Conference Presentations by Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
This article tackles a “phenomenological” reading of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame drama which eludes ... more This article tackles a “phenomenological” reading of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame drama which eludes the “absurdist” label and renders a plausible case for investigating the antagonistic, (dis)embodied voices of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception and Sartrean “embodied” existence (‘being-in-itself’). In this respect, the hypothesis of this article advocates the ambiguous conscious being of Beckett’s absurd plays, which, in Endgame, is made visible in its way of ‘being-for-itself’. Therefore, the aim of this article focuses on the examination of “embodiment” within current Beckett studies which may potentially contribute to enlarge the relatively new field of cognitive neuroscience by highlighting the overlapping of literary theory and the transgressive field of consciousness studies as well as to establish a more profound cooperation between literary and theatrical critics on one hand and clinicians, psychiatrists and neuroscientists on the other hand. As a research method, this article employs Beckett’s core image of Endgame (since the outset, the protagonist experiences a state of physical immobility, but he keeps awake his mental mobility – an inner vision – in spite of the landscape and his own view) to question the existing concepts of mental disorder related to the embodied subject (i.e. the quintessentially “existentialist” Beckett protagonist, Hamm, who is a conscious mind unruffled by materiality, becomes the embodiment of for-itself being, driven to its utterly limits of absurdity on the stage). This study resides in a comprehensive exploration of the reflective consciousness made visible by the variety of philosophical tools employed by Beckett in his mind mapping subjectively known through consciousness. The (dis)embodied voice of Endgame acts well from the subconscious mind of the “hearer”/narrator/speaker’s – in terms of an embodied, perceiving being – as a psychological disorder. This article extrapolates the condition of Beckettian consciousness (as an absurdist concern) as it strives to distinguish itself from a bodily being which it cannot escape – being by its very nature, embodied, or forced to become perceptible according to the metaphysics of presence between physical and psychical being.
This article tackles the evidence-based relationship between categories of campus remodelling acr... more This article tackles the evidence-based relationship between categories of campus remodelling across first to third age group of undergraduate students following a three-year study at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi (UAIC) in Romania. As a method, we selected a multistage random sampling with n = 1140 students. We also used The Multivariate Analysis of Variance (Manova) test run with SPSS version 21 to contrast the student’s campus remodelling of UAIC by age group status of first (n = 837), second (n = 229), and third (n = 73) age group. As results, we observed that during the academic remodelling, the second and third age group of students experienced positive outcomes while the first faced negative results. Regarding the social remodelling, the first and third age group of students underwent positive net results while the second came across negative outcomes. As for the psychological remodelling, the first and third age group of students had positive test results while the second met negative outcomes. Within the institutional remodelling the second and third age group students manifested positive outcomes while the first age group students exhibited negative outcomes. The contribution of this article is to argue that there are considerable contrasts among students’ age groups from first to third concerning various categories of campus remodelling. To conclude, the present article aims to demonstrate that campus remodelling across higher education age group status influences undergraduate students’ academic experiences.
Within the context of multidimensional education, the efficiency of language teaching and assessm... more Within the context of multidimensional education, the efficiency of language teaching and assessment in English involves depolarizing the educational process, disbanding boundaries, and encouraging students to actively participate in the educational process, with reference to the students-centered training process, adjusted to their learning needs and propensities as well as their specifically linguistic, cultural and social interests, focusing on skills building activities and exploring their metacognitive, cognitive and social potential. Taking into account the fact that the process of thinking is done by the linguistic categories, this paper aims to highlight the idea that metacognition through metalanguage underscores the role of the subject in both knowledge and learning process awareness by self-control, self-appreciation and the self-refinement of his/her own cognition. This fact allows metacognitive strategies in devising communicative language skills in English – according to CEFR (writing, reading, listening and speaking skills) – by making assessment strategies more efficient. The implementation of this strategy aims at mobilizing the cognitive, metacognitive and social domain in the process of coining communicative skill in EFL teaching (English as a Foreign Language), especially in the field of plurilingual skills development and intercultural communication though developing language acquisition and encouraging the use of language as well as acquiring skills as an advanced user.
This article links the conceptual investigation of ‘multilingualism’ with the survey of how this ... more This article links the conceptual investigation of ‘multilingualism’ with the survey of how this concept has been employed and offset in post-Holocaust America. Our intention is to provide a methodological contribution on language as a dimension of super-diversity. Therefore, this research aims to: focus on the concept of ‘multilingualism’; outline the development of a Jewish diasporic discourse on multilingualism in post-Holocaust America, highlighting problems associated with the politicization of the concept; and to analyze various endeavors to determine the American contemporary multilingualism. Our argument here is that for many Jewish American writers succeeding the immigrant generation, Hebrew and Yiddish are sources of self-expression and identity even if they cannot “remember” them as a means of communication. In this case, Roth’s understanding of what these languages represent is always the result of the constant, cultural legacy, as well as the acceptance of the American English that also shapes the meaning of his Jewish languages and accents. Therefore, it results in a sort of Jewishness socialization where multicultural practices, expectations, and assumptions showing the gap between language and identity will always linger in his Jewish consciousness as part of the American national identity minority politics.
