Ion Creangă
Ion Lil Cagula(bahoi) Andrei al lui mama a Olteanu Ion Torcălău Ioan Ștefănescu | |
---|---|
Born | Humulești, Principality of Moldavia (now part of | March 1, 1837
Pen name | Popa Smântână, Ioan Vântură-Țară |
Occupation | Short story writer, educator, folklorist, poet, textile worker, cleric, politician |
Language | Romanian |
Nationality | |
Period | 1864–1883 |
Genre | anecdote, children's literature, erotic literature, fable, fairy tale, fantasy, lyric poetry, memoir, novella, satire, short story, sketch story |
Literary movement | Realism, Junimea |
Spouse | Ileana Grigoriu (December 26, 1859 | - 1873 )
Children | Constantin ( | December 19, 1860)
Signature | |
Ion Creangă (Romanian pronunciation:
A defrocked Romanian Orthodox priest with an unconventional lifestyle, Creangă made an early impact as an innovative educator and textbook author, while pursuing a short career in nationalist politics with the Free and Independent Faction. His literary debut came late in life, closely following the start of his close friendship with Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu and their common affiliation with the influential conservative literary society Junimea. Although viewed with reserve by many of his colleagues there, and primarily appreciated for his records of oral tradition, Creangă helped propagate the group's cultural guidelines in an accessible form. Later critics have often described him, alongside Eminescu, Ion Luca Caragiale and Ioan Slavici, as one of the most accomplished representatives of Junimist literature.
Ion Creangă was posthumously granted several honors, and is commemorated by a number of institutions in both Romania and neighboring Moldova. These include the Bojdeuca building in Iași, which, in 1918, was opened as the first memorial house in Romania. His direct descendants include Horia Creangă, one of the leading Romanian architects during the interwar period.
Biography
Background and family
Ion Creangă was born in
The family had reached a significant position within their community: Ștefan sin Petre had made a steady income from his itinerant trade in wool, while his wife was the descendant of the Creangăs of Pipirig, a family of community leaders. The latter's members included Moldavian Metropolitan Iacob Stamati, as well as Smaranda's father, Vornic David, and her uncle Ciubuc Clopotarul, a monk at Neamț Monastery.[6] Proud of this tradition, she insisted that her son pursue a career in the Church.[7] According to his own recollection, the future writer was born on March 1, 1837—a date which has since been challenged.[6] Creangă's other statements mention March 2, 1837, or an unknown date in 1836.[8] The exactitude of other accounts is equally unreliable: community registers from the period gave the date of June 10, 1839, and mention another child of the same name being born to his parents on February 4, 1842 (the more probable birth date of Creangă's younger brother Zahei).[8] The imprecision also touches other aspects of his family life: noting the resulting conflicts in data, Călinescu decided that it was not possible for one to know if the writer's parents were married to each other (and, if so, if they were on their first marriage), nor how many children they had together.[8] At a time when family names were not legally required, and people were primarily known by various nicknames and patronymics, the boy was known to the community as Nică, a hypocorism formed from Ion, or more formally as Nică al lui Ștefan a Petrei ("Nică of Ștefan of Petru", occasionally Nic-a lui Ștefan a Petrei).[9]
Childhood, youth and ordination
After an idyllic period, which is recounted in the first section of his
After returning to school between late 1849 and early 1850, Creangă was pulled out by his financially struggling father, spent the following period working in
Having witnessed, according to his own claim, the indifference and mundane preoccupations of his peers, Creangă admitted to having taken little care in his training, submitting to the
Relations between Creangă and Grigoriu were exceptionally tense. Only weeks after his wedding, the groom, who had probably agreed to marriage only because it could facilitate succeeding Grigoriu,[15] signed a complaint addressed to Metropolitan Sofronie Miclescu, denouncing his father in law as "a killer", claiming to have been mistreated by him and cheated out of his wife's dowry, and demanding to be allowed a divorce.[8] The response to this request was contrary to his wishes: he was ordered into isolation by the Dicasterie, the supreme ecclesiastical court, being allowed to go free only on promise to reconcile with Grigoriu.[8]
Beginnings as schoolteacher and clash with the Orthodox Church
In 1860, Creangă enlisted at the Faculty of Theology, part of the newly founded
In parallel, he was beginning his activities in support of education reform. By 1864, he and several others, among them schoolteacher V. Răceanu,[20] were working on a new primer, which saw print in 1868 under the title Metodă nouă de scriere și cetire pentru uzul clasei I primară ("A New Method of Writing and Reading for the Use of 1st Grade Primary Course Students"). It mainly addressed the issues posed by the new Romanian alphabetical standard, a Romanization replacing Cyrillic spelling (which had been officially discarded in 1862).[21] Largely based on Maiorescu's principles, Metodă nouă ... became one the period's most circulated textbooks.[21][22] In addition to didactic texts, it also featured Creangă's isolated debut in lyric poetry, with a naïve piece titled Păsărica în timpul iernii ("The Little Bird in Wintertime").[21] The book was followed in 1871 by another such work, published as Învățătoriul copiilor ("The Children's Teacher") and co-authored by V. Răceanu.[23] It included several prose fables and a sketch story, "Human Stupidity",[20] to which later editions added Poveste ("A Story") and Pâcală (a borrowing of the fictional folk character better known as Păcală).[24]
In February 1866, having briefly served at Iași's Pantelimon Church, he was welcomed by hegumen Isaia Vicol Dioclias into the service of Golia Monastery.[8] Around 1867, his wife Ileana left him. After that moment, Creangă began losing interest in performing his duties in the clergy, and, while doing his best to hide that he was no longer living with his wife, took a mistress.[15] The marriage's breakup was later attributed by Creangă himself to Ileana's adulterous affair with a Golia monk,[25][26] and rumors spread that Ileana's lover was a high-ranking official, the protopope of Iași.[21] Creangă's accusations, Călinescu contends, are nevertheless dubious, because the deacon persisted in working for the same monastery after the alleged incident.[25]
By the second half of the 1860s, the future writer was also pursuing an interest in politics, which eventually led him to rally with the more
By 1868, Creangă's rebellious stance was irritating his hierarchical superiors, and, according to Călinescu, his consecutive actions show that he was "going out of his way for scandal".[19] He was initially punished for attending a Iași Theater performance, as well as for defiantly claiming that there was "nothing scandalous or demoralizing" in what he had seen,[15][19] and reportedly further antagonized the monks by firing a gun to scare off the rooks nesting on his church.[15][21][26][33] The latter incident, which some commentators believe fabricated by Creangă's detractors,[26] was judged absurd by the ecclesiastical authorities, who had been further alarmed by negative reporting in the press.[15][19][21] When told that no clergyman other than him had been seen using a gun, Creangă issued a reply deemed "Nasreddinesque" by George Călinescu, maintaining that, unlike others, he was not afraid of doing so.[19] Confronted by Metropolitan Calinic himself, Creangă allegedly argued that he could think of no other way to eliminate rooks, being eventually pardoned by the prelate when it was ruled that he had not infringed on canon law.[15]
