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Edouard Glissant’s Romantic Fiction: A Subversive Rhetorical Strategy, an Anti-Poetic and a Composite Aesthetic Edouard Glissant denounces all forms of standardization, which model cultures to which he proposes an erratic and eccentric thought. It is specifically in that context that our article reexamined the question of Glissant’s subversive rhetorical strategy by relating it to the judicial impetus. In fact, it’s a question of a counter-rhetoric that underpinned not only anti-poetic, but also composite aesthetic. This is how the West Indian novelist-orator tries to annul cultural typicality and cultivate the intermixing between different human imaginations.

Mircea Săucan — The Best-Kept Secret of Romanian Cinema in the 1960’s-1980’s Mircea Săucan, one of the most atypical figures of Romanian narrative cinema, is yet to be unveiled. He only directed a few full-length features which were either banned or isolated from the rest of the films produced at the time. “When Spring Is Hot” (190) was one of the first Romanian movies to challenge propaganda clichés. Its poetic visuals had but one rival in Romanian cinema: “The Mist Is Lifting” (1958) by Iulian Mihu and Manole Marcus. “The Endless Shore” (1963) was meant to depict the socialist transformation of agriculture in Dobrogea, South-Eastern Romania. It ended up as a non-narrative poem about the miracle of love. “Meanders” (1967) is “one of the most daring quests for a highly expressive cinematic language so far”, said film theorist George Littera. “Alert” (1967) caused a big scandal because Săucan twisted the original subject story into a poetic film essay. “100 Lei” (1973) depicts a young misfit, as a victim of an indifferent and merciless society. The movie premiered in a truncated version, with some additional scenes that were meant to replace the tragic ending of the main character with a soft, “positive” conclusion.

Carmina Burana or the Force of Destiny On the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Romanian section of the National Theatre (formerly known as the State Theatre) and the Studio Theatre of the University of Arts in Târgu-Mureș, we consider it s important to recall events that contributed to the development and evolution of the two institutions. Thus, this paper aims to highlight a unique moment of 2012, in the cultural space of Mures, namely the first choreographic theatre performance at the National Theatre in Tîrgu-Mureș. Under the baton of master choreographer Gigi Căciuleanu, the performance “Carmina Burana” by Carl Off was born, uniting the two theatre troupes (the Romanian and the Hungarian troupes) as well as students from the University of Arts. This creates a much stronger bridge between the two institutions, becoming partners to produce this performance. Along with the members of the two companies, students from the choreography and acting departments and two professional dancers joined us.

Artistic Creation and Cancel Culture Online and in Cyprus The intensification of cancel culture is increasingly related to the expansion of the Internet and the impact of social media networking. It defines public debates or controversies, shared online, hard discourses that cancel a social phenomenon, an individual or his work. However, artistic expression and cancel culture, both closely connected to various cultural activities and online habits and practices, present dynamic interactions on the Internet. Artistic creation and cancel culture appear as standpoints that allow us to examine the limits of the freedom of online expression. Since they are both critical and political acts, they also help to question the subtle link between the individual and public perceptions. We will attempt to approach these questions through specific examples of worldwide and Cypriot events that sometimes show complicity and sometimes rivalry between artistic creation and cancel culture.

Is Shakespeare’s Work Problematic and Outdated? Shakespeare's work is seen by a growing number of “woke” teachers as problematic and outdated, with his work accused of promoting “misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism". Shakespeare’s relevance to today’s students is discussed, and it is noted that more and more teachers believe it is time for Shakespeare to be set aside to make way for modern, diverse and inclusive voices. From this perspective, our paper aims to analyze current trends of cultural “reconciliation” of the past with the present, which censors writers whose perspective, language or other details would be considered unacceptable today. We also try to answer the question: Is Shakespeare’s work problematic and outdated? We believe that although history is often painful, it does not become more beautiful through ignorance or the “restoration” of the past.

Stephen Sondheim and the Concept-Musical Concept-musical is a theatre genre that earned a lot of popularity in recent years and is very hard to define. Its focus is on a main theme and often it includes the use of multimedia elements. In these kinds of productions, the main theme drives everything: the narrative, the characters, the dialogue, the music and the dance; every song contributes to the story and its depth, helping the audience better explore certain themes and complex emotions. The concept-musical started taking shape in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until “Company” was released in 1971 when the term “concept” was adopted and included in the description of a musical. The man that perfected this genre was Stephen Sondheim, the most prolific author of concept musicals. He revolutionized modern musical theatre by moving the focus from the story to the concept, bringing big changes to the way of composing the music and the lyrics, to the development of the characters, and also to the nature of the theatrical experience.

