| Sumario: | In this article, we propose a comparative analysis between the prose of Mihai Eminescu, one of the most significant names of 18th century Romanian literature, and that of contemporary writer Mircea Cărtărescu, focusing our attention on the Romantic rhetoric of the poetic self. Our approach is driven by the desire to demonstrate how, even a century later, national Romanticism remains vital, a symptomatic fact of Central and Eastern European countries, which continue to feel culturally vulnerable in terms of national identity. By placing the Cărtărescu case within the broader discussion on the perpetuation of the national poet cult in contemporary times, we also aim to connect this literary production to a specific political, historical, and cultural context that marked the Slavic world of Europe in the second half of the last century, when, despite the threat of Soviet social homogenization, cultural nationalism did not disappear.
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