDES LITTÉRAIRES ET D’AUTRES DISCIPLINES ... 19
Andreea Ioana AELENEI - La Folie et l’Œuvre ... 19
Sergiu COGEANU - A Postcolonial Reading of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ... 19
Cătălin NICOLAU - Structuralism – A New Philosophical Perspective on Sciences and the World in the Early 20th Century ... 20
Florin Alexandru PETRESCU - Everyone has disappeared. Maladies of the self in postmodernity ... 20
Diana-Noella SAVA - Deconstructing Literary Theories: Pluralism and Intertextuality in David Lodge’s Metafictional Novel ... 20
Nicolae-Cristian TIMOFTICIUC - Multiculturalism and Critical Pluralism: Applying Critical Theories to Native-American legends ... 21
VII. LITERATURES IN FRENCH & WORLD AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURES LITTÉRATURES FRANCOPHONES, LITTÉRATURES DU MONDE, LITTÉRATURE COMPARÉE ... 21
Arina CHIRILĂ - Synaesthesia and Colour Naming in Vladimir Nabokov’s Artistic Prose ... 21
Simona LOCIC - La nostalgie d’un « retour au pays natal » : Assia Djebar et Mariama Barry ... 21
Mihăiță-Bogdan SANDU - L'orientalisme français d'hier et d'aujourd'hui ... 22
Ștefania SÂRBU - The figure of seducer in Elif Shafak's Three Daughters of Eve ... 22
Ana Mădălina SIMIUC - La Fontaine et Lessing entre le théâtre et la fable ... 22
Maria-Raluca STACHE - Cyrano ou les aubes d'un autre monde ... 23
Laura Victoria STOICA - « Moi, Tituba sorcière... » : les avatars d'un mythe ... 23
VIII. CULTURE, SOCIETY, ART: CONTEMPORARY DEBATES CULTURE, SOCIÉTÉ, ART: DÉBATS CONTEMPORAINS ... 24
Monalisa BALINT - Animal rights, globalization and consumerism through Romanian lenses ... 24
Tamara CEAICOVSCHI - The beauty of the difference: exploring multiculturalism and inclusiveness ... 24
Denisa-Oana PICIOROAGĂ - Romania Turning "Illegal"? The Issue of Same-Sex Marriage, between the Church, the State and Public Opinion ... 24
Vasilica RACARIU - Insights into the Evolution of a Vital Field: Environmental Geography ... 25
Ionuţ Lucas ŞERBAN - Henry David Thoreau's Legacy: The Modern Peaceful Protest ... 25
Tornike TEVDORADZE & Mari IMERLISHVILI - Women’s activism in politics and peace building: Bosnia and Herzegovina ... 25
Lucian TROACĂ - Drug Culture and the Sense of History in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ... 26
IX. DISCOURSE STUDIES & APPLIED LINGUISTICS ANALYSE DU DISCOURS ET LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUÉE ... 26
Marine MAKHATADZE - The Corpus: an Authentic and Handy Tool for Teaching English as a Foreign Language ... 26
Ioana-Carmen PĂȘTINARU - An Intercultural Approach to Academic Texts Belonging to the Institutional Language ... 26
Valeriu POIA - Challenges in Learning a New Language: Alphabets and Spelling ... 27
Raluca REINERTH - Language-based intercultural differences ... 27
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X. LANGUAGE AND BUSINESS CULTURE: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES LANGUE ET
CULTURE DANS LES AFFAIRES : APPROCHES INTERDISCIPLINAIRES ... 28
Mirela CAZACIUC - Traduire l’interculturel dans la publicité ... 28
Aymeric GASCHIGNARD - Le développement de la francophonie à l’international ... 28
Diana GRĂMADĂ - A Case Study on the United States, India and the United Kingdom ... 28
Ana-Maria NEGRU, Paul Lucian UNGUREANU & Paula VIZITEU - Globish – A Language for International Business... 29
Doina PRODAN-PALADE - Les piliers de l’interculturel en France et en Turquie ... 29
Maria ZALDIVAR - Cultural Differences in the Academia and in Business ... 29
XI. CULTURE, SOCIETY, ART: INTERDISCIPLNARY APPROACHES CULTURE, SOCIÉTÉ, ART : APPROCHES INTERDISCIPLINAIRES ... 30
Doinița BAIDAUS - Theatre techniques used in non-formal education and fight against discrimination ... 30
Gabriela DRÎMBA - Oltenian wooden churches: iconography and symbolism of the Holy Doors ... 30
Erika-Iuliana ENGI - Beauty Standards – East vs West ... 30
Filip HAVÂRNEANU - Le rôle de la gestuelle dans l’apprentissage des langues étrangères ... 31
Teona Alexandra PĂDURARIU - 50 Shades of Victorian Entertainment: Industrially Revolutionizing Amusement ... 31
Raluca Ștefania PELIN - R. J. Palacio’s Wonder – A Wondrous Interplay of Perspectives, Emotions, and Means of Expression ... 31
Ana Maria SIMA - Métamorphoses des lettres, lettres des métamorphoses ... 31
Andreea-Paula TALPĂU - L’art, un alter ego de l’homme ... 32
XII. MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES (II) SCIENCES DE L’INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION (II) ... 32
Eduard BLĂNARIU - The Unique Metanarrative of the American-Romanian Buddy-Cop Series Comrade Detective ... 32
Raisa BORȘ - Billy Moore's Survival Kit. A Prayer Before Dawn as a Case of Overcoming Trauma ... 33
Radu BUTNARAȘU - The relationship between Caesar and Cleopatra seen through the screening ... 33
Natalia CHIAN - “You That Hide Behind Walls”: On the Political and Cultural Implications of the American Rock Music in the Transatlantic Dialogue of the Cold War ... 33
Teodora FEDOREANU - Popular book, popular movie: adapting The fault in our stars: a case study .... 34
Raluca TEODORESCU - Slavery and Freedom, Adultery and Punishment: Links Between 19th Century America and Wallachia as Depicted in Drum (1976) and Aferim! (2015) ... 34
Daniel UNGUREANU - The artist who shapes its own body. Bodybuilding: Body art under the influence of the ideology of the body aesthetics ... 34
XIII. LITERATURES IN ENGLISH LITTÉRATURES ANGLOPHONES ... 35
Cipriana BARNA - Hospitality vs. Hostility in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India ... 35
Ana-Maria BĂNICĂ - Lockean Influence on William Congreve`s The Way of the World ... 35
Alina GEORGESCU - Conceited Love in John Donne’s Poems: A Study on The Flea and A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning ... 35
Ștefan GHIRAN - The Light Out of Nothing: A Candlelight Incursion in Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place ... 36