The Escape through Religion of the Chekhovian Characters In a study that involves the interpretation of such complex characters as those in the sphere of Russian writing, I inevitably reached issues like faith, soul, religion, suffering and aspirations. Considering that mysticism underlies the Russian soul, I tried to understand the human dimension of the characters from Chekhov’s plays, “Three sisters”, “Uncle Vanya”, “The Cherry Orchard” and ”The Seagull”. Thus, I analyzed the abyssal Slavic soul through the ideas of Russian mystical school and its representatives, Paul Evdokimov, and Nikolai Berdiaev, starting from the image of Christ in Russian thinking. For Chekhov, one must be faithful or go in search of faith, otherwise, his life will be deserted.

“Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” The sudden appearance of a term imported from across the Atlantic - almost unknown until a few months ago - is spectacular. Cancel culture started with a noble goal, at least on the surface: to suppress those who make racist, homophobic speeches or promote any kind of hatred against a person. During the COVID-19 pandemic, cancel culture began trending again. This concept was made possible with the emergence of the Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and LGBTQ+ movements which were over-promoted on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Each movement uses its own definition, contradicting the others, sowing confusion, and stirring up anger, and contempt. The culture of nullification denies the very notion of truth and leads to extreme polarization in society, resulting in unhealthy violence in debate. These "condemnations" are aimed at university professors, writers, intellectuals, journalists, columnists, producers, actors, and anyone who dares to "offend" certain minorities or the dogmas of certain left-wing circles, even with a left-wing phrase. As a result of this phenomenon of cultural cancellation, books, films, and cartoons have begun to be altered or banned. Journalist, essayist, and researcher Alvaro Vargas Llosa (son of the famous writer Mario Vargas Llosa) believes this practice threatens democracy and is reminiscent of a dictatorship like North Korea.

“DOR” Magazine and the Vlogger Selly – a Type of Answer Towards Cancel Culture The case study analyses a recent attempt to discredit the independent magazine DOR, which published a comprehensive profile dedicated to the vlogger Selly in March 2019. The magazine is an editorial project created by Cristian Lupșa as an alternative to “the compromises and doubtful quality of the majority of the magazine on the market”. It has become well-known as a print and online platform for debating important themes, such as domestic violence, equal rights for minorities, and social inclusion of underprivileged ethnic groups. According to this editorial vision, the magazine published an article about the vlogger Selly, who was 18 years old at that time and had two million followers on his YouTube channel. The article attempted to describe the person and the phenomenon behind his vlogging. The article generated a series of negative reactions and online attacks against the magazine and Selly, reflecting major generational differences in Romanian perceptions, as well as an efficient response to cancel culture.

The Cancel Culture Between Quest for Justice and Overflow Cancel culture has developed in the various arts in multiple facets in order to publicly denounce individuals, groups or institutions responsible for acts, behaviours or remarks considered inadmissible or despicable by human society. Even if the concept of "the cancel culture " appeared at the end of the 2010s. Thus, more than an awareness strategy, the objective of the cancel culture in the arts is part of a real confrontation and continual struggle to minimize the impact of groups and behaviours that threaten modern societies. Since September 11, 2001 and the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, several directors have chosen to fight against religious fanaticism and terrorism by directing films that denounce Islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism in all its forms. The appearance of Daesh in Syria and Iraq has led to the proliferation of cinematographic works that denounce the brutality, religious fanaticism and terrorism of this terrorist group. However, we note that a large part of the cinematographic works and successful series have attached the label of terrorist to Muslims and to the inhabitants of the Arab-Muslim world. In other words, by fighting against certain behaviours and stereotypes, some of the filmmakers have contributed to creating new stereotypes and nourishing them through artistic creations that stigmatize a particular religious category. We will first seek to present the different social representations of the phenomenon of cancel culture in popular culture and on social networks. In this first part, we will demonstrate the role of the cancel culture in delivering justice to victims in new, less legal and more instantaneous forms. Secondly, we will illustrate through different cinematographic examples how the concept of the cancel culture has led to the appearance of films and series that denounce intolerance, religious fundamentalism and terrorism. Finally, we will focus on the limits of this concept which has overflowed in several artistic representations to turn into the stigmatization and lynching of a particular social and religious category.

The thematic aspect of “Jihad” in the theater of Ismaël Saïdi The evolution of the theater is always articulated in competition with the development of its themes due to the fact that the playwright most often presents to his audience plays containing themes that are familiar to him, which are drawn from the time in which he lives and which evoke for him an obvious reality, which he could witness. In this context, it should be noted that Jihad represents one of the themes that have occupied a primordial place on the international scene in recent decades. This is why certain studies have been carried out in order to deal with this phenomenon and to determine its dimensions and main causes. Insofar as the theater was forever and still remains the most faithful and sensitive barometer of the social, sociological and ideological changes of the human race, it extends to play a major role in order to shed light on this paradoxical phenomenon and dealing with it. Certain courageous contemporary playwrights, of whom we stopped on Ismaël Saïdi, did not hesitate to take the step to treat this topic via their dramatic works. This author does not only seek to approach jihad from his dramatic art, but rather he gave the name to one of his plays, "Djihad" which appeared in 2014 and which represents the object of this study.

