N. Petrascu
Encyclopedia
N. Petraşcu or Pĕtraşcu (common renditions of Nicolae Petraşcu, born Nicolae Petrovici; December 5, 1859 - May 24, 1944) was a Romania
n journalist, essayist, literary critic, novelist, and memoirist. The author of monograph
s on major figures in Romanian literature
, Petraşcu was originally affiliated with the conservative
literary society Junimea
, but did not embrace all its tenets. Like his friend, novelist Duiliu Zamfirescu
, he parted with the group and, together with Dimitrie C. Ollănescu-Ascanio, established a new circle around the magazine Literatură şi Artă Română ("Romanian Literature and Art").
During the 1890s, his group carried an extended polemic with Junimea, and Petraşcu developed his own tenets, which took Historicism
, Sociological positivism, and Determinism
as its main sources of inspiration. He was also noted for endorsing the views of Western Europe
an thinkers such as Hippolyte Taine
and Émile Hennequin. In this context, he engaged in public debates with the Junimist intellectuals Titu Maiorescu
, P. P. Negulescu, and Mihail Dragomirescu. Alongside Ollănescu-Ascanio and Zamfirescu, his circle came to include, among others, poet Alexandru Vlahuţă
, novelist Gala Galaction
, and architect Ion Mincu
. N. Petraşcu was the brother of Gheorghe Petraşcu
, a renowned painter.
Petraşcu authored a single novel, titled Marin Gelea. The work deals with the status of geniuses in the late 19th century Romanian Kingdom
, and contains several references to important cultural figures of the day.
as the son of Costache Petrovici-Rusciucliu and Elena Biţa, he had his surname changed to Petraşin—according to literary historian George Călinescu
, this was on the initiative of Gheorghe and Nicolae's cousin. Also according to Călinescu, it was Nicolae who later changed the family name to Petraşcu, which, the researcher argued, was a "voivodal" variant (akin to the names of medieval Wallachia
n figures such as Prince Pătraşcu cel Bun
).
Before the 1890s, N. Petraşcu attended Junimea sessions and was an admirer of its main figure, the thinker and Conservative Party politician Titu Maiorescu
. His other literary idol inside Junimea was Mihai Eminescu
(later recognized as Romania's national poet): Petraşcu was one of the young and aspiring authors who had discovered Eminescu's work just before the poet went mad and isolated himself, a generation subsequently classified as "Eminescian". Beginning in 1887, Petraşcu sporadically contributed to the Junimist mouthpiece Convorbiri Literare, sending literary essays which he usually signed with the pen name
A. Costin.
At the time, Petraşcu published a series of studies on Romanian writers, including the Romantic
Dimitrie Bolintineanu
and the Junimist figures Eminescu and Vasile Alecsandri
(both of whom successively affiliated with Romanticism and Junimea). Some of his other essays were noted for their polemic tone: among these was his earliest, a piece on short story writer Barbu Ştefănescu-Delavrancea, and an 1888 text on Constantin Mille
and his only novel, Dinu Millian.
His work for the Convorbiri Literare journal included a study of Eminescu's work. It was published as a series between 1890 and 1891 (that is, in the two years following Eminescu's death), but carried the title Mihail Eminescu, studiu critic 1892 ("Mihail Eminescu, Critical Study 1892") [sic]. In 1893, Maiorescu publicly praised the Eminescu monograph, and awarded it a prize. Petraşcu later admitted that the writing was actually "an admiring recollection of the great poet".
The essay was also at the center of a polemic with the anti-Junimist figure and Marxist
philosopher Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
, on topics surrounding the pessimistic
nature evident in some of Eminescu's best-known poems. While Dobrogeanu-Gherea spoke of social causes behind the poet's attitudes, Petraşcu attributed these to "a change in the fundamental forces of the contemporary soul, that is to say in the relation between intelligence, will, and faith". Dobrogeanu-Gherea chose not to reply to these points. The study was nevertheless acknowledged decades later by Dobrogeanu-Gherea's disciple, literary historian Garabet Ibrăileanu
, who noted its biographical research. Investigating the circumstances of Eminescu's illness and the impact it had on the poet's work, Ibrăileanu used assessments made by Petraşcu (and, separately, the testimonies of poetess Mite Kremnitz
), to conclude that Eminescu had been incapable of producing any more poems after the full onset of his symptoms.