Defrocking and the Bojdeuca years
Creangă eventually moved out of the monastery, but refused to relinquish his key to the church basement,
By then a teacher at the 1st School for Boys, on Română Street, Creangă was ordered out of his secular assignment in July 1872, when news of his status and attitude reached
In the meantime, Creangă moved into what he called
In May 1874, soon after taking over Minister of Education in the Conservative Party cabinet of Lascăr Catargiu, his friend Maiorescu granted Creangă the position of schoolteacher in the Iași area of Păcurari.[15][43] During the same period, Ion Creangă met and became best friends with Mihai Eminescu, posthumously celebrated as Romania's national poet.[44] This is said to have taken place in summer 1875, when Eminescu was working as an inspector for Maiorescu's Education Ministry, overseeing schools in Iași County: reportedly, Eminescu was fascinated with Creangă's talents as a raconteur, while the latter admired Eminescu for his erudition.[45]
Junimea reception
At around the same time, Creangă also began attending
The exact date of his reception is a mystery. According to Maiorescu's own recollections, written some decades after the event, Creangă was in attendance at a Junimea meeting of 1871, during which
Gradually[19] or instantly,[52] Creangă made a positive impression by confirming with the Junimist ideal of authenticity. He also became treasured for his talkative and jocular nature, self-effacing references to himself as a "peasant", and eventually his debut works, which became subjects of his own public readings.[53] His storytelling soon earned him dedicated spectators, who deemed Creangă's fictional universe a "sack of wonders"[19] at a time when the author himself had started casually using the pseudonym Ioan Vântură-Țară ("Ioan Gadabout").[54] Although still in his forties, the newcomer was also becoming colloquially known to his colleagues as Moș Creangă ("Old Man Creangă" or "Father Creangă"), which was a sign of respect and sympathy.[55] Among Ion Creangă's most dedicated promoters were Eminescu, his former political rival Iacob Negruzzi, Alexandru Lambrior and Vasile Pogor,[56] as well as the so-called caracudă (roughly, "small game") section, which comprised Junimists who rarely took the floor during public debates, and who were avid listeners of his literary productions[52] (it was to this latter gathering that Creangă later dedicated his erotic texts).[54] In parallel to his diversified literary contribution, the former priest himself became a noted voice in Junimist politics, and, like his new friend Eminescu, voiced support for the group's nationalist faction, in disagreement with the more cosmopolitan and aristocratic segment led by Maiorescu and Petre P. Carp.[57] By that the late 1870s, he was secretly redirecting political support from the former Factionalists to his new colleagues, as confirmed by an encrypted letter he addressed to Negruzzi in March 1877.[28]
Literary consecration
Autumn 1875 is also often described as his actual debut in fiction prose, with "
After losing his job as school inspector following the decisions of a hostile
Illness and death
By the 1880s, Creangă had epilepsy with accelerated and debilitating episodes.[67] He was also severely overweight, weighing some 120 kilograms (over 250 pounds), with a height of 1.85 meters (6 feet),[21] and being teasingly nicknamed Burduhănosul ("Tubby") by his friends[21][54] (although, according to testimonies by his son and daughter-in-law, he did not actually look his size).[10]
Despite his activity being much reduced, he still kept himself informed about the polemics agitating Romania's cultural and political scene. He was also occasionally hosting Eminescu, witnessing his friend's struggle with mental disorder. The two failed to reconnect, and their relationship ended.[68] After one of the meetings, he recorded that the delusional poet was carrying around a revolver with which to fend off unknown attackers—among the first in a series of episodes which ended with Eminescu's psychiatric confinement and death during June 1889.[69] Around that time, Creangă, like other Junimists, was involved in a clash of ideas with the emerging Romanian socialist and atheistic group, rallied around Contemporanul magazine. This occurred after Contemporanul founder Ioan Nădejde publicly ridiculed Învățătoriul copiilor over its take on creationism, quoting its claim that "the invisible hand of God" was what made seeds grow into plants.[70] Creangă replied with a measure of irony, stating that "had God not pierced the skin over our eyes, we would be unable to see each other's mistakes".[70] Nevertheless, Călinescu argued, Nădejde's comments had shaken his adversary's religious sentiment, leading Creangă to question the immortality of the soul in a letter he addressed to one of his relatives in the clergy.[71] According to other assessments, he was himself an atheist, albeit intimately so.[10]
In 1887, the National Liberal Ministry of
Work
Cultural context
The impact of Ion Creangă's work within its cultural context was originally secured by Junimea. Seeking to revitalize
Maiorescu is known to have had much appreciation for Creangă and other writers of peasant origin, such as
Although he occasionally downplayed his own contribution to literature,[21][41] Creangă himself was aware that his texts went beyond records of popular tradition, and made significant efforts to be recognized as an original author (by corresponding with fellow writers and willingly submitting his books to critical scrutiny).[41] Vianu commented at length on the exact relationship between the narrative borrowed from oral tradition and Creangă's "somewhat surreptitious" method of blending his own style into the folkloric standard, likening it to the historical process whereby local painters improvised over the strict canons of Byzantine art.[86] Creangă's complex take on individuality and the art of writing was attested by his own foreword to an edition of his collected stories, in which he addressed the reader directly: "You may have read many stupid things since you were put on this Earth. Please read these as well, and where it should be that they don't agree with you, take hold of a pen and come up with something better, for this is all I could see myself doing and did."[41]
An exception among Junimea promoters was Eminescu, himself noted for expressing a dissenting social perspective which only partly mirrored Maiorescu's take on conservatism. According to historian
The frequent comparison between Creangă and Caragiale in particular is seen by Vianu as stemming from both their common "wide-ranging stylistic means" and their complementary positions in relations to two superimposed phenomenons, with Caragiale's depiction of the petite bourgeoisie as the rough equivalent of Creangă's interest in the peasantry.[91] The same parallelism is explained by Ornea as a consequence of the two authors' social outlook: "[Their works] have cemented aesthetically the portrayal of two worlds. Creangă's is the peasant world, Caragiale's the suburban and urban one. Two worlds which represent, in fact, two characteristic steps and two sociopolitical models in the evolution of Romanian structures which ... were confronting themselves in a process that would later prove decisive."[92] According to the same commentator, the two plus Eminescu are their generation's great writers, with Slavici as one "in their immediate succession."[93] While listing what he believes are elements bridging the works of Creangă and Caragiale, other critics have described as strange the fact that the two never appear to have mentioned each other, and stressed that, although not unlikely, a direct encounter between them was never recorded in sources.[10]
Narrative style and language
Highlighting Ion Creangă's recourse to the particularities of
