Literary Conversations

Studia Humanitatis No. II (XVIII) / 2024 Once again on atheism in *Mortua est!* Professor, PhD Nicolae Georgescu

The ending of Eminescu’s poem Mortua est!, particularly the spelling a tĕu in the first printed version in Convorbiri literare (1871), is analysed in relation to Titu Maiorescu’s successive editorial interventions, in order to demonstrate that the term conceals the etymological meaning of the privative ‘alpha’, rather than the commonly understood atheism, thereby reshaping the entire interpretation of the poem’s ending.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (XVII) / 2024 The Image of Light in Eminescu’s Poetry (II) Professor, PhD Nicolae Georgescu

This article analyses the role of punctuation in determining the meaning of key passages in Eminescu’s posthumous poetry, drawing on manuscripts, publications in Convorbiri literare, the Almanahul România Jună and the Maiorescu editions. The cases discussed — the comma in ‘Rugăciunea unui dac’, the hapax ‘nemurie’ in ‘Luceafărul’ and the lunar passage in ‘Satira IV’ — demonstrate how tacit changes to punctuation have distorted Eminescu’s cosmology and poetic logic.

Studia Humanitatis No. II (XVI) / 2023 The Image of Light in Eminescu’s Poetry (I) Professor, PhD Nicolae Georgescu

The article analyses the terms ‘luminare’ and ‘lumânare’ in Eminescu’s poetry, demonstrating that the editorial modernisations carried out by Titu Maiorescu, Perpessicius and others have distorted the meaning of the original expressions in ‘Letter I’, ‘The Night’ and ‘The Veranda Sonnet’, by confusing the lamp with the candle and undermining the coherence of the poetic image of light.

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