In May of the same year, his various pieces were reunited under the title Figuri literare contemporane ("Contemporary Literary Figures"), which opened with a study on Titu Maiorescu.
politicians George Panu and Nicolae Xenopol.
He clarified his position in time, through polemics, and, during an April 1892 lecture he gave at the Romanian Athenaeum
, confessed that he impressed by Positivism
following an 1890 trip to Paris
. On the same occasion, he claimed that science had the power to "remove" Idealism
, metaphysics
, and faith itself. His lecture showed similarities with that of left-wing anti-Junimists such as Dobrogeanu-Gherea, as well as with the ideals expressed by Nicolae Xenopol.
In contrast to both Junimea and the Romantic writer Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
, Petraşcu showed that he accepted Realist
and Naturalism
. At the time, the two innovative currents stood accused of having been generated locally through "imitation", and of not being connected with the cultural environment. The speaker, who stated that "the spirit of imitation" was normal and "the strongest [one] on which the world's progress rests", nonetheless took distance from Dobrogeanu-Gherea and the socialist
press in arguing against the Naturalist perception of society as a decaying body.
and Mihail Dragomirescu.
The journal soon enlisted contributions from other adversaries of Junimea, including Zamfirescu, Dimitrie Anghel
, Ştefan Octavian Iosif
, George Coşbuc
, Alexandru Vlahuţă
, G. Dem. Teodorescu, and Ştefan Petică. The group spoke out against Junimeas strict aesthetic guidelines, and advocated instead an art with a patriotic
message and a return to "national specificity". Petraşcu himself hailed the French
theorist Hippolyte Taine
for the emphasis he placed on race, milieu, and moment, arguing that its "organic" character could serve to renew art and literature in Romania. In parallel, he was interested in Émile Hennequin's Positivism, with its notion of "scientific criticism". Among other influences he cited were Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
, Francesco de Sanctis, Bonaventura Zumbini, and Ferdinand Brunetière
.
N. Petraşcu's articles of the time show him to be speaking out against the "destructive criticism" of Maiorescu and his supporters, arguing that Junimea had sought to marginalize all other voices. He condemned Maiorescu for his belief that a Romanian work could only expect to impose itself if it was of equal value to its foreign counterparts. For Petraşcu, this guideline, known as "autonomy of the aesthetics
", was equivalent to cosmopolitanism
, and unrealistic in its expectations (he thought Romanian literature was "at a primitive phase"). As the author himself recorded in his memoirs, he had first expressed moderate criticism of Maiorescu's positions in his 1893 study. According to Petraşcu, the elder critic replied saying: "My opinion is that this [new school of criticism], toward which I see you are inclined, can only be a passing trend, since it only deals with secondary issues, such as the social environment." N. Petraşcu expanded on this difference of opinions: "I realized, for instance, that [Maiorescu's opinion] about talent being one and the same, be it born in the forest, be it born in Paris or Berlin
, be it living in our time, be it living during the Renaissance
, was not an allowable opinion. Just as well, and even more so, the idea that the literary work resides in the beauty of shapes and that the substance, that is to say the thoughts it comprises, has no importance, was also an unjust opinion."
Like Vlahuţă, he called on Junimea to tone down its "violent" discourse and adopt an "honest, helpful and proper criticism". Such arguments mirrored those of Dobrogeanu-Gherea, which had first surfaced during an earlier and longer polemic between him and Maiorescu, but were generally harsher in tone.