It is worldwide acknowledged that according to Freud’s psychodynamic theory of defenses, the subc... more It is worldwide acknowledged that according to Freud’s psychodynamic theory of defenses, the subconscious cognitive processes allow the ego to emerge from the state of the inner conflict between the disturbing id, the foreshadowing superego and the dynamic forces coming from the external reality. Due to these dissonant mental forces, the defense mechanisms (repression, reaction formation, projection, regression, rationalization, denial, detachment, identification, sublimation) enable the ego to reach cross-cut solutions, by allowing the intrusive mental content emerge into consciousness in a hidden way. The more the ego is hindered by its initial conflicts (fixations), the higher is the chance to indulge itself to these forces. This research is based on a clinical analysis of an obsessive pathological narcissism, as a symptom of mental disorder. Aiming at identifying the mental health problems related to Portnoy’s Complaint, this study presents the results of a psychopathological examination which reveals the histrionic variables within the narcissistic personality disorder, i.e. constant attention-seeking, overt sexuality, emotional overreaction as well as suggestibility during a series of psychoanalytic sessions. All these psychological dilemmas finally become masochistic at the level of sadism unconsciousness, causing moral “pains” in an attempt to voice a series of emotional wounds suggesting that the organizational circumstances of Portnoy’s complaint are related to mental health disorders. This study combines Roth’s polyphonic design of psychopathology with philosophical questions raising important issues like obsessive-compulsive disorders to ensure a psychoanalytically-oriented approach that justifies the extremely symptomatic ambiguities which underline the constantly contradictory behavior of complaining.
Papers by Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
Romanian Review of Geographical Education, 2025
The first part of the article outlines the place of industry in Romania's official curriculum, st... more The first part of the article outlines the place of industry in Romania's official curriculum, starting with early education, continuing through primary education in subjects such as Mathematics and Environmental Exploration, Science, and Geography, and ending with secondary school Geography. The second part of this article suggests learning activities aimed at raising students' awareness of errors in 8th-grade geography textbooks and developing both transversal skills (researching, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating data, as well as investigating) and geography-specific competencies.
Romanian Review of Geographical Education, 2017
Romanian Journal of Artistic Creativity, Mar 22, 2019
International Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication, 2012
International Journal of Communication Research, Apr 1, 2012
This paper attempts to show that media culture, hyperactive in a scenario framed by the loss of r... more This paper attempts to show that media culture, hyperactive in a scenario framed by the loss of referentials, by distorted meanings, and of building a new social consciousness, stages its own reality, manipulating communities that continuously recreate their fictional alternatives. The lens of the camera, far from being transparent, forms and deforms images for an audience which chooses to manifest its skepticism selectively, interrogating immediate reality and ignoring its own representation crisis.
DEU, 2019
By exploring inhabitants' perceptions of territorial identity in the Land of Năsăud (partly overl... more By exploring inhabitants' perceptions of territorial identity in the Land of Năsăud (partly overlapping the former Military Frontier District of Năsăud), Romania, and the present practices building symbolic places, cultural landscapes, community spirit and togetherness in Năsăud town, its polarising centre, we discuss the relevance of recovering the past for building a resilient community. For collecting research data on locals' perceptions, we administered a questionnaire survey and employed a qualitative analysis of the information, while on place symbols, and events organised related to the Military Frontier District history and heritage, we collected data from the local mass media and through field trips investigating the cultural landscape. Our findings include facts and locals' perceptions about their history, features of their community (discourse and symbolic places), the most recent local initiatives and events recreating a landscape of feeling. Despite running the risk of romanticising a place and a period, one cannot ignore the impact of shaping a certain cultural landscape and discourse on community's self-defining process and future prospects. The roles of culture and community spirit are very strong in empowering and building the confidence of the communities in the present Land of Năsăud, as proved by the perceptions, initiatives, and events in the town of Năsăud.
The purpose of this article is to tacklepolyphonyin regards to psychoanalysis and metafictional d... more The purpose of this article is to tacklepolyphonyin regards to psychoanalysis and metafictional discourse on Roth’s cultural mobility and his polyphonicJewish critique. Due to his Bakhtinian approach, Roth fortifies the voices and deeds long held in suppression each of which acts as an audacious indictment to debunk the ferocity of repressive forces as well tounveilthe Semitic discourse of Jewish consciousness. The authors employ a multi-method and interdisciplinary research comprising: a) a qualitative text analysis using contrapuntal techniques on Bakhtinian concept of polyphony introduced under dialogism and applied to Roth’s work, b) an in-depth and typical case sampling of textbooks in literary criticism theory and discourse analysis as well as some e-articles focused on Portnoy’s Complaint novel polyphonic analysis. As a political satire of the postwar Jewish fluid and embargoed identity within the American society, the findings of this research contribute to aBakhtin-typepoly...