Monika KOSA - The Aesthetics of Rewriting: the Canadian Tempest ... 36
Andreea MARINESCU - Emerson’s Self-Reliance and the Complex Way in which It Shapes the American National Identity ... 36
Elena PIRPIDEL - Fate and Freedom in Old English Elegies: The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Ruin ... 36
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ÉTUDES DE GENRE ET REPRÉSENTATIONS CULTURELLES DES FEMMES
Moderator / Modérateur: Oana COGEANUAndreea ALBU - A New Typology of Heroine: Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters, Italian-English, BA, 1st year literature, character, description, atypical
The present paper will focus on the critical exploration of the most exquisite and the most complex Jane Austen heroine, Emma Woodhouse, offering a twenty-first century perspective on her personality. Published in 1815, Emma is a remarkable heroine about whom Austen claimed that she is “a character whom no one but me will much like.” This study will focus on her individuality, her evolution, the relationships she has with the other characters and, also, how the other characters interact and define her selfhood. She is one of the few true and atypical heroines of the common literature due to her charm and her ability to recognize her own errors of judgement and even to turn them into her favour.
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Iulia BÎNDAR (m. LUNGU) - The Fallen Woman: The Whore Metaphor in Restoration Poetry and the Bible – A Comparative Study
Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters, English-Chinese, BA, 1st year prostitution, whore metaphor, decadent society, anti-beauty, geographical reference
The world’s oldest profession has been source of inspiration and fascination for poets and artists over the centuries, who have portrayed prostitutes in different ways: from the temptress to the fallen woman, the hooker with a golden heart and the tragic victim. In British literature however prostitution has been considered fundamentally in three ways: a necessary social ill ripe for satire, a serious social problem including women’s inequality in law and marriage and a metaphor (Ditmore, 2006). This paper intends to analyze the whore metaphor that depicts an emotionally decadent, morally corrupt and spiritually bankrupt society. But, because the imagery of the whore metaphor for a decadent society is so vast in literature, we shall limit our investigation boundaries to two symbols: Mistress Willis for the libertine Britain of King Charles II and the Babylon for a decadent and corrupt Rome. Therefore, this paper intends to analyze comparatively the whore metaphor in the Restoration poem “On Mistress Willis”, written by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester and the Revelation Book in the Bible.
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Ştefana IOSIF - From the Shabbat Candles to the Light of Freedom – The Jewish-American Woman and Feminism
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Doctoral School of Philology Studies, 1st year feminism, Jewish-Americans
We are currently riding the coattails of the most recent and the most visible wave of feminism. It has undoubtedly taken center-stage in the (pop-)cultural discourse, making it a necessity to delve deeper into its history, finding out how previous generations dealt with the revolutionary changes, and in particular, as a successful example, how female representatives of a group as conservative as the Jewry radically shaped American feminism, in a constant effort of intercultural reconciliation.
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One cannot begin a discussion revolving around the American theater of feminism without tipping their hat to the overwhelming number of Jewish women who were at the forefront of the fight for equal rights. Thinking it a paradox, however, having women from such a seemingly traditional cultural background rise against patriarchy, would be a fallacy. The figure of the Jewish woman is shaped by hard work and a constant active involvement in her community, even when others would have had her silenced. With a history of social activism spanning centuries, it then comes as no surprise that feminism would fit the American-Jewish woman like a glove. The paper will aim to demonstrate and draw the lines of their input, offering the example of truly exemplary women, who have fought their way into history books.
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Florina NĂSTASE - Female Ennui in Mary Gaitskill's Secretary
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Doctoral School of Philology Studies, 3rd year ennui, feminism, existentialism, boredom, sadomasochism
This paper aims to explore the existential condition of “ennui” which has often been attributed only to male subjects and has been defined by Reinhard Kuhn in The Demon of Noontide: Ennui in Western Literature (1976) as “a condition that is the immediate consequence of the encounter with nothingness, and has as immediate effect a disaffection with reality”. Though an ennobling state for male subjects, ennui in female subjects has often been associated with a trivial and empty mind; that is to say, women who are bored are women incapable of self-reflection and deeper thinking. The modern individual who is alienated and distanced from reality is thus always gendered as male whereas this paper intends to show that the “encounter with nothingness” is also felt and explored by female subjects, particularly the protagonist of the controversial short story “Secretary” by Mary Gaitskill. In this attempt, the paper will make use of feminist, existential and cultural theory, focusing specifically on the so-called Culture of Boredom, employing the works of authors such as Elizabeth Goodstein, Reinhard Kuhn, Lars Svendsen, Allison Pease and others.