Convorbiri Literare answered through this attack through the intervention of its editor, the philosopher P. P. Negulescu. Negulescu pointed out that, in accusing Junimea of having failed to support young writers, Petraşcu had overlooked the encouragements Maiorescu had given to Eminescu, Coşbuc, and Samson Bodnărescu
; he also argued that the society had not awarded any form of special treatment to its own affiliates. Additionally, Negulescu contradicted Petraşcu's historicist
views on national specificity, assessing that the idea was not confirmed by science, and that it was itself a new and foreign concept (stating that Taine was "hard to take into consideration as an authority on the matter"). However, in his analysis, Negulescu refrained from refuting the theories themselves, and instead argued in favor of a middle path between them and Junimism. In 1895, further criticism of N. Petraşcu was voiced by Mihail Dragomirescu, who was still a supporter of the literary group: Dragomirescu indirectly assimilated both Dobrogeanu-Gherea and Petraşcu with various known detractors of Eminescu, such as Aron Densusianu and Alexandru Grama (in his review of the article, Ornea indicated that this was done "abusively").
as the main representatives of Romanian literary criticism. He was nonetheless still critical of Maiorescu's "autonomy of the aesthetics" and his inflexibility in relation to "scientific criticism".
Demetriescu and N. Petraşcu were hosts to an intellectual circle which also included the architect Ion Mincu
, the physician Constantin Istrati
, the writer Barbu Ştefănescu-Delavrancea, and the physicist Ştefan Hepites. For a while before 1902, they were probably joined by Demetriescu's young pupil Mateiu Caragiale
, the son of dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale
and himself a future novelist. Among his collaborators at Literatură şi Artă Română was Gala Galaction
, a writer and Romanian Orthodox
theologian, whose lengthy correspondence with Petraşcu was uncovered and analyzed by the literary critic I. E. Torouţiu (who also published and commented Petraşcu's autobiography).
Among N. Petraşcu's final works was his essay on the life and work of Anghel Demetriescu (published by Tipografia Bucovina company and undated), where he notably provides quotes on his friend's old age nostalgia and eccentric projects. In 1929, Petraşcu also authored a monograph on Duiliu Zamfirescu. Literary critic Perpessicius
argued that the work had "volubility", "sense of the picturesque" and "critical intuition".
and the visual artists Nicolae Grigorescu
and Ion Georgescu.
This theme is a characteristic trait in Marin Gelea, where the eponymous hero, an architect, faces the moods of his public and ultimately fails to adjust to local culture. George Călinescu
proposed that the protagonist was actually Petraşcu's good friend Mincu, and noted that the name used in the book may have been based on that of a real-life participant in the 1907 Peasants' Revolt
. The critic also argued that the novel had been heavily influenced by Zamfirescu, and noted that the two authors shared "a moralizing and patriotic attitude", a sympathy for the landowners and peasants, and a distaste for the middle class
and people of foreign origin ("the superposed stratum", depicted as corrupting). Unlike Zamfirescu, Călinescu suggested, N. Petraşcu had little sympathy for high society
, seeing as "lacking in national sentiment and any contact with the country's tradition".
Gelea, who completes his studies abroad, returns to Romania "imbued with all talents and all virtues, having his will set on raising the artistic level of his country", and ready to react against all things he perceives as frivolous. He falls in love with "the young widow Olga Lari" and then with "the daughter of a country boyar
, innocent but ailing". He marries the latter, and she heals with support from Gelea. In the process, as Călinescu puts it, the architect becomes "a jaded person, one would say a failure". A particularly important episode involves Marin Gelea's participation in a contest to design the Romanian Metropolitan Palace, and his subsequent rejection by the jury.
