NICOLETA PĂLIMARU, Mircea Muthu or about the intellectual and spiritual charm
The article dedicated to Professor Mircea Muthu is built on three levels: as a theoretician, concerned
about the Orient-Occident relationship, with the three postulates: geographical location,
medieval history as determined by the impact of the Sublime Porte and the dominant orthodoxy; as
a poet, Mircea Muthu outlines the research on Byzantium – as an image of light, refl ecting the solemnity
and the refi nement of this empire; as an interviewee, prof. Mircea Muthu gives argumented
and synthetic answers to questions regarding Romanian and European cultural life, literature, academic
life, Balkanism concerns, as well as his social status.
KEYWORDS: Balkanism, Byzantium, dialogue, South-East European, poetry

NICOLETA PĂLIMARU