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Laura Victoria STOICA - ‘We are all children of blood and bone’: Using War as Metaphor for the Redefinition of the African-American Female Body
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, English-French, BA, 2nd year African-American, feminism, fantasy, body image, war
Over the last few years, writers and musicians alike have embraced Afrofuturism in their quest to comment upon the struggles and opportunities of the African-American community. Black Panther (2018) has been hailed as a milestone in the representation of African-American identities (and bodies), and its success corresponds to the reemergence and reappraisal of Afrofuturist literary works. Within the broader conversation on the 'marginal body', YA fiction explores young Black adults’ construction of their body image, using the tropes of fantasy and science-fiction. The switch to African characters and setting comes across as challenging to both readers and writers, who mostly share an American background. While writers aim to provide teenagers with a fresh perspective on the African-American experience, readers are faced with the task of grasping the meaning of war and infighting beyond their immediate violence, and rather as metaphors for their own social identities. War and battle as representations of protest, self-control and social resistance will be analyzed in this paper, with a view to revealing the impact of Afrofuturist narratives on the construction of the African-American female body.
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Maria VARVARA - Turkish Women in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Letters
Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters, German-English, BA, 1st year Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Eastern Culture, freedom, feminine, letters
The present paper participates in the discussion about the way in which Lady Mary Montagu portrayed the Oriental woman. Lady Mary Montagu visited the Ottoman Empire along with her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, where he was appointed the English ambassador to Turkey. Their journey took place between 1716 and 1718, when she observed several features of the Oriental world, wrote them down and sent them in form of 78 splendid letters to her acquaintance in England. In her letters she mostly portrayed Turkish women, describing their religion, fashion, lifestyle and their customs as being different from those of the Western women. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Lady Mary Montagu’s ways of portraying Turkish women in her Embassy letters and to offer a twenty-first century interpretation on the image of femininity in the Eastern world.
II. MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES (I)
SCIENCES DE L'INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION (I)
Moderator / Modérateur: Mariah LIGASDaniel-Lucian JEREGHEA - Gray Matter, Video Games and Violence – The Real Solution to the Equation of Aggression
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Philosophy and Social & Political Sciences, Political Sciences, BA, 2nd year
video games, brain, therapy, treatment
Against the background of an increasing level of violence of all kinds across the globe, more and more people seem to be turning to video games as one of the potential culprits; when such concerns find an echo in the words of official voices like President Trump’s, opinions are dangerously close to becoming facts. However, numerous scientific studies underline the opposite – besides no direct link between violence in virtual reality and aggression in real life, video games could potentially be used as a therapy for patients with mental disorders that cause brain regions to shrink or be altered. Such diseases include schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer’s. Also, gamers exhibit a rise in gray matter in the right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum — areas of the brain responsible for spatial navigation, memory formation, strategic planning and fine motor skills in the hands.
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Lorena MARCIUC - The Selfie Phenomenon – A Disease of the 21st Century
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, English-German, BA, 3rd year iconology, mirror stage, simulacrum, the Gaze, big other
If "there is no true life in a false world", then why does humanity keep on choosing the path of self-destruction in spite of the technical evolution? Living in a hypnotized consumerist society who sacrifices its life for products and lifestyles that will enslave them and will certainly not
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offer the kind of fulfillment they promise, the human being seems to have no other choice than moulding themselves to a simulation. Considering Plato's paralyzing Theory of Forms who sealed humanity's fate by assuming that our only function is that of imitating the world of ideas (Forms), what could millenials do but live in a simulacrum perpetually chasing "the big Other"?
This resemblance of reality has at its core the simulation. The narcoticised and defragmented individual, unable to comprehend the distinction between reality and fiction as they repeatedly merge, takes refuge, in the quest of redefining himself, in the gaze of the other, or nowadays the selfie. A phenomenon that belongs to the millenials, but can also be traced back to (auto)portraits, is one of the wounds that society inflicts upon subjects, putting them with the help of the culture industry in an invisible cage. We pursue needs and desires that do not belong to us, but are induced. Thus, the selfie became a weapon in the war against humanity as it helps and maintains these shallow hyperrealities. The selfie can be distinguished as both cause and effect and despite seeming harmless, its psychological/feminist implications (*also, I intend to pursue its role in iconology) around the world are deep-rooted. Images are a kind of language, no longer a transparent window, but a sign that presents a deceptive appearance, an actor on the historical stage worth considering.
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Dean MIHAILOVICI - Media Manipulation and Bias in the 2016 US Presidential Election Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of European Studies, American Studies, BA, 3rd year 2016 election, media bias, media manipulation, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton
The present paper examines the issue of media bias in reporting the 2016 presidential campaign in the US, as well as the extent to which the media manipulated the voters and was, in turn, manipulated by mass media outlets belonging to the so-called "alt-right", a cluster of conservative sources mostly supportive of Donald Trump. Was the final election result a product of media manipulation? Did the negative bias of contemporary American mass media influence the decision of the voters? Were mainstream media coerced into amplifying the message of the alt-right by the logic of ratings and reporting whatever is new and sensational? These are some of the questions my paper will attempt to answer.
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Roxana-Elena MOCANU - Newsgames between Digital Activism and Journalism. A Case Study on The Voter Suppression Trail
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, American Studies, MA, 2nd year newsgame, digital activism, discrimination, minority
The aim of this research is to use the newsgame The Voter Suppression Trail both as a case study for newsgames as a new form of journalism, and as digital activism as it exposes the tensions extant in the multicultural American society (discrimination framed in sociopolitical practices). The chosen medium is engaging through tactics characteristic to games (the modes of immersion and immediacy) and through allowing the player to discover and experience for himself the instances of discrimination minorities are subjected to. The latter also triggers critical thinking, bringing the player closer to what could be interpreted as objective reporting. The issue addressed, that of voter discrimination, opens up discussions on issues of power and rights in the majority-minority relationship in the current context of the global rise of nationalism and the controversial Trump doctrine. The medium employed, on the other hand, brings to the fore the news media as the fourth estate and its ability to temper power and trigger the critical thinking of its audience.
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Ana MUNTEANU - Disability Studies and Media: A Marxist, Feminist, and Psychoanalytic Perspective on Adverts with Deaf People
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, American Studies, MA, 2nd year communication, media, cultural studies, disability, discrimination
As we live in the era of communication and media, it is obvious that the latter reflects and affects our way of knowing the world and the way we live our lives.