Cancel Culture, Freedom and the Accomplished Human Cancel culture refers to a social phenomenon that has been little explored in Romania. There has not been much debate and often this concern to better understand the history and to question certain things has been seen as an attack on the foundations of society and its values, as an attack stemming from globalism and neo-Marxism. In this article, I intend to show that we can find in the ancient institution of ostracism an origin for "cancel culture" and, moreover, like ostracism which aims at limiting too great a power, cancel culture can be seen as a manifestation of freedom, as a way of questioning and assuming the historicity of man and society.

The paper presents some emblematic examples from Bulgarian theatrical history, in which the culture of rejection has been ruthlessly applied even to artists loyal to the regime. One of the most significant ones is with scenographer Svetoslav Genev. For the first time in the history of Bulgarian theatre, a set designer became a managing director. He rose to this position thanks to his personal qualities and ambition as well as to the strong Communist connections his family had. During the period of his directorship, he created one of the most impressive designs for a theatre performance, rejecting Socialist Realism as an official method in arts. Despite his strong positions in Communist Pary, after the Prague Spring everything, he was largely thrown out of public life.

Cancel Culture, Between a Historical Revenge and a Restored Poetics of Futurism The study aims to analyze the phenomenon of cancel culture and the references that can be drawn between the subsumed manifestations of cancel culture and futurism, as defined at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. By reviewing the changes that the artistic avant-garde brings to the arts and observing how the twentieth century highlights art as a statement and the subjectivity of the artist as a unique landmark, the paper identifies a tendency of political and social actions to be inspired, although not assumed, by a poetic area, by a high and permissive invisible that justifies, beyond ideology, social behaviours. Beyond the stakes of historical reparation and prevention of discrimination, which the cancel culture proposes, we will try to identify a possible cause of the poetic anchoring of the phenomenon, as well as the risks associated with this inverted mimesis: a reality which imitates art in order to preserve the vitality and the expressiveness of its actions.

The Relationship Between the Online Advertising and the Growth of Narcissistic Behaviours in Youth Cyberpsychology analyzed, since the beginning of the 90s, human behaviour in the digital environment and emphasized a few defining effects of this behaviour, such as the online anonymity effect, related to the online uninhibited effect or the online escalation effect. (Aiken 2019, 13) Analyzed from this perspective, online narcissism, exacerbated by the intense social media usage during the Covid-19 pandemic, is a behaviour amplified in the digital environment, compared to its dimensions in the real life. The specialists underline that individuals who use social media excessively develop narcissistic tendencies, and the young manifest oppositional behaviours, aggressive and anxious tendencies, being the most vulnerable category of the online public. The article analyses the relationship between online publicity and the amplification of narcissistic behaviours in young users, using as a case study the campaign #TheSelfieTalk, launched by the brand DOVE in the spring of 2021, as a communication programme meant to fight the young girls’ vulnerability in social media.

Archiving historical photographic works in museums is not easy because an archiving staff does not only archive photos but also has to take care of, examine photo data, and present them to the public so that they become archives that are worth showing off. Researchers, together with archive staff, will categorize photos based on three categories, namely photos of colonial cultural history, the war of independence, and the period of nation building. In this case, the research aims to find out work patterns and what an archiving staff does, categorize photos, know virginity and archiving methods so that it is useful to add references to the breadth of the photography profession that will be conveyed to the public. Preservation of photographic works is also a form of long-term research that requires patience because of the very broad aspects of its work. Proper handling, storage, or reconstruction of historical photographic material requires special care, so this research is expected to provide a new discourse to the public regarding the breadth of the world of photographic work that is not limited to photographing skills.

The Representation of the Postwar Period in Zita Szeleczky’s Press Appearances, Lawsuit and Private Letters From 1936 to 1944, the Hungarian star world created a unique tabloid environment in both the print press and film production. Zita Szeleczky (1905–1999), one of the most popular Hungarian actresses of the 1930s and 1940s, was on the one hand called the little sister of the nation, and on the other hand, politically stigmatised on several occasions for her clumsy career planning and self-expression. The latter was due to the fact that, from the first years of the Second World War onwards, the actress made a number of objectionable decisions out of naivety, vanity or resentment. Her death was reported in the printed press and she was condemned as a war criminal in absentia. In the present study, we have not sought to comment on any of this, but have merely supplemented the factual information available in the press and in the People’s Court documents with relevant details from the private correspondence of 1946 and 1947, which illustrate the experiences and opinions of the actress and her colleagues. Zita Szeleczky’s career and fate were shattered, and she had to start her life anew during the post-war years. As a result of our research, it can be concluded that the main details of the actress’s character assassination were drawn from the antecedents of Zita Szeleczky’s People’s Court trial, from the articles examined in chronological order in 1945 and from the trial material. In addition, the post-war condition is reflected in several examples of Zita Szeleczky’s private correspondence from the period under study. Following her character assassination, her break with fate – the trauma she had suffered – she must have continued to fear that Italy would extradite her to Hungary and would have to execute her sentence. She also tried, partly with her colleagues and partly on her own, to launch her international career, which was not initially very successful, mainly due to post-war tensions in 1946 and 1947.

