ON A MANIFESTO-BOOK: LITERATURE IN PERIL BY TZVETAN TODOROV
(Abstract)

Based on Tzvetan Todorov’s book, La littérature en péril [Literature in Peril] (2007), this study briefly examines the relationship between literary and philosophical reflection today. The anti- metaphysical strand of modern thought has naturally also permeated literary works and criticism, in the sense that the emphasis has shifted from meaning onto structure and from the author onto the reader. The disallowance of biographism ranks among the consequences of the modern cultural paradigms. The return to meaning advocated by the critics of “new criticism”, such as Tzvetan Todorov or the Romanian Eugen Simion, also involves, however, a return of the author, even if merely as a constituent of the text.

Keywords: Tzvetan Todorov, literary work, author, biographical crticism, Eugen Simion.