But do we really communicate better nowadays? Do we care more about others` problems as we are better informed? Do we consider all the people around us equal and do we really respect their rights? The issue of people who are different from others has become a popular subject matter nowadays especially in education, health care and social field.
Therefore a new branch of studies emerged under the umbrella term of cultural studies:
disability studies. Who has the right to set differences between us and others, between normality and abnormality? Disability studies view the so-called abnormality beyond medicine and psychology, through culture, politics and society.
This work aims to put a light on the way in which deaf people are represented in media. To do that, the essay compares two adverts which show deaf people promoting a beverage and sign language respectively. The two adverts are analyzed on the ground of three theoretical perspectives on media: Marxism, feminism and psychoanalysis.
The study is important in the attempt to raise the awareness towards the concepts like identity, normality/ abnormality, disability, acceptance.
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Andrei NEGUŢ - Introducing the 'Switch' Narreme
West University of Timişoara, Faculty of Letters, History and Theology, American Studies, MA narratology, narreme, virtual, narrative, switch
Narratology is a fairly well established field, and has been exploring narratives in their many forms and across media. The virtual medium presents unique characteristics. Similarly, narremes, being the atomic unit of narratives, are expressed differently in the virtual medium.
Hence the 'switch' narreme, which permits narrative branching in the virtual medium.
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Andreea-Cristina OLTEANU - Language Barriers in Video Games
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, German-English, BA, 2nd year language, multiculturalism, video games
In our multicultural society, one can see an opportunity of learning with the means of entertainment that are popular, easy-access, which include the chance to communicate with others – video games.
However many players are faced with an issue which affects more or less the game play: when a game was produced in another country, foreign to the player, in a different language, there's the risk that the story, dialog or descriptions have been altered by the translation.
Another issue may occur if the said game is not released in the native tongue of the player and instead they have to make use of a second language. Here the ability of the player to understand well the language may affect their perception of the game.
So, for this paper, the main goal is discovering some changes in story of certain video games caused by a mistake in translation, or changes in names due to the cultural differences between the source language and the language in which the text is translated.
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III. DISCOURSE STUDIES, APPLIED LINGUISTICS & TRANSLATION STUDIES ANALYSE DU DISCOURS, LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUÉE, TRADUCTOLOGIE
Moderator / Modérateur: Sorina POSTOLEAMartha AVGOUSTI - Translating Health and Medical Websites: Culture-specific and Translation- specific Issues
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, Applied Modern Languages, English-German, BA, 2nd year language of medicine, source text, target text, terms, progress
The language of medicine changes and develops constantly, as new terms are added and others become redundant along with the progress of the field. The terminology of medical texts includes sever items that may be seen as culture-bound, such as the names of some drugs, procedures and protocols, the names of instruments, measurement units, questions relative to patient history, or various therapeutic methods. All these culture specific problems are context-dependent, and their methods of translation cannot be generalised. In view of this fact, this paper discusses several procedures and issues encountered in the Romanian to English translation of health and medical sites. In this field, as in many others, direct translation is often used as the main strategy of transfer from one language into another, and it includes three main procedures: borrowing, calque and literal translation. In translation, borrowing does not refer to the words taken “officially” from another language, but mainly to those that are unknown to the reader. An example is represented by the translation of the word “anthrax” (disease) by “antrax”.
This term also has other versions in Romanian, such as “cărbune” or “dalac”, but they belong to another register. Another thing to consider is that before proceeding to translate a medical text, the translator has to decide on the purpose of the source text as well as the intended purpose of the target text.
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Diana BAHAN & Elena-Sabina ONOFREI - Sources, Types, and Consequences of Translation Errors. Case Studies
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Faculty of Letters, Applied Modern Languages, English-German, BA, 2nd year errors, language, translation
Our paper discusses some of the most important translation errors made by translators in various contexts and attempts to explain why they are so common. We will show that translation errors, as a whole, can have significant consequences and, by examining a number of case studies gathered from newspaper articles, books, advertisements, we will illustrate the diversity of situations which can arise as a result of translation errors. Our paper also includes an analysis of the types of errors made by the second year students enrolled in the Translation Program of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, who translated a Wikipedia article. The problems identified result from the translation method applied (or lack thereof). Another important aspect is that errors are a consequence of both linguistic and cultural misconceptions: linguistic (problems deriving from the source text form), professional (documentation) and extra-linguistic (understanding of ideas). We chose this topic first and foremost because of our love of and pleasure in working with languages. We love to explore and understand the details, nuances and intricacies of language. If your translation happens to be wrong, it is likely that it will not trigger World War III... but are you willing to take the risk?
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Alexandra Georgiana MOISE - Translating Legal Texts. An Analysis of EU Regulations and Directives Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Faculty of Letters, Applied Modern Languages, German-English, BA, 2nd year legal text, legal system, European Union, regulation, directive
The translation of legal texts into other languages poses many difficulties because it is highly culture-dependent. Each society is built on a unique structure, reflecting the history, culture, and evolution of the country, and legal systems mirror these differences. At the level of the European Union, however, legal documents adopted at the central level have to be translated into the language and adapted to the culture of each member state. Two types of such EU texts are regulations and directives. A regulation is a binding legislative act, being in some sense similar to an “Act of Parliament”. It is one of the most powerful tools in European Union law and it must be applied entirely across the EU. A directive, on the other hand, sets the goal that all EU countries must achieve, setting certain aims and results to be expected. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the variations in the translation of EU regulations and directives from English into Romanian and define the terms used in these legislative texts. We focused on two legal documents: the Regulation (EU) No 223/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2014 on the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived and the Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights. The research method used is content analysis focusing on the structure, the translation methods and the terms present in these documents.
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Mădălina Antoneta TARNOVESKI & Diana PETRESCU - Translators as Intercultural Mediators.