The Role and Dangers of Selfie Culture from a Social-Psychological Perspective During the COVID-19 Pandemic In 2013, “selfie” was named the word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary, implying a self-portrait photograph taken by oneself using a digital camera or a smartphone, mainly to post on social media. In the past decade, selfies have become a new medium for self-expression and self-representation (Qiu et al. 2015). On social media platforms, users publish virtual self-representations that are influenced by “real-life” individual and societal changes (Hogan & Quan-Haase 2010); which is also reflected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of social media and self-representation in social media posts increased during the first and the second wave of the pandemic, with selfies among the most popular types of content shared (Sándor 2022a; Sándor 2022b). The goal of the current paper is to provide a concise review of the selfie phenomenon from the perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic, supported by the author's research results on self-representation and image modification on social media.

The tradition continued to be important, though the controversial issue of Hungarian book publishing in Romania following the 1989 changes from a socialist to a market economy and from a dictatorship to a democracy. While before 1989 the Hungarian publishing scene was largely dominated by one publishing house, Kriterion, during a period of transition it gradually diversified both structurally and in the way of editorial programs. Cultural traditions, the quality as well as the number of available manuscripts and the reading public’s expectations on the one hand, and financial and logistical circumstances on the other were some of the main factors that determined editorial programs in the transitional era. Pre-1989 Kriterion’s editorial program seems to have been a benchmark for budding publishing houses in many respects; however, there are also a number of positive/negative divergences. My paper examines the extent to which, after the regime change, Hungarian publishing houses in Romania continue and/or break the traditions established by former editorial boards, also, it presents the circumstances that influenced editorial programs in the new era.

Romanian Visual Artists’ Practices in Promoting their Artworks An open call for an online visual arts exhibition promises global visibility in exchange for a sum of money to be communicated in private only. Once I acknowledged this invitation, I contacted the curator for clarifications about the means of ensuring the promised global visibility and the number of social media followers I shall gain, questioning their marketing intentions and knowledge. I decided to find out how many credulous visual artists are in Romania and their social media habits. I conceived an online questionnaire about social media usage and spread it among artists from Romania, obtaining answers from most counties and from abroad. I found the responses: which are the most used social networks; what social media marketing knowledge artists have; the number of followers and content interactions; the relationship between personal websites, exhibitions, and social media.

Political NarcissismFacebook is an ideal field for all forms of political narcissism. The variations range from a simple obsession with the self – which is the best-known expressive mode of narcissism – to tense compensation of self-hate. The classic narcissistic user is that who schematically hunts for likes in a fashionable hairstyle, with fashionable accessories, with fashionably cute children in a fashionable holiday spot, hiding in his/her own opinion bubble, erasing all opposing opinions. However, Facebook is also a daily field of interaction, in which debate partners and opposing opinions appear. For the atypical narcissistic user a countering opinion is a form of self-confirmation: despite all “attacks” I am right and all enemies can be defeated or erased. The elections and the currently unfolding war have fortified both types of narcissism. Professional politicians, on Facebook – independent of their private personalities – are forced to appear narcissistic in either forceful or refined ways, this being a necessity of their calling. The analyst-type users – or those who present themselves that way – are in a more complicated situation. In this circle, the most affirming partner is one who comments with an opposing opinion. One can communicate an intellectual advantage over such partners using a so-called sense of reality derived from more education, or communicating an advantage in terms of grammar and use of language. The person writing the opposing opinion – depending on the topic – can be seen as uneducated, biased or a paid troll, who by the very act of posting their countering opinion confirms that the “analyst” is an exceptional individual. And is, of course, right.

Facade Building, Selfies and Narcissistic Self-Representation in New Media Representing the human face is not an easy task. Susan Sontag points out that one wants an idealized image of oneself: a photo that shows one’s best side. It feels unfair not to be more beautiful in the picture than in reality. This, in turn, shows that most of the photographs are not honest. In addition to the psychological aspect, there is also a sociological one: the construction of the facade, as described by Goffman in his work “Presenting the Self in Everyday Life”. He thinks building a facade is an identity-building strategy for the public, like Facebook. New media has become part of everyday life. This is especially true for Facebook. Over the past decades, there have been major changes in technology that have affected the culture of image and vision. All of this allowed us to take self-photos at any time and publish them in digital media as soon as possible. A selfie (self-photograph) is a photograph that a photographer takes of himself. A selfie is usually a photograph taken with a cell phone and has distinctive features such as a mirror image. A narcissistic person can make many selfies and publish them on social media to seek constant approval. The narcissist can push selfish behaviour to the extremes, to pathological boundaries. The most striking is that even serious people with significant social status make selfies. It is worth circumventing the assumption that there are scientists who consider the selfie to be a mental illness. The evolving technology encourages users of digital media interfaces to try to create an even more complex user profile of themselves. By enabling self-representation, new media is generating more and more knowledge.