George Călinescu was highly critical of the novel and of Petraşcu's techniques, accusing the writer of lacking in "creative force", and his character of "analytical plainness" which resulted in "interminable speeches". Călinescu notably proposed that the author had failed to profit from the more interesting circumstances of his novel, and, instead of depicting "the universal snob
bery" of his lifetime, resorted to an "excessively idealist criticism". Călinescu also commented on the artistic ideals expressed by Gelea (and, through him, by the author), indicating that, to a "cultured reader", these could only signify "platitudes". To illustrate this, he cited two of Gelea's monologues. One showed the character commenting on an "ideal" poem, "filled with the promises of a serene and mighty future [...], alive and powerful, and branding with a hot iron the weaknesses and miseries of this day and of life in these times." The other showed Gelea outraged that young women actors had agreed to partake in a vulgar theater production, and commenting on the nature and role of female beauty and behavior: "[...] the treasure of virginal beauty which bestows something angelic upon women, the modesty, the chastity, the shyness, were all blown away in a single evening".
Reviewing Gelea's fictional designs for the Metropolitan Palace and his subsequent frustration, Călinescu argued that Petraşcu had in fact expanded on a "false theme"—in his view, if Gelea is a person of genius, he ought to have seen past such impediments. He concluded that the novel's only value resided in its "historical interest". Among the covert references to various cultural figures of the day, Marin Gelea includes a portrayal of Ion Luca Caragiale
, one of the first in literature (see also Ion Luca Caragiale's cultural legacy).
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n journalist, essayist, literary critic, novelist, and memoirist. The author of monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s on major figures in Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, Petraşcu was originally affiliated with the conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
literary society Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
, but did not embrace all its tenets. Like his friend, novelist Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a while in 1920, he was Foreign Minister of Romania...
, he parted with the group and, together with Dimitrie C. Ollănescu-Ascanio, established a new circle around the magazine Literatură şi Artă Română ("Romanian Literature and Art").
During the 1890s, his group carried an extended polemic with Junimea, and Petraşcu developed his own tenets, which took Historicism
Historicism
Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...
, Sociological positivism, and Determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
as its main sources of inspiration. He was also noted for endorsing the views of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
an thinkers such as Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine was a French critic and historian. He was the chief theoretical influence of French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism, and one of the first practitioners of historicist criticism. Literary historicism as a critical movement has been said to originate...
and Émile Hennequin. In this context, he engaged in public debates with the Junimist intellectuals Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
, P. P. Negulescu, and Mihail Dragomirescu. Alongside Ollănescu-Ascanio and Zamfirescu, his circle came to include, among others, poet Alexandru Vlahuţă
Alexandru Vlahuta
Alexandru Vlahuţă was a Romanian writer. His best known work is România pitorească, an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of Sămănătorul magazine, alongside George Coşbuc....
, novelist Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
, and architect Ion Mincu
Ion Mincu
Ion Mincu was an architect, engineer, professor and politician in Romania.He promoted a Romanian style in architecture, by integrating in his works the specific style of traditional Romanian architecture...
. N. Petraşcu was the brother of Gheorghe Petraşcu
Gheorghe Petrascu
Gheorghe Petraşcu was a Romanian painter. He won numerous prizes throughout his lifetime and had his paintings exhibited posthumously at the Paris International Exhibition and the Venice Biennale. He was the brother of N. Petraşcu, a literary critic and novelist.-External links:**...
, a renowned painter.
Petraşcu authored a single novel, titled Marin Gelea. The work deals with the status of geniuses in the late 19th century Romanian Kingdom
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
, and contains several references to important cultural figures of the day.
Early life and career
Born in TecuciTecuci
Tecuci is a city in the Galaţi county of Romania , situated among wooded hills, on the right bank of the Bârlad River, and at the junction of railways from Galaţi, Bârlad and Mărăşeşti.-History:...
as the son of Costache Petrovici-Rusciucliu and Elena Biţa, he had his surname changed to Petraşin—according to literary historian George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
, this was on the initiative of Gheorghe and Nicolae's cousin. Also according to Călinescu, it was Nicolae who later changed the family name to Petraşcu, which, the researcher argued, was a "voivodal" variant (akin to the names of medieval Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
n figures such as Prince Pătraşcu cel Bun
Pătraşcu cel Bun
Pătraşcu cel Bun was the Prince of Wallachia . He was the son of Radu Paisie and the father of Michael the Brave; he was a member of the House of Drăculeşti...
