Adrian Marino's life and scientific activity seems to have been marked by the zodiac sign of the alternative. He elaborated a challenging encyclopaedic construction dealing with the notion of literature (The Hermeneutics of the Idea of Literature, The Biography of the Idea of Literature, The Dictionary of Literary Ideas) and adopted an alternative method for the study of comparative literature. Being an adept of alternatives and relativistic thinking, he defied the uniformity and authoritarian character of the communist regime and managed to become an independently thinking professional.
Though a great scholar, Marino considered important not to neglect activity for the sake of theory: he endeavoured to reconcile culture and politics trying to reform both and emphasizing their complementarity. His oeuvre had both a militant and a utopian aspect.His works, outlining a pro-European and pro-democratic system of values, made him a true citizen of the Republic of Letters of his age.