The concept of liminality is explained and developed by anthropologists and aims to give the reader a closer look on how rituals are conducted in small societies combining everything with something that is based on experience. This paper aims on addressing the issue of old age, the connection between the passage of time and the gradual degradation of man, but it also focuses on other problems that arise with aging and the transition from life to death. Theoretical approaches are used to explain the use of the observational style in documentary filming when real people’s experiences are followed and then transposed in an observational style into a documentary film. It uses as a case study on my personal observational documentary entitled “You, Margaret” (2021).

The Changes of Preferences and Attitudes in Piano Teaching During the First Year of the Pandemic Online education introduced in the spring of 2020 changed the methods of piano education fundamentally. At SZTE Vántus István Secondary School of Music and SZTE Béla Bartók Faculty of Arts there is both attendance and online education.. During the last year we have gained a lot of experience about which methods are useful, and which practices we needed to abandon for the interest of professional training: using digital tools and platforms; changes in the composition of curriculum, and the preferences of reporting; changes in course of lessons. Instead of demonstrative methods, verbal explanations and new forms of technical and musical processes gained a bigger role. The oppotunities of using ICT tools and online communication in the higher piano education of the future. Overally it can be stated that there are effective solutions in digital and hybrid education, although their efficiency is not adequate. It is positive that the students’ improvement did not halt, they were able to show progress. This study is about our new opportunities, methods, rules and the pedagogical aspects.

This paper aims to illustrate the results of a pilot study carried out with 20 students attending an Italian middle school after the lockdown. In the first phase of the research, the music teacher collected data about the personal memories of the students related to the soundscape of quarantine. The thematic analysis showed that while most students identified listening and making music as relaxing and positive activities, others had trouble remembering the sounds heard during the lockdown. After that, the students were asked to describe the seasons of quarantine through a multimodal approach, which combined music, words, and pictures. The students used Google Classroom and mobile apps to meet, discuss and share ideas. Most of the notes of the students were referred to positive affects. This demonstrated the value of the music lesson as a space to express emotions in stressful conditions, like those caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language defines art as „an activity of man that aims to produce aesthetic values and that uses means of expression with a specific character; all the works (from an era, from a country, etc.) that belong to this activity”. Looking back, we find that, regardless of the era we are focusing on, art, as a whole, has not known downtime, despite any unfavourable conditions of a social or economic nature. On the contrary, when major crisis situations took over society, art experienced a revival in almost all its forms of expression.

Paris Epidemic and Art World When reading music history writings, music textbooks a while ago, we quickly skipped those statements as “in that year cholera was raging in the city”, or “everybody who had the possibility moved to the countryside away from the epidemic”. Today however, as a global pandemic hit us as well, we are getting caught up in these findings, and we are reading every detail with special attention. It is a fact that in the spring of 1832, Paris suffered a widespread cholera epidemic, resulting in 18,400 deaths in the city and nearly 100,000 in France. We wonder how this affected the contemporary art life? We will try to analyze this, quoting from the testimonies of the writers-poets, as well as focusing on the living conditions of some significant musicians, highlighting the events of their career from those times.

Drama and its Contribution to the Fight Against the Covid-19 Pandemic in Côte d’Ivoire The topical nature of the subject justifies its relevance. The analysis, based on field observations, is inspired by the approaches that underlie social criticism. It reveals, in the beginning, a disinterest in the pandemic, concern left to anonymous and improvised actors producing a “drama of misunderstanding” trivializing the plague. Then came an awakening of professionals in drama, which the sociocritical analysis of the Ivorian case explains by the difficulties encountered by the politicians. Indeed, the speed and firmness of the decisions, contrasting with their application, selective, soft or absent, give matter to a dramatic production. Drama is involved in raising public awareness through filmed productions. This analysis proposes solutions for efficient handling of the pandemic through Drama. They advocate the massive realization of works couraging anti-covid vaccination and barrier measures, through the theme, the attitude of actors and spectators.