).
Before the 1890s, N. Petraşcu attended Junimea sessions and was an admirer of its main figure, the thinker and Conservative Party politician Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
. His other literary idol inside Junimea was Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
(later recognized as Romania's national poet): Petraşcu was one of the young and aspiring authors who had discovered Eminescu's work just before the poet went mad and isolated himself, a generation subsequently classified as "Eminescian". Beginning in 1887, Petraşcu sporadically contributed to the Junimist mouthpiece Convorbiri Literare, sending literary essays which he usually signed with the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
A. Costin.
At the time, Petraşcu published a series of studies on Romanian writers, including the Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
Dimitrie Bolintineanu
Dimitrie Bolintineanu
Dimitrie Bolintineanu was a Romanian poet , diplomat, politician, and a participant in the revolution of 1848. He was of Macedonian Aromanian origins...
and the Junimist figures Eminescu and Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....
(both of whom successively affiliated with Romanticism and Junimea). Some of his other essays were noted for their polemic tone: among these was his earliest, a piece on short story writer Barbu Ştefănescu-Delavrancea, and an 1888 text on Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist...
and his only novel, Dinu Millian.
His work for the Convorbiri Literare journal included a study of Eminescu's work. It was published as a series between 1890 and 1891 (that is, in the two years following Eminescu's death), but carried the title Mihail Eminescu, studiu critic 1892 ("Mihail Eminescu, Critical Study 1892") [sic]. In 1893, Maiorescu publicly praised the Eminescu monograph, and awarded it a prize. Petraşcu later admitted that the writing was actually "an admiring recollection of the great poet".
The essay was also at the center of a polemic with the anti-Junimist figure and Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
philosopher Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
, on topics surrounding the pessimistic
Pessimism
Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...
nature evident in some of Eminescu's best-known poems. While Dobrogeanu-Gherea spoke of social causes behind the poet's attitudes, Petraşcu attributed these to "a change in the fundamental forces of the contemporary soul, that is to say in the relation between intelligence, will, and faith". Dobrogeanu-Gherea chose not to reply to these points. The study was nevertheless acknowledged decades later by Dobrogeanu-Gherea's disciple, literary historian Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...
, who noted its biographical research. Investigating the circumstances of Eminescu's illness and the impact it had on the poet's work, Ibrăileanu used assessments made by Petraşcu (and, separately, the testimonies of poetess Mite Kremnitz
Mite Kremnitz
Mite Kremnitz , born Marie von Bardeleben , was a German writer.-Biography:...
), to conclude that Eminescu had been incapable of producing any more poems after the full onset of his symptoms.
In May of the same year, his various pieces were reunited under the title Figuri literare contemporane ("Contemporary Literary Figures"), which opened with a study on Titu Maiorescu.
Transition
Nevertheless, his views were often shaped by outside influences. According to literary historian Z. Ornea, Maiorescu's rejection of most new literary trends may have been resented from early on by several young Junimists: alongside Petraşcu, these included the radicalLiberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
politicians George Panu and Nicolae Xenopol.
He clarified his position in time, through polemics, and, during an April 1892 lecture he gave at the Romanian Athenaeum
Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's main concert hall and home of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and of the George Enescu annual international...
, confessed that he impressed by Positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
following an 1890 trip to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. On the same occasion, he claimed that science had the power to "remove" Idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
, and faith itself. His lecture showed similarities with that of left-wing anti-Junimists such as Dobrogeanu-Gherea, as well as with the ideals expressed by Nicolae Xenopol.
In contrast to both Junimea and the Romantic writer Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...
, Petraşcu showed that he accepted Realist
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
and Naturalism
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
. At the time, the two innovative currents stood accused of having been generated locally through "imitation", and of not being connected with the cultural environment. The speaker, who stated that "the spirit of imitation" was normal and "the strongest [one] on which the world's progress rests", nonetheless took distance from Dobrogeanu-Gherea and the socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
press in arguing against the Naturalist perception of society as a decaying body.