Culture-specific Terms in the Translation of Tourist Websites
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, Applied Modern Languages, French-English, BA, 2nd year tourism, culture, translation, source text, target text
While translating, the main purpose of a translator is to keep the message of the source text in the target text and to make the target readers have the same reaction as the readers of the source text. Sometimes, this can be really challenging for translators, especially when they have to deal with cultural terms that do not have an immediate equivalent in the target culture.
This is often the case in tourism, a field full of cultural, religious and traditional terms. In this field, as in many others, the translator needs to act as a true intercultural mediator, since the translation has to convince the reader, a potential tourist, to visit the place/country mentioned in the text. If the translator fails to convey all the information from the source text in the target text or if the translation does not meet the target readers' expectations, the entire process may become useless.
Starting from these premises, our paper focuses on the translation into English of a Romanian tourist website titled Romanian Monasteries (http://www.romanianmonasteries.org). Our analysis aims to see how various cultural terms were handled and processed in translation and to assess whether the translation is able to produce its intended effect on target readers, i.e.
make them come and visit the tourist attractions mentioned.
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IV. CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: CASE STUDIES COMMUNICATION TRANSCULTURELLE: ÉTUDES DE CAS
Moderator / Modérateur: Oana ALEXALaura CIHODARU & Iulian LUCA - Doing Business with the British and the Chinese – Some Tips Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Public Administration, BA, 2nd year
masculinity/ femininity, individualism/ collectivism
Our responses to other cultures are influenced by the attitudes, beliefs, values, assumptions and biases that shape our own life. The purpose of engaging with other cultures is not to study and judge them, but to learn from the people of those cultures and benefit from the diversity they offer. Our paper relies on some of Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions - masculinity/
femininity, individualism/ collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance – to discuss two essentially different cultures, i.e. the Chinese and the British cultures. We will thus try to identify some of the main cultural characteristics of the British and the Chinese and point to some aspects which should be taken into account when doing business with either.
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Sara JOURHMANE & Hussam DAHMAN - Singapore: the Miracle of Asia Abdullah Gül University (Turkey), Business Administration, BA, 3rd year Singapore, values, culture, economy, government
Looking back at pre-1950s Singapore, one would not predict a future in which this poor island, of 720 km2, with no natural resources and no common religious belief, ethnicity or spoken language, would become one of the world’s strongest industrial hubs and most respectable economies. The turning point was the assignment of Lee Kwan Yew as Prime Minister. Along with his cabinet members, Singapore’s founding father was able to build a model on values of western and oriental influence. In this paper we will explore Singapore’s cultural capital and how it has given rise to one of the greatest “have nations”.
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Delia JUJU, Alexandra SOFRONI & Ştefan MĂLIN - The 1992 LA Riots – The Cultural Clash Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Accounting and Business Information Systems, BA, 2nd year culture, differences, communities, Afro-American, Korean
This paper is focused on a case study, more precisely on the 1992 LA Riots, which remains a powerful example of how cultural misunderstandings can lead to violence and extreme actions. We begin by defining the term culture and we refer to the work of two of the most representative researchers in the field of intercultural communication: Geert Hofstede and Edward T. Hall. Their findings will be further used to approach the issues which created the unfortunate context of the 1992 LA Riots. We will then discuss the major differences between East and West, in general, and between the Afro- American and Korean communities, in particular. Finally, our purpose is to identify the key cultural characteristics of the two groups and perform an analysis of the way that events escalated back in 1992 by applying E. T. Hall’s theory: High vs. Low Context Cultures; we will conclude by pointing to some attitudes which could be adopted in order to avoid such conflicts in the future.
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Ștefania LUNGU & Maria GÂRBEA - In Search for a Cultural Model - Germany or Sweden?
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Public Administration, BA, 2nd year cultural model, Germany, Sweden, business communication
Although, at first glance, Germany and Sweden seem to have a lot in common, the careful cultural researcher might actually find that this is not true. We aim to discuss some of the most representative cultural features of Germans and Swedes, and the extent to which they are relevant in the field of business communication. We will rely on Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in order to illustrate the similarities and differences between the two cultures. We will conclude by pointing to the key aspects related to the German and Swedish cultures which could enable or, on the contrary, hinder communication in business situations.
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Andreea POPESCU & Elena LUCA - Business Culture: Romania vs the Republic of Moldova Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Economics and International Business, BA, 1st year business culture, business communication, cultural diversity, Romania, the Republic of Moldova
Today's expanding racial, ethnic and cultural diversity makes it obvious that in the future it will be nearly impossible to manage a workforce or market products the same way we used to do it in the past. All forms of business communications are affected. This paper aims to analyse the business practices in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, and highlight similarities and differences between the two countries. When we talk about Romania, we usually talk about its attitude towards people from foreign countries and the well-known Romanian hospitality. Most people living in urban areas know at least one foreign language (English, German or French), which helps to easily overcome any language barriers. Romanians are trusted business partners, who respect contract terms, deliver on time and pay their debts. The Republic of Moldova is a small country, undergoing a slow but continuous development. Moldavians take pride in their hospitality. Besides, among the strong points of setting up a business in Moldova, we could mention: geographical benefits, free economic areas, a highly-skilled multilingual workforce, relatively low employment costs, a favourable visa regime, an improved legal framework regulating the entrepreneurial activity, a competitive corporate income tax, and a tax and customs framework similar to that of the EU.
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Andrei Florin POPOVICI & Amalia MUNTEANU - Chrysler, Daimler and the Failed Merger Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Public Administration, BA, 2nd year
intercultural communication, Daimler-Crysler, merger
On the 6th of May 1998, two leading global car manufacturers, Daimler-Benz (Germany) and Chrysler Corporation (the United States), signed a merger agreement aimed to combine two different styles, i.e.
qualitative and creative, to reach a strategic position in the global marketplace. Despite analysts who argued that it would strategically make sense, the merger failed as a consequence of the distinct types of culture and management of the two companies. This paper deals with the factors which led to the collapse, targeting the cultural differences between the Americans and the Germans and how they affected the people, industry and business involved in that particular context. We will rely on Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: individualism/ collectivism, masculinity/ femininity, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and we will draw some conclusions on how the Daimler-Crysler merger failure could have been avoided if more attention had been paid to cultural differences.
