Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, Vol 3, No 1 (2013)

Abstract

The present paper approaches two psychoanalytical concepts – the EROS and the THANATOS – which are extremely complex and, at the same time, fascinating due to their implications and the way they relate to the biography and work of Mihail Sebastian – the writer from the Danube. Art and biography meet in this danubian writer’s work, who tried to fight against his traumas and to heal himself through writing. The Eros and the Thanatos are omnipresent in the fiction of Sebastian’s obsessions and, when he faced destruction at an objective level, this fight resulted in anxiety and anguish. Along one’s life, there are two types of anxiety: the fear of life and the fear of death. The main theme of Sebastian’s work is that the human universe proves its strength only by suffering and that human beings can reach the ultimate dignity through their ability to endure. However, the instinct of death – the Thanatos – is always connected to the instinct of life – the Eros. We do not intend to reduce the latter one to the idea of love or passion, but we will interpret it in a broader sense – that of life, of creative energy, of light. Sebastian himself said: ”Life starts in darkness. There is a night for every day, there is a shadow for every light”.