Polemic with Junimea
His definitive split with Junimea came in 1896, and saw the creation of Literatură şi Artă Română as a magazine headed by Dimitrie C. Ollănescu-Ascanio. This coincided with a noted decline in Junimist influence, and was one of several departures—other prominent Junimists to adopt independent and distinct positions around the same date were Constantin Rădulescu-MotruConstantin Radulescu-Motru
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru was a Romanian philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, logician, academic, dramatist, as well as centre-left nationalist politician with a noted anti-fascist discourse...
and Mihail Dragomirescu.
The journal soon enlisted contributions from other adversaries of Junimea, including Zamfirescu, Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel was a Romanian poet.His first poem was published in Contemporanul...
, Ştefan Octavian Iosif
Stefan Octavian Iosif
Ştefan Octavian Iosif was a Romanian poet and translator of Aromanian origin.-Life:Born in Braşov, Transylvania , he studied in his native town and in Sibiu before completing his education in Paris. While in France, he met Dimitrie Anghel, who would became a long-time friend...
, George Coşbuc
George Cosbuc
George Coşbuc was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy....
, Alexandru Vlahuţă
Alexandru Vlahuta
Alexandru Vlahuţă was a Romanian writer. His best known work is România pitorească, an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of Sămănătorul magazine, alongside George Coşbuc....
, G. Dem. Teodorescu, and Ştefan Petică. The group spoke out against Junimeas strict aesthetic guidelines, and advocated instead an art with a patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
message and a return to "national specificity". Petraşcu himself hailed the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
theorist Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine was a French critic and historian. He was the chief theoretical influence of French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism, and one of the first practitioners of historicist criticism. Literary historicism as a critical movement has been said to originate...
for the emphasis he placed on race, milieu, and moment, arguing that its "organic" character could serve to renew art and literature in Romania. In parallel, he was interested in Émile Hennequin's Positivism, with its notion of "scientific criticism". Among other influences he cited were Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a literary critic and one of the major figures of French literary history.-Early years:...
, Francesco de Sanctis, Bonaventura Zumbini, and Ferdinand Brunetière
Ferdinand Brunetière
Ferdinand Brunetière was a French writer and critic.-Early years:Brunetière was born in Toulon, Var, Provence. After school at Marseille, he studied in Paris at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Desiring a teaching career, he entered for examination at the École Normale Supérieure, but failed, and the...
.
N. Petraşcu's articles of the time show him to be speaking out against the "destructive criticism" of Maiorescu and his supporters, arguing that Junimea had sought to marginalize all other voices. He condemned Maiorescu for his belief that a Romanian work could only expect to impose itself if it was of equal value to its foreign counterparts. For Petraşcu, this guideline, known as "autonomy of the aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
", was equivalent to cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
, and unrealistic in its expectations (he thought Romanian literature was "at a primitive phase"). As the author himself recorded in his memoirs, he had first expressed moderate criticism of Maiorescu's positions in his 1893 study. According to Petraşcu, the elder critic replied saying: "My opinion is that this [new school of criticism], toward which I see you are inclined, can only be a passing trend, since it only deals with secondary issues, such as the social environment." N. Petraşcu expanded on this difference of opinions: "I realized, for instance, that [Maiorescu's opinion] about talent being one and the same, be it born in the forest, be it born in Paris or Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, be it living in our time, be it living during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, was not an allowable opinion. Just as well, and even more so, the idea that the literary work resides in the beauty of shapes and that the substance, that is to say the thoughts it comprises, has no importance, was also an unjust opinion."
Like Vlahuţă, he called on Junimea to tone down its "violent" discourse and adopt an "honest, helpful and proper criticism". Such arguments mirrored those of Dobrogeanu-Gherea, which had first surfaced during an earlier and longer polemic between him and Maiorescu, but were generally harsher in tone.