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V. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION INTERCULTURELLE DANS LES AFFAIRES
Moderator / Modérateur: Oana URSUMilos KOBILAROV - A Tragic Break-Up: the Former Yugoslavia, in Retrospect University of Novi Sad (Serbia), MA, 2nd year
Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia
This presentation will take a critical look at the former Yugoslavia. It will analyse the role that the US, NATO and the EU played in the tragic breakup of a once peaceful and prosperous European state, subsequently focusing on how the states that emerged from the former Yugoslavia have attempted to define their national, linguistic and cultural identities.
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Nicolas MANOLACHE - Cross-Cultural Blunders in Business
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Management, BA, 2nd year business, intercultural, mistakes
In my presentation I will talk about business across cultures. More specifically, how to recognise and avoid cultural mistakes when doing business. I will begin by discussing about the importance the culture in people's lives and why we have to respect everyone, no matter what culture they belong to.
I will continue with a story of my experience from last summer when I worked in the USA with people from all over the world. Then, I will give some examples of cultural mistakes in communication, discuss about a few common mistakes in business across cultures and, how to avoid them.
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Rafael MUNTEANU - Masculinity vs. Femininity in the Japanese and Swedish Cultures Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Management, BA, 2nd year
masculinity, femininity, culture, Japan, Sweden
The main purpose of this paper is to discuss one of Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions – masculinity/
femininity – within the context of two national cultures. I will primarily deal with Geert Hofstede’s research in general. Further on, I will provide an overview of the results of his research: the power distance, individualism/ collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation, and masculinity/
femininity indices. Once the audience has a clear perspective regarding the role of the indices introduced by Geert Hofstede, I will deal with the masculinity/ femininity index in detail. Finally, I will explain how some gender-specific skills evolved throughout history and then, the manner in which they are nowadays applied within organisational cultures. Relying on Geert Hofstede’s masculinity/
femininity index, the paper highlights the differences and similarities between the Japanese and Swedish cultures and thus creates the premises for better business communication.
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Bogdan-Claudiu PĂULEȚ & Florin-Alexandru POIANĂ - Are We Growing Closer or Are We Breaking Apart?
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Business Information Systems, BA, 2nd year culture, cross-cultural/ business communication, cultural (mis)understanding(s), cultural awareness
Once separated by vast oceans, we have become more connected than ever by means of the multi- national companies that offer quite a vast amount of benefits (products and services). Despite
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these advantages, world events demonstrate we still fail to cooperate, learn from each other and accept the cultural differences as they are. What is culture, anyway? It is the software of our minds, the subconscious thinking that develops in our country, city, social circle, family and so on. Culture defines our social game, the ways in which we interact, our local habits, beliefs, and principles.
Given its complexity, errors occur mostly because we were taught to see the world differently, and these different perspectives often result in conflict and unnecessary judgmental attitudes. So how can we prevent this? We need to develop our cultural intelligence, become aware of our own actions in order to stop stereotyping (and start prototyping) and interpret other people’s behaviour, values and beliefs through the “lens” of our own culture. All these issues can affect our ability to cooperate in business at a global level, so it has become a topic worth looking at.
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Diana Maria POPESCU - Cross-Cultural Communication in Business: Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Italy
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Economics and International Business, BA, 1st year cross-cultural communication, verbal/non-verbal communication, Italy, Romania, Moldova
In intercultural communication, the verbal code plays a decisive role in a successful communication exchange. There are many aspects related to the language of communication, which can create difficulties both in terms of encoding and decoding/understanding messages. For example, based on several online questionnaires and oral interviews, potential communication problems between Italians and Romanians/Moldavians can be highlighted. The subconscious verbal aspects depend on the speakers’ cultural background. The use of a tone of voice which is too low/high, taboo subjects, etc. could compromise the successful outcome of an intercultural communication exchange. In recent years, Italy has consolidated significant economic ties with both Romania and Moldova. In fact, there are numerous Italian companies on the territory of these two East European countries. The relationships between these countries have a great prospect of development which is also due to their common cultural and linguistic background, their Roman origin. Throughout history, the people of Romania and Moldova have been connected thanks to this sense of belonging to the same cultural background. This feeling is very strong even today and it contributes to preserving and improving relationships with Italy.
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Cristina SNATINSCHI - The Effects of Inappropriate Intercultural Communication on Society.
Can We All Live Together?
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, FEEA, Economics and International Business, BA, 2nd year intercultural communication, culture, cultural blunders, stereotyping, cultural awareness
We live in an era of changes. Not only did the globalisation that flattened the world fail to solve the disputes among different cultures, but it also caused new ones. These disputes became even more prominent during the last decades. Even though the physical and virtual distances between people became insignificant, an intercultural and interpersonal gap made its way into our society. Caused by cultural blunders, stereotyping, misunderstandings and misevaluations, the ever existing conflicts between different cultures began to redefine the society we live in.
Starting off from contradictions that seemed small, inappropriate intercultural communication led to riots and the death of innocent people. Things must change. From the American ‘Melting Pot’ to the varied cultures of the Eastern world, cultural awareness and effective intercultural communication are the only measures that can guide us towards the right path - a path built on tolerance and understanding, acceptance and indulgence. It is time we put apart the differences between us and begin to learn how to live together.