Putting in context conditions in which art, especially music and performing arts, exists in the time of pandemic, proportions and a possibility of achieving the goals from the New European Agenda for Culture will be analysed. Aiming to harness the full potential of culture to help build a more inclusive and fairer EU, supporting innovation, creativity and sustainable jobs and growth, increased cultural participation and building cohesive societies the role of music and performing arts will be highlighted. According to the GESAC study „Rebuilding Europe. The cultural and creative economy before and after the COVID-19 crisis“(January 2021), the performing arts are the most affected areas within the cultural and creative industries. For that reason, the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media has adopted several measures which aim to help the cultural sector, particularly performing artists, during the Covid-19 crisis. During the 2 months, digital platforms have served as the only place of activity and sharing of cultural content, so Ministry has decided to open the Call for online activities as an additional source of financing. By reviewing the effectiveness of adopted measures it will be shown which new models of communication and cooperation have the potential to become a new cultural value in the future, as a consequence of the crisis. The new models in the form of distributed online content in the field of music and performing arts sector will be questioned in the context of cultural politics. An example of good practice in adapting the cultural sector to new circumstances, the project of students of Production at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, who designed the review of student plays in a completely new innovative format, the so-called KRADU 24, will be presented.

The idea of repeating musical themes in various configurations is a technique practiced since ancient times and is still valid today. Recognizing the ways of the motivic transformation and identifying the type of intervention on a work (paraphrasing, or quotation) reveals not only the composition process of the author but also makes possible the aesthetic description of the musical content. The learning objectives (like many disciplines) have undergone changes in the digital context of the pandemic year, so the main goal in the elaboration of specialized courses is maintaining students’ interest in music and especially encouraging their analytical introspection of scores and musical auditions.

With the installation of the COVID19 pandemic in our lives, already for a year, dance, an art mostly viewed live, on different stages and in theaters, has moved its activity online. It tried to adapt to the new requirements, managing to survive in these conditions. Most of the theaters started to post often on social networks, hoping that through this increased activity, they would still keep their audience. The purpose of this writing is to pre-sent the advantages and disadvantages of passing choreographic performances in the online environment. Was this compelling to stop the physical meeting a barrier from all points of view, or did it also bring positive parts in the choreographic field? Has it increased or restricted the imagination? What will happen to choreographic art in the next period? In the future, will the audience want to watch live choreographic performances or will they prefer the online environment?

The pandemic has temporarily changed our lives; there is no doubt that we are rapidly moving into a digital and virtual society; however, we so far do not know when this change will end, despite the emergence of post-pandemic terminology. Sound art is a form of art that has developed across disciplines since its emergence to contemporary times. And as a soundscape, what can be recorded during a pandemic, and as a composite of music and sound, can sound art be used as a digital archive during a pandemic? This paper hopes to explore the possibilities of sound art as an archive through artistic practice, reflecting on the changes and flows of soundscapes in the context of the pandemic.

The paper invite to a reflection on one of the most current themes, namely, opera performance in the pandemic. One of Tompa Gábor's recent directorial performances of W. A. Mozart 's Magic Flute saw the limelight in October 2020 on the stage of the Hungarian Opera in Cluj-Napoca. Interpreted in a contemporary key, the stage representation proposes a new vision on the future of a young couple in love in a chaotic, deceptive, labyrinthine world, dominated by profit, manipulation and temptations, in which the truth is relative and the value replaced by its simulacrum. A universe of meanings adapted to the immediate reality in which, more than ever, we intuit, we even feel the strings with which the puppeteers of this world force us to play according to their own interest.

Cyprus, music and artistic creation have significantly expanded their presence in mass media, the Internet and social media because of the social distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. As cultural expressions, on the air and online, they have reinforced their strong popular and intercultural character during this period since cultural activity embodies an unprecedented but common experience in an interconnected world. At the same time, music and art serve values that reveal their connection with the social and political context and prompt us to re-examine their parallel or mutual definition. Various cultural agents and actors express themselves through original music, artistic and cultural spaces that present dialogue and bolder speeches often of a participatory nature. From this perspective, music and art in Cyprus during the pandemic present a case study of a critical polyphony that appears through the interaction of multiple spaces, discourses and values.

Do the actor and the spectator meet? The acting student and the teacher by any chance? Of course, they meet, because they are in the same space or if they are limited to online courses due to the pandemic, they are participants in the same event, be it a lecture or a teaching process. But I am not talking about this meeting, I am not intrigued by this superficial contact. For me, the meeting is a conscious, obviously essential connection of the participants. We do not push the image of ourselves forward, but we relate honestly, simply, openly, and curiously to each other, to our environment, and to the events. Something that hardly happens in the current theatre. And it is simply impossible in the online space. So now I refrain from exploring the latter option and only consider the “traditional”, face-to-face, real, physical encounters. More specifically, its shortcomings.

The Effects of Music on the Human Psyche Music is a complex phenomenon that has accompanied humanity since its inception by adopting multiple forms. The compositional act itself can be defined, in a broad sense, as the processing of a certain musical content springing from the infinite cognitive processing of the individual. In the trials of history on humanity, music receives spiritual valences, becoming an auditory vehicle with strong healing meanings. The first references to the role that music played during an epidemic throughout history can be found during the Renaissance when Europe, especially Italy, was devastated by the plague. The composers inserted in the madrigals and motets of the time different rhetorical figures with reference to the landmark events of the period. What was the purpose of these insertions in the musical material? How can music help us through its own means and methods to cooperate with the negative effects that a global pandemic brings to the sphere of human consciousness?