Convorbiri Literare answered through this attack through the intervention of its editor, the philosopher P. P. Negulescu. Negulescu pointed out that, in accusing Junimea of having failed to support young writers, Petraşcu had overlooked the encouragements Maiorescu had given to Eminescu, Coşbuc, and Samson Bodnărescu
Samson Bodnarescu
Samson L. Bodnărescu was a Romanian poet.He was a member of the cultural society Junimea and his poetry often reflected his idealistic philosophical views...
; he also argued that the society had not awarded any form of special treatment to its own affiliates. Additionally, Negulescu contradicted Petraşcu's historicist
Historicism
Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...
views on national specificity, assessing that the idea was not confirmed by science, and that it was itself a new and foreign concept (stating that Taine was "hard to take into consideration as an authority on the matter"). However, in his analysis, Negulescu refrained from refuting the theories themselves, and instead argued in favor of a middle path between them and Junimism. In 1895, further criticism of N. Petraşcu was voiced by Mihail Dragomirescu, who was still a supporter of the literary group: Dragomirescu indirectly assimilated both Dobrogeanu-Gherea and Petraşcu with various known detractors of Eminescu, such as Aron Densusianu and Alexandru Grama (in his review of the article, Ornea indicated that this was done "abusively").
Later years
Several years after his polemic with Negulescu, Petraşcu acknowledged the importance of Junimea, and, in 1899, his magazine defined Maiorescu as "a superior man from several points of view". He also spoke of the critic as an inspiration, which, he argued, was still evident despite "the different road" adopted by Literatură şi Artă Română. On the occasion of Maiorescu's 60th year of activity, Petraşcu cited him, Dobrogeanu-Gherea and his friend Anghel DemetriescuAnghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu was a Romanian historian, writer and literary critic, member of the Romanian Academy in 1902.-Childhood and studies:...
as the main representatives of Romanian literary criticism. He was nonetheless still critical of Maiorescu's "autonomy of the aesthetics" and his inflexibility in relation to "scientific criticism".
Demetriescu and N. Petraşcu were hosts to an intellectual circle which also included the architect Ion Mincu
Ion Mincu
Ion Mincu was an architect, engineer, professor and politician in Romania.He promoted a Romanian style in architecture, by integrating in his works the specific style of traditional Romanian architecture...
, the physician Constantin Istrati
Constantin Istrati
-Sources:*...
, the writer Barbu Ştefănescu-Delavrancea, and the physicist Ştefan Hepites. For a while before 1902, they were probably joined by Demetriescu's young pupil Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Ion Caragiale was a Romanian poet and prose writer, best known for his novel Craii de Curtea-Veche, which portrays the milieu of boyar descendants before and after World War I. Caragiale's style, associated with Symbolism, the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle, and early modernism, was...
, the son of dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
and himself a future novelist. Among his collaborators at Literatură şi Artă Română was Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
, a writer and Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
theologian, whose lengthy correspondence with Petraşcu was uncovered and analyzed by the literary critic I. E. Torouţiu (who also published and commented Petraşcu's autobiography).
Among N. Petraşcu's final works was his essay on the life and work of Anghel Demetriescu (published by Tipografia Bucovina company and undated), where he notably provides quotes on his friend's old age nostalgia and eccentric projects. In 1929, Petraşcu also authored a monograph on Duiliu Zamfirescu. Literary critic Perpessicius
Perpessicius
Perpessicius was a Romanian literary historian and critic, poet, essayist and fiction writer. One of the prominent literary chroniclers of the Romanian interwar, he stood apart in his generation for having thrown his support behind the modernist and avant-garde currents of Romanian literature...
argued that the work had "volubility", "sense of the picturesque" and "critical intuition".