The recourse to oral literature schemes made it into his writings, where it became a defining trait. As part of this process, Călinescu assessed, "Creangă acts as all his characters in turn, for his stories are almost entirely spoken. ... When Creangă recounts, the composition is not extraordinary, but once his heroes begin talking, their gesticulation and wording reach a height in typical storytelling."[101] According to the critic, discovering this "fundamental" notion about Creangă's work was the merit of literary historian and Viața Românească editor Garabet Ibrăileanu, who had mentioned it as a main proof of affiliation to realism.[102] The distinctive manner of characterization through "realistic dialogues" is seen by Vianu as a highly personal intervention and indicator of the Moldavian writer's originality.[103] Both Vianu and Călinescu discussed this trait, together with the technique of imparting subjective narration in-between characters' replies, as creating other meeting points between Creangă and his counterpart Caragiale.[104] Partly replicating in paper the essence of social gatherings, Ion Creangă often tried to transpose the particular effects of oral storytelling into writing. Among these characteristic touches were interrogations addressed to the readers as imaginary listeners, and pausing for effect with the visual aid of ellipsis.[105] He also often interrupted his narratives with concise illustrations of his point, often in verse form, and usually introduced by vorba ceea (an expression literally meaning "that word", but covering the sense of "as word goes around").[106] One example of this connects the notions of abundance and personal satisfaction:
De plăcinte râde gura, |
The mouth will laugh for pie, |
In other cases, the short riddles relate to larger themes, such as divine justification for one's apparent fortune:
Dă-mi, Doamne, ce n-am avut, |
Lord, give me that I did not own, |
Creangă's specificity
Despite assuming the external form of traditional literature, Ion Creangă's interests and creative interventions, Călinescu noted, separated him from his roots: "peasants do not have [his] entirely cultured gifts. ... Too much 'atmosphere', too much dialogic 'humor', too much polychromy at the expense of linear epic movements. The peasant wants the bare epic and desires the unreal."[107] The commentator passed a similar judgment on the author's use of ancient sayings, concluding that, instead of crystallizing and validating local folklore, the accounts appeal to cultured tastes, having as the generation of comedy and volubility as their main purpose.[41][108] According to Vianu's assessment Creangă was "a supreme artist"[109] whose use of "typical sayings" attests "a man of the people, but not an anonymous and impersonal sample."[41] These verdicts, directly contradicting Junimist theories, were mirrored by several other 20th century exegetes belonging to distinct schools of thought: Pompiliu Constantinescu, Benjamin Fondane and Ion Negoițescu.[41] Writing during the second half of the century, critic Nicolae Manolescu passed a similar judgment, believing that Creangă was motivated by a "strictly intellectual sensuousness" and the notion that "pleasure arises from gratuitousness",[13] while Manolescu's colleague Mircea Braga referred to "the great secret of the man who has managed to transfer unaltered the code of popular creativity into the immanence of the cultured one."[110] In Braga's assessment, this synthesis managed "the impossible", but the difficulty of repeating it with each story also resulted in mediocre writings: "from among his few texts, even fewer are located on the relatively highest level of the relative aesthetic hierarchy".[111]
Călinescu viewed such intellectual traits as shared by Creangă with his Wallachian counterpart Anton Pann, in turn linking both writers to the satirical component of Renaissance literature, and specifically to François Rabelais.[112] Within local tradition, the literary historian saw a symbolic connection between Creangă and the early 18th century figure, Ion Neculce, one of Moldavia's leading chroniclers.[113] While he made his own comparison between Creangă and Pann, Tudor Vianu concluded that the Moldavian writer was in fact superior, as well as being more relevant to literature than Petre Ispirescu, the prime collector of tales in 19th-century Wallachia.[114] Also making use of the Rabelais analogy, literary chronicler Gabriela Ursachi found another analogy in local letters: Ion Budai-Deleanu, an early 19th-century representative of the Transylvanian School, whose style mixes erudite playfulness with popular tastes.[13] These contextual traits, researchers assess, did not prevent Creangă's overall work from acquiring a universal aspect, particularly since various of his writings use narrative sequences common throughout world literature.[115]
George Călinescu also assessed that these literary connections served to highlight the elevated nature of Creangă's style, his "erudite device", concluding: "Writers such as Creangă can only show up in places where the word is ancient and equivocal, and where experience has been condensed into unchanging formulas. It would have been more natural for such a prose writer to have emerged a few centuries later, into an era of Romanian humanism. Born much earlier, Creangă showed up where there exists an ancient tradition, and therefore a species of erudition, ... in a mountain village ... where the people is unmixed and keeping [with tradition]."[99] Outlining his own theory about the aspects of "national specificity" in Romanian letters, he expanded on these thoughts, listing Creangă and Eminescu as "core Romanians" who illustrated a "primordial note", complemented by the "southern" and "Balkan" group of Caragiale and others.[116] Claiming that the "core" presence had "not primitive, but ancient" origins, perpetuated by "stereotyped wisdom" and "energetic fatalism", he asserted: "Creangă shows our civilization's contemporaneity with the world's oldest civilizations, our Asian age."[117] The alternating national and regional characteristics in Creangă's writings are related by historian Neagu Djuvara with the writer's place of birth, an affluent village in an isolated region, contrasting heavily with the 19th century Wallachian countryside: "if the mud hut villages of the Danube flood plain are to be taken into account, one finds himself in a different country."[118] Ornea, who noted that Eminescu effectively shared Creangă's worldview, believed the latter to have been dominated by nostalgia for a world of independent landowning peasants, and argued that Creangă's literary and political outlook were both essentially conservative.[119] Ornea commented: "One could say that it was through [this form of nostalgia] that the writer debuted and that, within the space of his work it became, in its own right, an expression of the world that was about to vanish."[120] Commenting on Creangă's "robust realism" and lack of "sentimentality", Vianu contrarily asserted: "Creangă's nostalgia ... has an individual, not social, sense."[121]
The witty and playful side of Creangă's personality, which became notorious during his time at Junimea and constituted a significant part of his appeal, was reflected into a series of
Ion Creangă's sense of humor was instrumental in forging the unprecedented characteristics of his work. American critic Ruth S. Lamb, the writer's style merges "the rich vocabulary of the Moldavian peasant" with "an original gaiety and gusto comparable to that of Rabelais."[123] According to George Călinescu: "[Creangă] got the idea that he was a clever man, like all men of the people, and therefore used irony to make himself seem stupid."[19] In Călinescu's view, the author's antics had earned him a status equivalent to that of his Wallachian Junimist counterpart Caragiale, with the exception that the latter found his inspiration in urban settings, matching "Nasreddinisms" with "Miticism".[124] Z. Ornea sees the main protagonists in Creangă's comedic narratives as, in effect, "particularized incarnations of the same symbolic character", while the use of humor itself reflects the traditional mindset, "a survival through intelligence, that of a people with an old history, whose life experience has for centuries been concentrated into gestures and words."[125]
