Reading Mircea Eliade in America

Table of contents: ◊ Mircea Eliade: the Growth of a Career ◊ The American Experience ◊ The Reception of Eliade’s Scientific Oeuvre in the United States ◊ U.S. Responses to Eliade’s Fiction ◊ Questioning Eliade’s Political Journalism On a topic less explored in Romanian studies – the reception of Mircea Eliade’s work in America – the book contrasts readings of his life and work in different cultural spaces, specifically in Romania and the U.S., with the hope of stimulating an international dialogue on the subject.
As it looks into Eliade’s multilayered work and his biography, this study seeks to contribute to an understanding of this major academic figure and writer in historical, political and cultural contexts, both as a man of his time and one with a legacy in the study of religion and in literature. Using a cultural studies approach, Reading Mircea Eliade in America examines the interplay of history and memory in relation to Eliade’s war trauma, self-exile, anti-communist stances, and the Jungian tradition.
The book reinforces the importance he gave to creativity and religiousness. Intertwined, these two major human attributes produce myths, rites, images and symbols, ‘religious creations’ that convey human experiences and carry worlds of meaning.