Marin Gelea
Building on his sociological theories, Petraşcu postulated that there was a contrast between the men of genius and the expectations of the local public. He believed that "All the Romanian talents have been deviated or defeated by our society, most of them in the flower of their youth and manhood, when they did not yet have time to lend their power to full measure". Among the creative people he cited where Mincu, Eminescu, Zamfirescu, Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Ştefănescu-Delavrancea, Ion Luca Caragiale, Vlahuţă, as well as the writer Ioan SlaviciIoan Slavici
Ioan Slavici was a Transylvanian-born Romanian writer and journalist. He made his debut in Convorbiri literare , with the comedy Fata de birău...
and the visual artists Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.-Biography:He was born in Pitaru, Dâmboviţa County, Wallachia. In 1843 the family moved to Bucharest. At a young age , he became an apprentice at the workshop of the painter Anton Chladek and created icons for the church of...
and Ion Georgescu.
This theme is a characteristic trait in Marin Gelea, where the eponymous hero, an architect, faces the moods of his public and ultimately fails to adjust to local culture. George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
proposed that the protagonist was actually Petraşcu's good friend Mincu, and noted that the name used in the book may have been based on that of a real-life participant in the 1907 Peasants' Revolt
1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt
The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt took place in March 1907 in Moldavia and it quickly spread, reaching Wallachia. The main cause was the discontent of the peasants about the inequity of land ownership, which was in the hands of just a few large landowners....
. The critic also argued that the novel had been heavily influenced by Zamfirescu, and noted that the two authors shared "a moralizing and patriotic attitude", a sympathy for the landowners and peasants, and a distaste for the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
and people of foreign origin ("the superposed stratum", depicted as corrupting). Unlike Zamfirescu, Călinescu suggested, N. Petraşcu had little sympathy for high society
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
, seeing as "lacking in national sentiment and any contact with the country's tradition".
Gelea, who completes his studies abroad, returns to Romania "imbued with all talents and all virtues, having his will set on raising the artistic level of his country", and ready to react against all things he perceives as frivolous. He falls in love with "the young widow Olga Lari" and then with "the daughter of a country boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
, innocent but ailing". He marries the latter, and she heals with support from Gelea. In the process, as Călinescu puts it, the architect becomes "a jaded person, one would say a failure". A particularly important episode involves Marin Gelea's participation in a contest to design the Romanian Metropolitan Palace, and his subsequent rejection by the jury.
George Călinescu was highly critical of the novel and of Petraşcu's techniques, accusing the writer of lacking in "creative force", and his character of "analytical plainness" which resulted in "interminable speeches". Călinescu notably proposed that the author had failed to profit from the more interesting circumstances of his novel, and, instead of depicting "the universal snob
Snob
A snob is someone who believes that some people are inherently inferior to him or her for any one of a variety of reasons, including real or supposed intellect, wealth, education, ancestry, taste, beauty, nationality, et cetera. Often, the form of snobbery reflects the snob's personal attributes...
bery" of his lifetime, resorted to an "excessively idealist criticism". Călinescu also commented on the artistic ideals expressed by Gelea (and, through him, by the author), indicating that, to a "cultured reader", these could only signify "platitudes". To illustrate this, he cited two of Gelea's monologues. One showed the character commenting on an "ideal" poem, "filled with the promises of a serene and mighty future [...], alive and powerful, and branding with a hot iron the weaknesses and miseries of this day and of life in these times." The other showed Gelea outraged that young women actors had agreed to partake in a vulgar theater production, and commenting on the nature and role of female beauty and behavior: "[...] the treasure of virginal beauty which bestows something angelic upon women, the modesty, the chastity, the shyness, were all blown away in a single evening".
Reviewing Gelea's fictional designs for the Metropolitan Palace and his subsequent frustration, Călinescu argued that Petraşcu had in fact expanded on a "false theme"—in his view, if Gelea is a person of genius, he ought to have seen past such impediments. He concluded that the novel's only value resided in its "historical interest". Among the covert references to various cultural figures of the day, Marin Gelea includes a portrayal of Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
, one of the first in literature (see also Ion Luca Caragiale's cultural legacy).