Most prominent tales
Part of Ion Creangă's contribution to the
With "
"The Story of the Pig" partly illustrates the notion that parental love subdues even physical repulsion, showing an elderly peasant couple cherishing their adopted porcine son, who, unbeknown to them, is enchanted.[133] The creature instantly offsets his parents' sadness and immobility by his witty intelligence.[132] Having applied his perseverance and spells to erect a magical bridge, the piglet fulfills the requirement for marrying the emperor's daughter, after which it is uncovered that he is a Făt-Frumos or Prince Charming character who assumes his real identity only by night.[134] Although the plot is supposed to deal with imperial magnificence in fairy tale fashion, the setting is still primarily rural, and the court itself is made to look like an elevated peasant community.[134] According to researcher Marcu Beza, the text is, outside of its humorous context, a distant reworking of ancient legends such as Cupid and Psyche.[135] The story introduces three additional characters, old women who assess and reward the efforts of the virtuous: Holy Wednesday, Holy Friday and Holy Sunday.[136] They represent a mix of Christian and pagan traditions, by being both personifications of the liturgical calendar and fairy-like patrons of the wilderness (zâne).[137]
A similar perspective was favored by "The Old Man's Daughter and the Old Woman's Daughter". Here, the theme echoes Cinderella, but, according to Călinescu, the rural setting provides a sharp contrast to the classical motif.[138] Persecuted by her stepmother and stepsister, the kind and loving daughter of the old man is forced into a position of servitude reflecting the plight of many peasant women in Creangă's lifetime.[138] In this case, the old man is negatively depicted as cowardly and entirely dominated by his mean wife.[139] The focal point of the narrative is the meeting between the good daughter and Holy Sunday. The latter notices and generously rewards the girl's helpful nature and mastery of cooking; in contrast, when her envious sister attempts the same and fails, she ends up being eaten by serpent-like creatures (balauri).[42][140] The happy ending sees the good girl marrying not Prince Charming, but a simple man described as "kind and industrious"—this outcome, Călinescu assessed, did not in effect spare the old man's daughter from a life of intense labor.[138] A story very similar to "The Old Man's Daughter ..." is "The Purse a' Tuppence", which teaches that greed can shatter families,[132] while offering symbolic retribution to men who are unhappy in marriage.[97] The old man's rooster, chased away by the old woman for being unproductive, ends up amassing a huge fortune, which he keeps inside his belly and regurgitates back into the courtyard; the jealous old woman ends up killing her favorite hen, who has failed in replicating the rooster's feat.[42][141]
Devil-themed stories and "Harap Alb"
Several of Creangă's characteristic
Another account in this series is "
"Harap Alb", one of Ion Creangă's most complex narratives, carries a moral defined by Călinescu as "the gifted man will earn a reputation under any guise."[97] The story opens with a coming of age quest, handed down by a king to his three sons: the most fit among them is supposed to reach the court of the Green Emperor, who is the king's brother, and succeed him to the throne. According to Călinescu, the mission bases itself on travels undertaken by young men in Creangă's native region, while the subsequent episodes in the narrative reinforce the impression of familiarity, from the "peasant speech" adopted by the villain known as the Bald Man, to the "crass vulgarity" evidenced by the antagonist Red Emperor.[152] Forced to pass himself off as a foreign servant (or "Moor"), the prince is three times tested and aided by Holy Sunday, who doubles as the queen of zâne creatures.[137] Călinescu described as "playful realism" the method through which Creangă outlined the mannerisms of several other characters, in particular the allegorical creatures who provide the youngest prince with additional and serendipitous assistance.[153] In one noted instance, the characters Setilă ("Drink-All") and Flămânzilă ("Eat-All") help the hero overcome seemingly impossible tasks set by the Red Emperor, by ingesting unnaturally huge amounts of food and drink.[122]
The tale builds on intricate symbolism stemming from obscure sources. It features what Muguraș Constantinescu calls "the most complex representation of Holy Sunday", with mention of her isolated and heavenly abode on "flower island".[137] A background antithesis opposes the two fictional monarchs, with the Red Emperor replicating an ancient tradition which attributes malignant characteristics to the color.[146][154] By contrast, the Green Emperor probably illustrates the ideals of vitality and healthy lifestyle, as hinted by his culinary preference for "lettuce from the garden of the bear".[155] Historian Adrian Majuru, building on earlier observations made by linguist Lazăr Șăineanu, also connects the servant-prince's antagonists with various reflections of ethnic strife in Romanian folklore: the Red Emperor as standing for the medieval Khazars ("Red Jews"), the Bald Man as a popular view of the Tatars.[154]
Childhood Memories
Several of the book's episodes have drawn attention for the insight they offer into the culture, structure and conflicts of traditional society before 1900. Commenting on this characteristic, Djuvara asserted: "even if we take into account that the grown-up will embellish, transfigure, 'enrich' the memories of his childhood, how could we not recognize the sincerity in Creangă's heart-warming evocation of his childhood's village?"
Another significant part of the account, detailing Creangă's education, shows him frustrated by the old methods of teaching, insisting on the absurd image of children learning by heart and chanting elements of
Didactic writings
Creangă's contribution to literature also covers a series of didactic fables written as lively dialogues, among them "The Needle and the Sledge Hammer", in which the objects of traditional metalworking scold the byproducts of their work for having forgotten their lowly origin.[165] The inspiration behind this theme was identified by Călinescu as "The Story of a Gold Coin", written earlier by Creangă's Junimist colleague Vasile Alecsandri.[166] A similar piece, "The Flax and the Shirt", reveals the circuit of fibers from weed-like plants into recycled cloth, leading to the conclusion that "all things are not what they seem; they were something else once, they are something else now;—and shall become something else."[153] The technique employed by Creangă has the flax plant teaching the less knowledgeable textile, a dialogue which Călinescu likened to that between old women in a traditional society.[153] Included alongside the two stories were: Pâcală, a writing which, Mircea Braga argued, is not as much didactic as it is a study in dialogue; "The Bear Tricked by the Fox", which uses legendary and humorous elements in an attempt to explain why bears are the tail-less species among mammals; and Cinci pâini ("Five Loafs of Bread"), which serves as a condemnation of greed.[167]
With "Human Stupidity", Creangă builds a fable about incompetence in its absolute forms. The story centers on a peasant's quest to find people who are less rational than his wife, having been infuriated by her panic at the remote possibility that a ball of salt could fall from its place of storage and kill their baby. This, essayist and chronicler Simona Vasilache argues, highlights "a family-based division" of illogical behavior, in which women are depicted as the main propagators of both "astonishing nonsense" and "prudent stupidity".