在青州市博物馆的石刻艺术展厅中,有两幢石碑颇引人注目：一幢是＂钞刻江苏镇江府建立青州驻防忠烈祠碑＂（简称＂忠烈碑＂）,高214厘米,宽92厘米,正面刻碑文,背面刻《跋》;另一幢是＂恤忠碑＂,高2... more 在青州市博物馆的石刻艺术展厅中,有两幢石碑颇引人注目：一幢是＂钞刻江苏镇江府建立青州驻防忠烈祠碑＂（简称＂忠烈碑＂）,高214厘米,宽92厘米,正面刻碑文,背面刻《跋》;另一幢是＂恤忠碑＂,高208厘米,宽92厘米,正面刻碑文。
Territorial Identity and Development, 2018
We live in an era in which public life within the urban space is in a profound crisis. The urban ... more We live in an era in which public life within the urban space is in a profound crisis. The urban and economic development, corroborated with the technological advances, often determine public space to be replaced by remote social interactions. Thus have appeared more and more private spaces (i.e. commercial centres), culminating with an increasingly restricted and timid use of the public space that places under the sign of uncertainty the citizens' right to the city. In this study, we aimed at realising a territorial diagnosis of the squares in the central area of Cluj-Napoca, analysing the degree of functionality of the urban elements, their current role based on users' perceptions and experience, as well as the assessment of the cultural landscape's aesthetic. Methodology included a questionnaire survey, direct and participatory observation, thematic photography, cartographic mapping, urban inventory, and territorial diagnosis. Results showed that the historical squares in the central Cluj-Napoca area were different in form, profile, size and structure, and in functional attributes. In addition, there has been a change in the functions of squares, along with the evolution of the city, from the economic function to the recreational and cultural one. Moreover, we realised an analysis and typology of the cultural landscapes of the urban public space in Cluj-Napoca. These research results enabled us to propose a series of actions which could reduce or eliminate territorial malfunctions, providing results for the decision-making process and for other researchers wishing to explore more this topic.
Psiworld 2016 Proceedings, 2017
It is worldwide acknowledged that according to Freud’s psychodynamic theory of defenses, the subc... more It is worldwide acknowledged that according to Freud’s psychodynamic theory of defenses, the subconscious cognitive processes allow the ego to emerge from the state of the inner conflict between the disturbing id, the foreshadowing superego and the dynamic forces coming from the external reality. Due to these dissonant mental forces, the defense mechanisms (repression, reaction formation, projection, regression, rationalization, denial, detachment, identification, sublimation) enable the ego to reach cross-cut solutions, by allowing the intrusive mental content emerge into consciousness in a hidden way. The more the ego is hindered by its initial conflicts (fixations), the higher is the chance to indulge itself to these forces. This research is based on a clinical analysis of an obsessive pathological narcissism, as a symptom of mental disorder. Aiming at identifying the mental health problems related to Portnoy’s Complaint, this study presents the results of a psychopathological examination which reveals the histrionic variables within the narcissistic personality disorder, i.e. constant attention-seeking, overt sexuality, emotional overreaction as well as suggestibility during a series of psychoanalytic sessions. All these psychological dilemmas finally become masochistic at the level of sadism unconsciousness, causing moral “pains” in an attempt to voice a series of emotional wounds suggesting that the organizational circumstances of Portnoy’s complaint are related to mental health disorders. This study combines Roth’s polyphonic design of psychopathology with philosophical questions raising important issues like obsessive-compulsive disorders to ensure a psychoanalytically-oriented approach that justifies the extremely symptomatic ambiguities which underline the constantly contradictory behavior of complaining.
Postmodern Openings, 2018
This article leads a phenomenological reading towards the dramaturgy of Samuel Beckett and more s... more This article leads a phenomenological reading towards the dramaturgy of Samuel Beckett and more specifically his Endgame with recourse to the doctrine of Merleau-Ponty. By mapping out a drama that decentralizes subject-ivity, Beckett’s Endgame textualizes the subversion of the constancy of identity (“etre-pour-soi”) of the modern man who holds a dichotomous look on subject and object in his dominating view on the world. From this perspective, Endgame exudes an atmosphere of existential Angst which peaks in a potential way of being that prevails in the hope for an authentic life but yet at the same time falls in a cosmic exile that emanates from man’s failure in his dominance over the world. Here, the examples of the Hegelian master-bondage concept and experimental psychology are felicitous reflections of this tragic relegation of man. Accordingly, registering the Pontian phenomenology of disembodiment delineates the characters of the Endgame as (in)human beings lost in a meaningless...
New Media has evolved as an interconnected network of audio, video and electronic communication t... more New Media has evolved as an interconnected network of audio, video and electronic communication that will blur the distinction between interpersonal and Mass communications. In this context, New Media has provided an alternate platform of expression for environmental communication. The adoption of new media has given a level playing field and has democratized the environmental communication and its debate. But on the other hand criticism exists on the spuriousness of the content and opinions given in this media and their objectivity. The following paper deals with the 'environmental communication in the era of new media technologies' and its impact. The paper focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of the use of new media for social and environmental communication.
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Conference Presentations by Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
Papers by Cristina-Georgiana Voicu