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VI. CRITICAL THEORY IN LITERARY STUDIES AND BEYOND
LA THÉORIE CRITIQUE DANS LES ÉTUDES LITTÉRAIRES ET D’AUTRES DISCIPLINES Moderators / Modérateurs: Lorelei CARAMAN (EN), Brîndușa GRIGORIU (FR)
Andreea Ioana AELENEI - La Folie et l’Œuvre
Université Alexandru Ioan Cuza de Iaşi, Faculté des Lettres, Français-Allemand, Licence, 1e année folie, œuvre, logos, Descartes, Foucault, Derrida
Le problème de la folie intéresse généralement la philosophie comme un objet d’analyse opposé à la raison. Michel Foucault condamne dans son Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique le fait que Descartes rejette tout ce qui n’est pas « raison ». Jacques Derrida vient compléter la vision de Foucault par une nouvelle lecture des Méditations métaphysiques, faisant appel à la notion de logos. Aucun des trois ne donne cependant une définition de la folie. Tout en analysant les textes de ces auteurs, nous essayerons de déceler les éléments communs de leurs visions de la folie, ainsi que la mesure où celle-ci est nécessaire dans tous les discours, à l’aube de toutes les œuvres.
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Sergiu COGEANU - A Postcolonial Reading of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, American Studies, MA, 2nd year
ideology, critical theory, film theory, postcolonialism
This paper should be about the postcolonial concepts that form the framework of the theory in relation to a literary text such as the novel written by Junot Diaz. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the focus is pointed towards the re-writing process of a specific narrative or history that is associated with the postcolonial/postmodern mode of writing. The way in which the text is written and the motifs that are embedded in the larger chunks of text is specific to a kind of discourse that is very actual. The light of the critical arrow should point, in a lightly manner, to the contemporary discourse, such as the the Trump problem, the immigrants, gender issues and so on. It is also about how to write about important stuff.
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Ioan JUNCU - (De)Fragmentation in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway: A New Perspective on Readers’
Construction of Meaning
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, Applied Linguistics – Teaching EFL, MA, 1st year Virginia Woolf, reader-response, stream of consciousness, hard-disk, fragmentation
What do Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and a computer hard disk have in common? Employing an analogy with the way data is written and accessed on a hard-disk, this paper analyses the intricate processes involved in the act of reading and the role played by fragmentation and defragmentation in readers’ construction of meaning. More precisely, it seeks to answer the following questions: what is the purpose of the reader while reading stream of consciousness narratives? Is he or she a passive or active receptacle of the reading experience? Is the reading experience a holistic or an atomistic one? In answering these questions, the paper aims to provide a transdisciplinary frame of reference for the perceivability of reading stream of consciousness narratives.
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Cătălin NICOLAU - Structuralism – A New Philosophical Perspective on Sciences and the World in the Early 20th Century
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, PhD structure, atomism, system, criticism
As the title suggests, the central topic of this paper is structuralism, that important cultural movement manifested in the first half of the 20th century, which had significant echoes in the intellectual histories of both Europe and America.
I am going to focus first of all on the scientific and philosophical background that lies at the basis of this new way of looking at the world and I will try to show that this new perspective came as a reaction to atomism, a tradition that stretches back to ancient times.
I will also be concerned with the origins of the structuralist movement; its foundation is considered to have emerged from Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics, which contains some very interesting distinctions, theses, and principles of language analysis. These theories were found extremely challenging by Saussure’s contemporaries and followers and, thus, they became highly influential for a few decades.
Although it emerged from a work of a linguist, structuralism went beyond the boundaries of linguistics: it generated a new perspective on the world and, also, manifested in other disciplines such as anthropology and literary criticism.
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Florin Alexandru PETRESCU - Everyone Has Disappeared. Maladies of the Self in Postmodernity Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Faculty of Philosophy and Social & Political Sciences, Philosophy, BA, 2nd year self, simulations, modernity, postmodernity, Baudrillard
Different historical, political, economic and cultural conditions give birth and reinforce different kinds of "selves". In this paper, I briefly trace the self in the Western culture from the ancient Greeks, through middle ages and finally, to modernity but the main issue that I am addressing is the interregnum between modern conditions and what lies after modernity. From a historical point of view, humanity always had a grand narrative from which the selves could draw meaning (the great religions) but in modernity, cultural phenomena, like the disenchantment of the world, gave rise to unprecedented levels of suspicion, disbelief and complexity. Therefore, the self is forced to recreate itself in singularity, alone, without the help of the great religions. This kind of situation gives birth to all kinds of maladies of the self, however, some thinkers, like Jean Baudrillard, affirmed that the self will no longer exist in postmodernity. The most important issue related to postmodernity is whether we will be able to create authentic narratives about ourselves and, in this paper, I examine the capacity to do so.
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Diana-Noella SAVA - Deconstructing Literary Theories: Pluralism and Intertextuality in David Lodge’s Metafictional Novel
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Faculty of Letters, English-German, BA pluralism, literary theory, criticism
This paper will argue in favor of the pluralistic approach of literary theory in connection with the question Persse asks when he reaches the culminant point of his academic journey: “What follows if everybody agrees with you?” (Lodge 1984: 319). Literary discussion is sustained by variance, because “what matters in the field of critical practice is not truth but difference” (ibid). Progress in the interpretative communities is achieved by means of communication and each step in doing so is represented by a different view interacting with another. The opposition between theories therefore leads to a deeper understanding of literature: “as readers we are members of diverse interpretative communities which should be in a unique dialogic relationship with each text” (Lodge 1990: 219).
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Nicolae-Cristian TIMOFTICIUC - Multiculturalism and Critical Pluralism: Applying Critical Theories to Native-American Legends
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Faculty of Letters, Applied Linguistics – Teaching EFL, MA, 1st year Native Americans, legends, critical theories, pluralism, multiculturalism
This study analyzes the potential extended use of Native American literature (myths and legends) in the academic literary environment. The goal is to highlight the potential intertwining of various tribes’ creations with some popular critical theory principles, as well as to suggest the possible involvement of Native American literature in lectures and seminars focusing on critical theory.