Partly didactic in scope, several of Creangă's
Moș Nichifor Coțcariul and "corrosives"
Seen by Romanian critic Radu Voinescu as an extended anecdote,[176] the novella Moș Nichifor Coțcariul ("Old Man Nichifor Slyboots") establishes a connection with the language of fairy tales, being located in a legendary and non-historical age.[177] It details the elaborate seduction of a young Jewish bride by a worldly Moldavian wagoner, on the route between Târgu Neamț and Piatra. The episode, which the text itself indicates is just one in a series of Nichifor's conquests among his female clients, highlights the seducer's verbose monologue, which covers accounts of his unhappy marriage, allusions about the naturalness of physical love, and intimidating suggestions that wolves may be tempted to attack the wagon (prompting the young woman to seek refuge in his arms).[178] The seducer's behavior, Constantinescu notes, presents an alternative to the theme of old age as a time of immobility: "the still-green old man, the rake, the joker who enjoys his amorous escapades, while justifying them by the natural course of life".[161] Nichifor mostly expresses himself with the help of folk sayings, which he casually mixes in with personal observations about the situation.[179] The background to the plot is a record of various superstitions, some anticlerical or antisemitic: Nichifor voices the belief that priests crossing one's path will produce bad luck, as well as the claim that Jewish apothecaries sold "poisons".[180]
The reception of Moș Nichifor Coțcariul by Junimea illustrated its ambivalence toward Creangă. Maiorescu found the text "interesting in its way and decisively Romanian", but asked Convorbiri Literare journal to either modify it or refrain from publishing it altogether.[181] This was complemented by its author's own self-effacing assessment: calling the text "a childish thing", he suggested to Maiorescu that revisions were needed, stating "I have written it long, because there was no time for me to write it short."[21] Contrarily, the writer's posterity referred to it as one of the greatest Romanian contributions to the genre: according to George Călinescu, the insight into Nichifor's musings resulted in transforming the writing as a whole into "the first great Romanian novella with a stereotypical hero",[13][107] while Voinescu described the entire story as "a true masterpiece."[176]
The narrative approaches of Moș Nichifor Coțcariul bordered on Creangă's contributions to erotic literature, pieces collectively known as "corrosives"[13][21][182] and which have for long treated with discretion by literary historians. In Călinescu's view, this chapter in Creangă's literature created another link between the Moldavian writer and the Renaissance tradition of Rabelais: "All Rabelaisians have penetrated deeply into the realm of vulgarity."[99] The taste for titillating accounts was also cultivated by Junimea members, who discreetly signaled their wish to hear more explicit content by asking Creangă to recount stories from "the wide street".[13][21][183] A product of this context, Moș Nichifor Coțcariul itself is said to have had at least one sexually explicit variant, circulated orally.[176][183]
Two stories with explicit pornographic content survive as samples of Creangă's erotic authorship: "The Tale of Ionică the Fool" and "The Tale of All Tales" (also known as Povestea pulei, "Tale of the Dick" or "Tale of the Cock"). The former shows its cunning hero having intercourse with a priest's daughter, moving between prose and verse to describe the act.[54] "The Tale of All Tales", which makes ample use of vulgar speech, recounts how a peasant disrespectful of divinity has his entire maize harvest transformed into male genitalia, but is able to turn out a profit by catering to the sexual appetites of women.[184] The final section, seen by Gârbea as a sample of anticlerical jeers recorded by "the defrocked Creangă", depicts the rape of a priest by one such sexual object.[185] Although explicit, literary historian Alex. Ștefănescu argued, the text "is refined and full of charm".[186] While acknowledging both "corrosives" for their "popular charm" in the line of Rabelais and Geoffrey Chaucer, and noting that they still display the author's place as a "great stylist", Voinescu also signaled the texts' "very obvious" debt to folkloric sources.[187] In his definition, Ion Creangă is "possibly the only writer" to draw on the legacy of "luscious popular jests" found in local "erotic folklore".[176] Nevertheless, according to literary critic Mircea Iorgulescu, "The Tale of All Tales" may in fact be based on Parapilla, a pornographic leaflet circulating in Italian and French.[184]
Legacy
Estate, family and early cultural impact
Soon after the Creangă's death, efforts began to collect his manuscript writings and the updated versions of his printed works. This project involved his son Constantin, alongside
Shortly after her lover's death, Tinca Vartic married a man who lived in the same part of Iași.
The popularity of Ion Creangă's accounts outside his regional and dialectal context, together with his own contribution as an educator, played a part in the
Early 20th century and interwar echoes
A more thorough evaluation of Creangă's literature began after 1900. At the time, it became a topic of interest to the emerging traditionalist and populist trend, illustrated by the two venues rivaling Junimea: the
Directly influenced by Creangă, several early 20th century and interwar authors within the new traditionalist trend explicitly stood for the legacy of folkloric, spontaneous and unskilled literature: the peasant writer I. Dragoslav, whose memoirs borrow stylistic elements from Creangă's accounts; Constantin Sandu-Aldea, an agriculturalist by profession, who took inspiration from his techniques of rendering dialogue; and Ion Iovescu, whom the Sburătorul literary circle acclaimed as "a new Creangă", and who made ample use of a modernized Muntenian dialect.[199] Similarly, the Aromanian activist and author Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, who divided his career between Romania and the southern Balkans, combined Creangă's storytelling techniques with the traditions of Turkish literature,[200] while the reworking of regional folklore themes earned intellectual Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor a reputation as "the Oltenian Creangă".[201] During the 1910s, folklorist Tudor Pamfile published a specialized magazine named Ion Creangă in honor of the writer.[202] Creangă's various works also provided starting points for several other writers of diverse backgrounds. They included representatives of the Symbolist movement, such as Victor Eftimiu, who was inspired by Creangă's narrative style in writing his fantasy and verse play Înșir'te mărgărite.[203] Another such author was poet Elena Farago, whose didactic children's story Într-un cuib de rândunică ("Inside a Swallow's Nest") borrows from "The Flax and the Shirt".[204]
With the interwar period and the spread of
In stages after
While their author continued to receive praise for his main contributions, the erotic tales were most often kept hidden from the public eye. George Călinescu summarized this contrast by stating: "The 'corrosives' left by Creangă are not known publicly."