The Local Repertoire of Concerts Presented by the Conductor Mihai Guttman "Born in the interwar period (1926) in Petroșani, Mihai Guttman showed his early passion for music, and this passion determined him to be among the founding members of the Music School in Cluj in 1949. The orchestra of the school, established and led by him, has progressed to such an extent that in 1951 he held his first symphonic concert. Numerous compositions of the composer of Cluj Sigismund Toduță were presented for the first time by conductor Mihai Guttman. In addition to the concerts dedicated to the first auditions of Toduță, Mihai Guttman also promoted the creation of the young generation. Mr. Cornel Țăranu, at that time a young student, today a member of the Romanian Academy, composed several works for the choral ensemble led by conductor Guttman, mentioning the madrigals on the lyrics of József Attila, Ion Vinea, and Luci-an Blaga. For the 1964 premiere of the cantata “Stejarul lui Horea” by Cornel Țăranu, the choral part was prepared by Mihai Guttman. Also, the master from Cluj included in the repertoire of the ensemble works by Anatol Vieru, Vasile Jianu, Mihai Moldovan, Liviu Glodeanu and many others."

"The Living Painting" or on Intermediality in the Theater Intermediality, as an act which is necessarily an extension of what we might call inter-arts, makes theatre reconfigure not only its status, but also its structural elements. Thus, the presence becomes a theme which is impossible to be avoided in the analytical approach of theatre. It is the presence that is led in the direction of integrating the multiple meanings of those media that are on same level with the dedicated theater art. Our study will try to point out some elements that make intermediality transform the theatrical into a “composition” with paradoxical meanings and significances.

True and False in New Media New media has become a part of everyday life. This is particularly true of Facebook, which everyone tends to visit, even if they deny it. Significant academics and seemingly serious politicians are as present on social media as charlatans and rogues; organizations with an interest in causing confusion are also active, while organizations dedicated to obstructing confusion are not passive. It is also well known that one wrong Facebook post can cause an avalanche – whether consciously or accidentally. On the net – and to a degree on Facebook – all facts appear directly or referenced as in line with reality and thus true. At the same time, all positions that are false are also present. It is common knowledge that false, faked, misleading, or – let’s be honest – simply stupid statements are difficult to recognize, especially in the time of a pandemic. We face several entirely new phenomena which lack explanations based on scientific consensus. Social responses to the pandemic and the effects of political and bureaucratic efforts are controversial. Furthermore, even the best-intended actions – which in some cases are rational – cause interruptions in the usual carrying on of life, and factual pandemic news cause uncertainty. That is to say, true statements awaken the desire for “fake news”. Wittgenstein closed his famous logical-philosophical essay with the words “that whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent”. It is possible that the situation is now reversed. That whereof we must remain silent, thereof we must speak.

The Return of Odeons or Dramatised Reading as Performance The actor is by tradition a transmitter of texts: this role is not new. However, a discreet but growing phenomenon has made him an explicit mediator of reading books. The ancient odeons, those buildings once dedicated to public reading or music, seem to double the stages of our theatres with an invisible presence. Often the actor, or the director, dramatizes reading, makes a performance of his relationship with the book: the show becomes a dramatized reading. This article endeavours to isolate its distinctive features, in particular: the delegation of the first act of opening the book, the staging of the reading, the principle of interaction, the principle of aperitive selection, and the production of a major affect, the ‘libido legendi’, which in turn induces a particular dramaturgy, where the treatment of thresholds and scansions is of particular importance. In appendix, a testimony by Nicolas Lormeau.

Triptych Silviu Purcărete: Theatre as Infidelity Silviu Purcărete is one of the most appreciated creators in recent theatre history, a fact which has given him international fame, thanks to the special way in which he tackles the canonical texts of universal literature. This paper, far from being considered exhaustive, doesn’t necessarily aim to introduce rigid criteria of the universe of Purcărete, but to propose a critical analysis entwined with an exercise in admiration. We will try to surprise some of his structural obsessions, by relying on three of the most popular performances signed by the director on the stage of the “Radu Stanca” National Theatre in Sibiu: “Faust”, “Metamorphoses”, “The Scarlet Princess”.

