Open Access

In all of Joachim Wittstock’s works, in his novels as well as in his shorter prose writings, there is a tendency towards merging the factual with the fictional. This study deals with literary travel descriptions, the impulse to my considerations being given by a text written by J. Wittstock entitled Auf Reisen which contains some of the author’s ideas with regard to travel as a literary theme. The present approach deals analytically with the following texts: Christian Schesäus Transsilvanus, Die dalmatinische Friedenskönigin, Toskanische Türme, presenting imaginary travels in time and to particular places on the one hand and creating fictional works starting from authentic travels on the other hand. The travel descriptons of J. Wittstock merge real objectivity with aesthetic subjectivity in their structure. Of their structural elements the following are mentioned: multidimensionality of narrative structures; predomination not of temporal successions, but of leit motifs which structure the story; temporally delimited facts are combined in such a way that the space is being simul- taneously presented on several time planes. Well, I think that one can state that in J. Wittstock’s works the travel is a form of existence and that his travel descriptions must be regarded as examples of postmodern prose.

This article is a critical presentation of the study Der Zauber des fernen Königreichs. Carmen Sylvas Pelesch-Märchen/Farmecul regatului îndepãrtat. Poveştile Peleşului, (The Magic of the Faraway Kingdom. Carmen Sylva’s Tales of the Pelesh), edited at the Ibidem publishing house in Frankfurt this year. The author proves that – contrary to some opinions in current literary criticism, according to which the works of the queen poet were but recorded and retold Romanian folk tales and legends – Carmen Sylva’s writings are personal works with intrinsic literary value, where themes and motifs from the folklore and mythology or from the Romanian and occidental literature are used only as pre-texts. Silvia Zimmermann’s merit is a significant one, namely that of rediscovering Carmen Sylva who has not only been a creator, but also an important mediator between the Romanian and the German culture.

The book Dante und das Gedächtnis [Dante and Memory], published in 2021 by Schwabe Verlag Basel, is a complex interdisciplinary study addressing the issue of memory in the works of the medieval Italian writer and philosopher Dante Alighieri. The study is focused on a “historical approach”, but the investigation of the Commedia and Vita Nova makes use of narratological concepts as well. Monaco sets out to identify and interpret the reflections on memory present in Dante’s work. The well-documented and systematized study comprises a lot of new information about the poet, politician, and exile Dante Alighieri

The present study which was presented at an international scientific session dedicated to the Bologna process and to its implementation in Romania – session organized in Sibiu in the period May 6-8, 2010 – makes reference to the structure of the Bologna-type structure within the German Studies of Sibiu. There have been taken into account the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees as well as exemplifications regarding curricular aspects. The study points out both the strengths of the Bologna process and its weaknesses such as a more modest interaction between research and instruction within the Bachelor’s degree studies, whereas this desideratum can be better met within the Master’s degree programmes, the crowning achievement within the research activity being the doctorate.