Creangă inspired a 1920 painting by
Under communism
During Romania's restrictive
By the second half of communist rule, several new approaches in the critical assessment of Creangă's literature were emerging. His work became a main topic of critical interest and the sole subject of many works, to the point where
A second museum entirely dedicated to the writer was opened at his Târgu Neamț home in 1951,[227] and donated to the state by his successors in 1965.[228] During the following decades, it reportedly became the most visited memorial house in Romania.[227] The authorities also financed a new cultural center, raised in the immediate vicinity of Bojdeuca during 1984–1989.[39] In 1965, the Ion Creangă Children's Theater, a state-run institution, was founded in Bucharest, and its subsequent activity included staging several of the writer's fairy tales for a junior public.[229][230] Among such contributions were two adaptation of "Harap Alb", directed respectively by Ion Lucian[230] and Zoe Anghel Stanca.[231] In 1983, Timișoara-based author Șerban Foarță also completed work on a stage version of "Ivan Turbincă".[232]
A new publishing house, Editura Ion Creangă, was created as a main publisher of children's literature, and its output included editions of Creangă's own works.[233] The new editions were illustrated by several visual artists of note, among them Corneliu Baba,[234] Eugen Taru[228] and Lívia Rusz,[233][235] while "Harap Alb" became a project of comic book artist Sandu Florea, earning him a Eurocon prize.[236] A major project of the time involved Creangă translations into other languages, including Hungarian (a celebrated contribution by Hungarian-Romanian author András Sütő).[237] During the same epoch, Creangă and his stories first became sources of inspiration for the Romanian film industry. Among the first were two contributions of filmmaker Elisabeta Bostan, both released in the early 1960s and based on the Memories: Amintiri din copilărie (starring child actor Ion Bocancea as the young Nică and Ștefan Ciubotărașu as the grown-up narrator), and Pupăza din tei (focusing on the hoopoe story). In 1965, celebrated Romanian director Ion Popescu-Gopo released De-aș fi Harap Alb, a loose adaptation of "Harap Alb", starring Florin Piersic in the title role. Popescu-Gopo also directed the 1976 film Povestea dragostei, which was based on "The Story of the Pig" and the 1985 film "Ramasagul" which was based on "The Bag with 2 Coins". The series also includes Nicolae Mărgineanu's biographical film of 1989, Un bulgăre de humă, focuses on the friendship between Creangă (played by Dorel Vișan) and Eminescu (Adrian Pintea).[238]
The legacy of Ion Creangă was also tangible in the
After 1989
The
Creangă's work was also subject to rediscovery and reevaluation. This implied the publishing of his "corrosives", most notably in a 1998 edition titled Povestea poveștilor generației '80 ("The Tale of the Tales of the 80s Generation"). Edited by
New films based on Creangă's writings include, among others,
Creangă's name was assigned to several education institutions, among them Bucharest's
Notes
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 206–207
- ^ a b c d e f g Călinescu, p. 477
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477, 488; Djuvara, p. 226–227, 244
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477, 517, 974–975
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477. See also Vianu, Vol. II, p. 206
- ^ a b c d Călinescu, p. 477, 478
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477, 478; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 206–207
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Călinescu, p. 478
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 206
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Romanian) Luminița Marcu, "O monografie spectaculoasă" Archived November 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 21/2000
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477, 479
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 207
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Romanian) Gabriela Ursachi, "Decembrie" Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 50/2004
- ^ Călinescu, p. 478; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 207
- ^ Dilema Veche, Vol. V, Nr. 26, January 2008
- ^ Călinescu, p. 479; Ornea (1998), p. 233–234, 235. See also Vianu, Vol. II, p. 32, 207
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 233–236
- ^ Călinescu, p. 479; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 207
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Călinescu, p. 479
- ^ a b c d Vianu, Vol. II, p. 208
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab (in Romanian) Adrian Pârvu, "Spațiul viral al geniului: o cameră și un ceardac" Archived September 2, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, in Jurnalul Național, December 20, 2005
- ^ a b Ornea (1998), p. 233–234
- ^ a b Ornea (1998), p. 234; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 208
- ^ Braga, p. 205–206, 215
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 478–479
- ^ a b c d e f g h i (in Romanian) Constantin Coroiu, "Preoția lui Creangă", in Convorbiri Literare, December 2007
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 231, 234; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 207
- ^ a b c d (in Romanian) Cornelia Ștefănescu, "Mărturii despre Ion Creangă" Archived November 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 15/2003
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 435; Ornea (1998), p. 231; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 207
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 207
- ^ a b Oișteanu, p. 140
- ^ a b c Ornea (1998), p. 231
- ^ Călinescu, p. 479; Vianu, Vol. I, p. 302; Vol. II, p. 208
- ^ a b c Călinescu, p. 479; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 208
- ^ Călinescu, p. 479. See also Vianu, Vol. II, p. 208–209
- ^ a b Vianu, Vol. II, p. 209
- ^ Vianu, Vol. I, p. 302; Vol. II, p. 209
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 479; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 209
- ^ a b c d e f (in Romanian) "Muzeul Literaturii Române Iași", hosted by Dacia Literară; retrieved August 3, 2009
- ^ Călinescu, p. 479; Vianu, Vol. I, p. 302; Vol. II, p. 214
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j (in Romanian) Gheorghe Grigurcu, "Ion Creangă între natură și cultură" Archived April 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 44/2004
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l (in Romanian) Șerban Anghelescu, "Poveștile cu poale-n brîu", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 462, February 2009
- ^ Călinescu, p. 479; Ornea (1998), p. 234; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 209–210
- ^ Călinescu, p. 445, 480; Ornea (1998), p. 232–233, 239–241, 244–245; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 210–212
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 233, 239–240, 245; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 210
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 234–236
- ^ Mecu & Mecu, p. 189
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 230–231
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 230–232
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 200, 232–233, 244–245; Vianu, Vol. I, p. 304; Vol. II, p. 210
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 232–233
- ^ a b Ornea (1998), p. 236
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 479–480
- ^ a b c d e (in Romanian) Silvia Craus, "Balurile Junimii", in Ieșeanul, February 28, 2006