The research will be structured in small sections (one section per critical theory) and for each section, a varying number of legends will be quoted as proof of relevance, showing how a pluralist framework of critical theories can be successfully applied to multicultural texts.
VII. LITERATURES IN FRENCH & WORLD AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURES
LITTÉRATURES FRANCOPHONES, LITTÉRATURES DU MONDE, LITTÉRATURE COMPARÉE
Moderator / Modérateur: Dana MONAHArina CHIRILĂ - Synaesthesia and Colour Naming in Vladimir Nabokov’s Artistic Prose Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, PhD
Vladimir Nabokov, synaesthesia, colour naming, colour terms
In this paper we are going to focus upon one of the most remarkable and, one might even say, extravagant phenomena that a reader comes across in Vladimir Nabokov’s artistic prose, and namely synaesthesia. As far as its definition is concerned, the term stands for blending the products of sensorial perception modes that usually appear independently. This unusual and highly original mixture of colour, taste, sound and tactile perception moulds a very special semantic fabric of the text, personalizes it to the utmost and makes the author’s own feelings and emotions particularly prominent. The present study is aimed at demonstrating the way synaesthesia influences the creative process of colour naming in Vladimir Nabokov’s novels and contrasting the original versions of synaesthetic word combinations with their translations into the Romanian language. Moreover, we are going to suggest our own classification of Nabokov’s synaesthetic word combinations based on their semantic and syntactic features.
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Simona LOCIC - La nostalgie d’un « retour au pays natal » : Assia Djebar et Mariama Barry Université Alexandru Ioan Cuza de Iași, Faculté des Lettres, École Doctorale d'Études Philologiques, 1e année Mariama Barry, Assia Djebar, roman, Afrique
En parlant des premières œuvres africaines, dans l’Introduction au livre Littératures africaines, littératures francophones & utopies, Papa Samba Diop mentionne l’existence d’un Âge d’or, d’« un refuge dans le passé, quelles que puissent être les imperfections de celui-ci », « recelant des valeurs inestimables » pour l’homme africain soumis au vandalisme de l’époque coloniale. L’existence d’un espace utopique n’est pas caractéristique que de la littérature du passé. La littérature africaine des
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dernières années du XXe ou du début du XXIe siècle connaît elle aussi un sentiment de nostalgie pour un univers natal aux valeurs cathartiques et thaumaturgiques, qu’on veut retrouver ou qu’on remémore pour se retrouver et guérir. Ce sentiment de nostalgie n’est pas collectif. Il est vécu de manière individuelle et se rapporte à un temps et à un espace précis, mais aussi aux figures emblématiques ou aux ancêtres. Tout comme les romans d’Assia Djebar, les romans de Mariama Barry sont touchés par une nostalgie de l’enracinement, une nostalgie d’un espace perdu ou trop peu connu, qu’on veut trouver ou retrouver pour s’y mettre à l’abri, pour connaître la paix et se redécouvrir en tant qu’être humain qui ressent un besoin inné de se savoir appartenir à un certain lieu.
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Mihăiță-Bogdan SANDU - L'orientalisme français d'hier et d'aujourd'hui
Université Alexandru Ioan Cuza de Iași, Faculté des Lettres, Français-Roumain, Licence, 3e année curiosité, imagination, fascination, orientalisme, Bibliothèque orientale, Mille et une nuits
L’individu a été préoccupé dès l’Antiquité par la connaissance des mécanismes de fonctionnement de l’humanité et principalement de ses mystères. C’est dans la littérature qu’il commence à représenter le monde entier et manifester sa fascination pour tout ce qui lui est étrange. Son imagination est ainsi alimentée par la curiosité pour l’espace exotique, tel l’Orient, connu et inconnu en même temps. La quête de l’inédit et le « goût » de l’Orient sont inséparables.
L’orientalisme aura comme effet une interférence dans les domaines littéraire et linguistique. Un contact dont les Occidentaux seront les principaux bénéficiaires. Certains événements historiques, souvent liés à la religion, comme les Croisades, ont influencé le développement d’une tradition orientale, l’orientalisme devenant une véritable science au moment où les Occidentaux ont pris conscience de la richesse de l’univers oriental. L’apparition de la Bibliothèque orientale (1697) de Barthélemy d’Herbelot et la fameuse traduction des Mille et une nuits (1704-1717) d’Antoine Galland témoignent de la naissance de l’orientalisme scientifique. Et si l’orientalisme est le produit d’une interaction avec des altérités orientales qui fascinent, pourrait-on parler aussi d'un occidentalisme ? Car explorer l’Orient c’est peut-être en vérité un moyen de compréhension de soi.
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Ștefania SÂRBU - The Figure of Seducer in Elif Shafak's Three Daughters of Eve Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters, Romanian-English, BA, 1st year attraction, religion, love
This essay seeks to present the main male character of Elif Shafak's novel Three Daughters of Eve, professor Azur, as the epitome of the God-like seducer figure in the twenty-first century, a male Scheherazade whose storytelling gift transcends the traditional professor archetype.
Challenging his students to understand the divinity in a different way, professor Azur has an astounding power to attract them. This study is also an analysis of the manner in which the three students, Peri, Shirin and Mona, having distinct personalities and distinct views on religion, react to his attitude. At the same time, the writing describes how a normal relationship between a professor and his students can easily metamorphose into an unusual love story.
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Ana Mădălina SIMIUC - La Fontaine et Lessing entre le théâtre et la fable
Université Alexandru Ioan Cuza de Iaşi, Faculté des Lettres, Français-Allemand, Licence, 3e année La Fontaine, Lessing, fable, théâtre, morale
Le Français Jean de La Fontaine et l’Allemand Gotthold Ephraïm Lessing ont vécu dans des cultures et des siècles différents, mais ont en commun le génie de la fable. Notre étude s’arrête
