Amândoi by Liviu Rebreanu: multicultural settings and sources of suspense

Abstract

The article looks into the multicultural settings of Liviu Rebreanu’s novel “Amândoi” (Both) by briefly examining the representation of its main, minor or incidental characters, either intelligentsia or common people. Ethnicity, social and professional statuses are considered as elements of multiculturalism. The continuous increase of suspense, the open ending, the parody in the undertone, and the development of the intrigue in an original multicultural context are presented further on. The various rumours arising from the townspeople’s own hypotheses about the murders of the aged Dăniloiu provide the opportunity to present the detective genre, which Rebreanu introduced in Romanian literature, suggesting a disguised satire of the type. The archaisms and the regional words of the novel are laboriously registered and underlined in terms of usage, etymology and linguistic connectivity, with the purpose of showing the multicultural flavour by means of a multilingual approach. The essay indicates that all characters use archaisms and local words, notwithstanding their social status or aspirations, a detail that puts in perspective the cultural configuration of the provincial town life, which Rebreanu is very aware of.

Keywords

• archaisms
• detective genre
• multiculturalism
• provincial romania
• suspense
• regional words