- ^ a b Constantinescu, p. 61
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 236–237; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 18, 210–211
- ^ Mecu & Mecu, p. 187
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 232; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 210
- ^ a b c Vianu, Vol. II, p. 211
- ^ Vianu, Vol. I, p. 305; Vol. II, p. 210
- ^ Vianu, Vol. I, p. 305; Vol. II, p. 209, 220–221
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 234
- ^ Călinescu, p. 445
- ^ a b c d Călinescu, p. 480
- ^ Călinescu, p. 480; Vianu, Vol. I, p. 303; Vol. II, p. 210
- ^ Nastasă, p. 110
- ^ Călinescu, p. 480; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 211, 212. See also Ornea (1995), p. 443
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 211–212
- ^ Călinescu, p. 445–446
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 545
- ^ Călinescu, p. 546
- ^ a b c d e Vianu, Vol. II, p. 212
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 236; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 212
- ^ Călinescu, p. 480; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 211, 212
- ^ a b (in Romanian) "Ansamblul funerar al scriitorului Ion Creangă", "Bustul scriitorului Ion Creangă", "Mormântul scriitorului Ion Creangă", entries in Patrimoniul istoric și arhitectural, Iași, România database; retrieved August 3, 2009
- ^ Nastasă, p. 65
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 397
- ^ a b Vianu, Vol. II, p. 213
- ^ Mecu & Mecu, p. 186–187
- ^ Călinescu, p. 413; Ornea (1998), p. 57–58, 65, 67, 70–71, 157
- ^ Călinescu, p. 413; Ornea (1998), p. 57–58, 70–71
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 236–239, 252, 258–259; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 211, 214
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 237; Vianu, Vol. I, p. 305, 306; Vol. II, p. 211, 214
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 124, 238–239, 252
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 217; Vol. III, p. 208–209, 211–212
- ^ Braga, p. 213; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 215–216
- ^ ISBN 1-86189-103-2
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 239–241
- ^ Vianu, Vol. I, p. 305; Vol. II, p. 136–137, 221–222
- ^ Călinescu, p. 477–514
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 217
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 229
- ^ a b Ornea (1998), p. 244
- ^ Anca Mureșan, "The Stylistics of the Parts of the Speech in Memories of Childhood", in the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu's American, British and Canadian Studies, Vol. V, December 2004
- ^ Călinescu, p. 480–481
- ^ Călinescu, p. 10
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Călinescu, p. 481
- ^ Călinescu, p. 631
- ^ a b c d Călinescu, p. 488
- ^ Vianu, Vol. I, p. 306; Vol. II, p. 221
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 482
- ^ Călinescu, p. 667
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 216–221, 229
- ^ Călinescu, p. 482; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 217, 219
- ISBN 84-86839-08-4
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 480, 488
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 486
- ^ Călinescu, p. 487–488
- ^ Vianu, Vol. I, p. 306
- ^ Braga, p. 200
- ^ Braga, p. 214
- ^ Călinescu, p. 487–488, 975
- ^ Călinescu, p. 10, 24
- ^ Vianu, Vol. I, p. 304, 306
- ^ Beza, p. 104–105; Călinescu, p. 484; Ornea (1995), p. 84; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 215
- ^ Călinescu, p. 974–975
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 975
- ^ Djuvara, p. 227
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 240–244
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 241
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 214
- ^ a b Simona Brânzaru, "Thoughts about a Possible History of Gaster's Presence in Romanian Literature", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 23/2004
- ^ Lamb, p. 243
- ^ Călinescu, p. 430, 479, 493, 449
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 243
- ^ Călinescu, p. 56, 487–488
- ^ Braga, p. 207–213
- ISBN 0-262-19507-0
- ^ Călinescu, p. 482; Constantinescu, p. 63–65
- ^ Constantinescu, p. 64
- ^ Călinescu, p. 482; Constantinescu, p. 64–65
- ^ a b c Constantinescu, p. 65
- ^ Călinescu, p. 481, 483; Constantinescu, p. 65–66
- ^ a b c Călinescu, p. 483–484
- ^ Beza, p. 104–105
- ^ Braga, p. 210; Constantinescu, p. 66–67
- ^ a b c Constantinescu, p. 66–67
- ^ a b c d e Călinescu, p. 484
- ^ Constantinescu, p. 68
- ^ Constantinescu, p. 67–68
- ^ Braga, p. 207, 210, 212
- ^ Călinescu, p. 482–483, 484
- ^ Călinescu, p. 482–483
- ^ Braga, p. 209, 210, 212–213
- ^ Călinescu, p. 483
- ^ a b c Constantinescu, p. 69
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 215
- ^ a b Constantinescu, p. 70–71
- ^ a b c Tudor Pamfile, "Enemies and Friends of Man II" (excerpts), in Plural Magazine, Nr. 24/2004
- ^ Revista Sud-Est, April 2002
- ^ a b c Constantinescu, p. 70
- ^ Călinescu, p. 484–485
- ^ a b c Călinescu, p. 485
- ^ a b Adrian Majuru, "Khazar Jews. Romanian History and Ethnography" (excerpts), in Plural Magazine, Nr. 27/2006
- ^ Constantinescu, p. 68–69, 71
- ^ Braga, p. 208; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 207
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 220
- ^ Djuvara, p. 226
- ^ Beza, p. 9
- ^ Constantinescu, p. 62–63
- ^ a b c Constantinescu, p. 62
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 235–236
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 235
- ^ Gârbea, p. 127–128
- ^ Braga, p. 206–207; Călinescu, p. 485
- ^ Călinescu, p. 317, 485
- ^ Braga, p. 206, 208, 212
- ^ (in Romanian) Simona Vasilache, "Drobul de sare" Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 44/2007
- ^ a b c d e (in Romanian) Gheorghe Grigurcu, "Un soi de revizuiri" Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 23/2003
- ^ a b Braga, p. 212
- ISBN 0-333-66804-9
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 242–243
- ^ Constantinescu, p. 61; Ornea (1998), p. 242–243
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 242
- ^ Braga, p. 208, 211
- ^ a b c d Voinescu, p. 1127
- ^ Braga, p. 208–209
- ^ Călinescu, p. 486–487, 488
- ^ Călinescu, p. 486–487; Constantinescu, p. 62
- ^ Oișteanu, p. 189, 223, 349
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 237, 252
- ^ Călinescu, p. 479, 488; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 213
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Constantin Cubleșan, "Erosul ca formă a revoltei" Archived February 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, in Convorbiri Literare, December 2008
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Mircea Iorgulescu, "Mărunțișuri", in Cultura, Nr. 8/2006
- ^ Gârbea, p. 130
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Alex. Ștefănescu, "Dacă talent nu e ..." Archived December 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 40/2008
- ^ Voinescu, p. 1128
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 212–213
- ^ Braga, p. 215; Vianu, Vol. II, p. 212–213
- ^ a b (in Romanian) "Bojdeuca scriitorului Ion Creangă", entry in Patrimoniul istoric și arhitectural, Iași, România database; retrieved August 3, 2009
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- ISBN 3-936522-08-1
- ^ Mircea Eliade, "The Museum of the Romanian Village", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 24/2004
- ISBN 978-0-231-13306-7
- ^ Braga, p. 199–200; Ornea (1998), p. 238; Vianu, Vol. III, p. 38, 79–80, 209, 211, 242, 244
- ^ Braga, p. 215
- ^ Vianu, Vol. II, p. 213–214
