AUTHORS POSITION AND PROBLEMS IN MARIN MINCU’S NOVEL ,,DRACULA’S DIARY”

Abstract

The novel is a diary of Vlad Dracula containing childhood memories, correspondence with Pope Pius II, reflection, aphoristic statements about the world and much more. According to the plot of the novel, the diary was written in the medieval Wallachian language, but the text of the novel was created in the modern literary Italian (Tuscan) language and only 14 years later was translated into modern Romanian. Of course, the authenticity of the diary is a convention that the reader must take on faith, because the novel is not a historiographic study, one cannot insist on the correspondence of the plot to historical information. The surprise here is that Marin Mincu himself insists on absolute authenticity and credibility, for example, in an interview with Cristian Teodorescu, despite the fact that the novel is undoubtedly a mystification. At the same time, the author generously quotes authentic medieval texts related to Dracula. The whole point is that the author creates a new myth about Dracula, an alternative to the existing myth. Umberto Eco has this aphorism: ,,The author should have died after finishing the book. In order not to get in the way of the text”. But Marin Mincu is not going to die, the author’s behaviour is part of the presentation of a mystification novel. Or part of the mystification is the book. Keywords: mystification novel, author’s position, hero’s image, problematics, presentation, reception, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Dracula’s diary. DOI: https://doi.org/10.59295/sum10(180)2023_14