Autofiction, a Performative Genre The purpose of this paper is to comment on the emergence of autofiction genre and its meaning. Beginning with a comparative analysis of this genre and the autobiographical one we will show the lack a stability of its definition since the 1970’s until dawn of the 21st century. This neologism, created by Serge Doubrovsky in 1969 shall be rebuilt by the author himself in 1977. Doubrovsky shall hence define that concept for a period of twenty years without achieving to fix all the issues concerning that very word. Beyond the more or less accepted combination of deconstructed narration, split subject and links to the psychoanalysis, autofiction genre appears to contain a performative potential. We will question about how and in which way autofiction parts itself from autobiography, showing it is from the beginning intrinsically performative

Franz Lehár and the „Contradictions” of a Marxist Approach to Operetta Following the import of Soviet musical plays and Socialist attempts at creating contemporary Hungarian ones, the “new cult of classical operetta” started with The Count of Luxembourg at the Budapest Operetta Theatre after its nationalization. How was it possible in 1952, a year of the Rákosi regime which presented the inhabitants with a serious challenge in all respects, when Franz Lehár’s and Emmerich Kálmán’s works had been discredited for years? What transformation of the plot, the characters and the music did it require? What interpretation of the story? What change in acting styles from the old stars of operetta? How could an adaptation whose popularity has remained undiminished for almost seventy years be born there and then? My essay seeks answers to these questions, examining the relationship between communist dictatorship and playing operettas through the case study of a legendary production.

The necessary illusion of (mis)information "The launch of the miniseries “The Loudest Voice” (Tom McCarthy, Alex Metcalf) in the summer of 2019 draws the attention once again to the manipulative power of mass media. The production presented by Showtime in 2019 and taken over by HBO stirred an important interest, due to the subject it presents, namely the way in which in the mid-90s the Republican Roger Ailes built and consolidated on the American media market the Fox News television channel, through a radical approach, very politically engaged and, as later proved, immoral and sexist, toxic. The miniseries was produced at the same time as Ailes was accused, in 2016, of sexual abuse and harassment by former employees of the station, and at the time of his death, a year later, in 2017. These two controversial topics attract the interest of the current world establishment, which offered the Golden Globe to Russell Crowe for his role in “The Loudest Voice“ and nominated Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie for the Oscars based on their performances in “Bombshell”, a film that also appeared in 2019 and dealt with the same subject, but from the perspective of the female colleagues harassed by Ailes. Linking the ideas expressed by Noam Chomsky in the '80s and '90s and the way “The Loudest Voice” treats the illusion that the press often builds, I aim to follow the way the process of media manipulation is refined in time and becomes the main tool of the current political competition. It is extremely interesting the way in which, in just a few generations, the content of a debate no longer matters, but the performative act itself."

“Why can’t we dance the painting?” This article, born of a reflection initiated at the research seminar conducted by Patrice Pavis, questions the forms of multidisciplinary plays. How can dancing seize painting and enrich the picture with currents meanings? Dancers, like Joseph Nadj or Trisha Brown, used to draw during the show. Sometimes, choreographer draw their inspiration from a canvas of the past that echoes the present. This is the case of Gaëlle Bourges whose play we are going to discuss here: Conjurer la peur, which evokes a fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

Tragedy on Stage : Translation, Adaptation and the Body in Contemporary Drama Tragedy has always been an important literary genre. Topics dealt with these plays have so deeply penetrated the imaginary worldwide, in a way that in every century one can find rewritings of those scenarios. The aim of this paper is to stimulate a reflection on the reception of Greek tragedies in the contemporary age. More specifically, we will look at the fortune of the “Oresteia”. This issue will be the starting point for a discussion concerning the ways in which the Classics enter the contemporary theatrical repertoire. With the aid of some examples, we will delve into some approaches in this practice. At first we will examine the difference between the translation of a Greek tragedy and an adaptation of such type of play. The comparison will lead us to some relevant considerations on the function of the actor’s body in these mises en scène.

New Performative Forms in Ancient Practices: The Greek Symposion as “mise en perf” . Synesthaesia, Sympotic Space and Performance The Greek symposion was an all-male drinking celebration that included wine consumption, love, games, philosophical conversation, and live performance by both the symposiasts and by professional artists. Using the terms “performise” and “mise en perf,” coined by Patrice Pavis, this article explores how new performative forms can be found in ancient practices and, more specifically, within the cultural performance that was the Greek symposion. These two terms encompass both the performative and the theatrical character of the symposion that can both be traced through the study of its specific ritual and of sympotic space (the dining room dedicated exclusively to the symposion). In this way, a reinterpretation of this ancient social and cultural event will be provided through the lens of Theatre Studies and Performance Theory.

Ion Manolescu, Between „Ghost“ and People`s Artist. The Image of the Artist as a Metaphor of His Society Ion Manolescu, the cousin of my great-grandfather, was one of the most beloved Romanian actors between the two World Wars. Constantly living and working in precarity, he happily accepted what the Romanian comunist regime had to offer to him: a new, safe job at the National Theatre, and the best position an actor could have during those years: the title of People`s Artist, imported from URSS. In this article, I use the concept of „metaphor“ as developed in cognitive sciences by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, to see how the actor that played for the first time in Interwar Romania a praised Osvald Alving („Ghosts“, by Henrik Ibsen), came to play, at the beginning of Romanian communist regime, a sad Gloucester in a sad and compromising production of „King Lear“.