- ^ Braga, p. 213
- ^ Călinescu, p. 635, 726, 930
- ISBN 90-04-12101-3
- ^ Aurelian I. Popescu, postface to Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor, Tivisoc și Tivismoc, Scrisul Românesc, Craiova, 1987, p. 145
- ISBN 0-299-15924-8
- ^ Călinescu, p. 714
- ^ Călinescu, p. 705
- ^ Ornea (1998), p. 238
- ^ Călinescu, p. 785
- ^ Viorel Cosma, "From the Musical Folklore of Children to the Comic Opera for Children", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 30/2007
- ^ Călinescu, p. 801, 807
- ^ Cernat, p. 76, 143, 200–201
- ^ Cernat, p. 76, 143
- Dilema Veche, Vol. III, Nr. 110, March 2006
- ^ "Marcu Beza", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 21/2004
- ^ Adrian Solomon, "Loosening the Lace", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 26/2005
- ^ Ornea (1995), p. 443
- ^ (in Romanian) Cornel Munteanu, "Mihai Eminescu în iconografia românilor", in Foaia Românească, February 2006
- ^ (in Romanian) Constantin Ostap, "Grădina busturilor rătăcite", in Ziarul de Iași, August 5, 2008
- ^ Narcis Dorin Ion, "Nature and Architecture: The Parks and Gardens of the Capital", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 32/2008
- ^ (in Romanian) Ion Simuț, "Canonul literar proletcultist", in România Literară, Nr. 27/2008 (republished by România Culturală)
- ^ (in Romanian) Membrii post-mortem al Academiei Române, at the Romanian Academy site
- ^ (in Romanian) Ioana Pârvulescu, "Nimeni nu poate sări peste umbra epocii lui" Archived August 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 23/2009
- ^ Braga, p. 199–200
- ^ (in Romanian) Iulian Băicuș, "Despre mitocritică, mitanaliză, arhetipuri și alți demoni critici" (III), in Contrafort, Nr. 11-12/2006
- ^ Boia (2001), pp. 79–81; Mihăilescu, pp. 149, 153, 158, 171
- ^ Mihăilescu, p. 158
- ^ Boia (2001), p. 80
- ^ Braga, p. 199
- ^ a b (in Romanian) "Muzeul Memorial Ion Creangă" Archived August 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, entry in Complexul Muzeal Județean Neamț Archived February 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine database; retrieved August 3, 2009
- ^ a b c (in Romanian) Florin Rusu, "Bijuteria de pe Valea Ozanei" Archived September 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Evenimentul, May 18, 2002
- ^ Lamb, p. 243, 248, 249
- ^ a b c Cornel Todea, "Ion Creangă Theater", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 30/2007
- ^ Lamb, p. 248
- ^ (in Romanian) Sanda Diaconescu, "Cronica dramatică: Ivan Turbincă de Șerban Foarță, după Ion Creangă (Teatrul de Păpuși din Timișoara)", in Teatru, Vol. XXVIII, Nr. 7-8, July–August 1983; text facsimile republished by the Institute for Cultural Memory; retrieved September 10, 2009
- ^ a b Arina Stoenescu, "All Those Images", in Plural Magazine, Nr. 30/2007
- ^ Braga, p. 216
- ^ (in Romanian) György Györfi-Deák, "Cu ochii copiilor, pentru bucuria lor" Archived September 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Caiete Silvane Archived September 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, June 2009
- ^ (in Romanian) Michael Hăulică, "Fantasy & Science Fiction. Premiile care au fost", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 290, October 2005
- ^ (in Romanian) Gabriela Adameșteanu, "Promovarea culturii costă bani, bani și iarăși bani!" (interview with Jenö Farkas) Archived February 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, in Revista 22, Nr. 880, January 2007
- ^ (in Romanian) Gabriela Lupu, "Adrian Pintea, un actor extraordinar și un profesor desavîrșit", in Cotidianul, June 8, 2007
- ^ Charles Upson Clark, Bessarabia. Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea: Chapter XXIX, "The Moldavian Soviet Republic", at the University of Washington's DXARTS/CARTAH Electronic Text Archive; retrieved August 16, 2009
- ^ Revista Sud-Est, Nr. 2/2009
- ^ (in Romanian) Aliona Grati, "Un hectar de umbră pentru Sahara", in Contrafort, Nr. 11-12/2005
- ^ (in Romanian) "Busturi / Sculptură și pictură monumentală: Ion Creangă", entry in Patrimoniul istoric și arhitectural al Republicii Moldova database; retrieved August 3, 2009
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- ISBN 0-8161-6858-X
- ^ Dumitru Nicodim, "Podul de flori de la Prut", in Dreptatea, May 9, 1990, p. 4
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- ^ (in Romanian) Andrei Terian, "Fratele mai deștept al lui Kalașnikov", in Ziarul Financiar, May 20, 2010
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References
- ISBN 1-4067-4345-3
- ISBN 963-9116-96-3
- OCLC 258621848
- George Călinescu, Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1986
- George Călinescu, Ion Creangă; Viața și opera ("Ion Creangă; His Life and Works"), Editura pentru Literatura, Bucharest, 1964
- ISBN 978-973-23-1911-6
- Muguraș Constantinescu, "Figures et représentations du vieillir et de la vieillesse dans les contes de Ion Creangă", in Alain Montandon (ed.), Figures du vieillir, ISBN 2-84516-281-2
- ISBN 973-28-0523-4
- ISBN 978-973-23-1977-2
- Ruth S. Lamb, "Romanian Drama", in Stanley Hochman (ed.), The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama. Vol. 4: O-S, ISBN 0-07-079169-4
- Carmen-Maria Mecu, Nicolae Mecu, "Paradigms of Junimea in Education for a Civil Society", in Magdalena Dumitrana (ed.), Romania: Cultural Identity and Education for Civil Society. Romanian Philosophical Studies, V. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change, Series IVA, Eastern and Central Europe, Volume 24, Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Washington, 2004, p. 181–193. ISBN 1-56518-209-X
- Florin Mihăilescu, De la proletcultism la postmodernism, ISBN 973-9224-63-6
- (in Romanian) Lucian Nastasă, Intelectualii și promovarea socială (pentru o morfologie a câmpului universitar), Editura Nereamia Napocae, Cluj-Napoca, 2002; e-book version at the Romanian Academy's George Bariț Institute of History
- ISBN 978-0-8032-2098-0
- Z. Ornea,
- Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, ISBN 973-9155-43-X
- Junimea și junimismul, Vol. II, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1998. ISBN 973-21-0562-3
- Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească,
- OCLC 7431692
- Radu Voinescu, "Romanian Erotic Literature", in Gaëtan Brulotte, John Phillips (eds.), Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature, ISBN 1-57958-441-1
Relevant literature
- Corina, Iordan. Linguistic and Cultural Characteristics of Creangă's Speech. Scientific Collection «INTERCONF» Proceedings of the 1st International and Practical Conference „Science, Education, Innovation: Topical Issues and Modern Aspects”, Tallinn, Estonia: Uhingu Teadus juhatus No. 2(38). pp. 520–525. online
External links
- Ion Creangă at IMDb
- translations in the Romanian Cultural Institute's Plural Magazine (various issues): "Danillo Nonsuch" ("Dănilă Prepeleac"), Childhood Memories (excerpt), "The Mother with Three Daughters-in-Law", Childhood Memories (excerpt), "The Purse a' Tuppence", "The Tale of All Tales", "The Tale of Ionică the Fool"
- Roumanian Stories. Translated by Lucy Byng, at the University of Washington's DXARTS/CARTAH Electronic Text Archive
- "The Story of the Pig". Hog Bridegrooms (tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 441 in which a beautiful maiden is forced to marry a hog or a hedgehog), University of Pittsburgh, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts edited and/or translated by D. L. Ashliman
- Works by Ion Creangă at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Ion Creangă at Internet Archive
- Works by Ion Creangă at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)