$Unique_ID{bob00430} $Pretitle{} $Title{Romania Chapter 6B. Films, Literature and Research} $Subtitle{} $Author{Eugene K. Keefe} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{literary romanian poetry important literature writers ion century life development} $Date{1972} $Log{} Title: Romania Book: Romania, A Country Study Author: Eugene K. Keefe Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1972 Chapter 6B. Films, Literature and Research The film industry has a long and venerable history dating back to 1912, when the first full-length feature was produced. The silent comedies of the 1920s compare favorably with those produced by the best film makers of the time. In the 1930s and 1940s, until the communist takeover, Romanian musicals and tales of suspense and of the supernatural were popular at home and abroad. Most of these films were produced with technical and financial assistance from France and other countries (see ch. 11). Cultural restrictions in the 1950s and early 1960s prevented the Romanian film industry from taking part in the technical and artistic developments that were changing the film industry in France and other Western countries. As a result, films produced in Romania as late as 1970 were technically and artistically old-fashioned compared to those produced in noncommunist countries and even in Czechoslovakia. Most critic outside the country compare them to the good films produced by Hollywood in the 1940s. Nevertheless, several Romanian films in the 1960s have won prizes at lesser known international film festivals. Two of the important directors in the late 1960s were Mircea Dragan and Ion Popescu-Gopo. Dragan specializes in historic adventure films of epic proportions, whereas Popescu-Gopo concentrates on fantasies, including science fiction. Popescu-Gopo is also well known for his animated films. LITERATURE Literature in the form of folk tales and poetry is of ancient origin. A vast collection of legends, tales, ballads, proverbs, and riddles had been preserved and is known to both rural and urban Romanians. Legends and tales deal with the daring exploits of a national hero, sometimes real and sometimes imaginary. In the oldest tales, the adversaries are monsters and inhabitants of the underworld; in later ones, they are the foreign conquerors and occupiers. Ballads were originally intended to be sung but are now more often recited as poems. They deal with the same subjects as legends and tales, and many are of epic proportions. In the mountains of Transylvania and Moldavia separate groups of ballads developed dealing with the pastoral life of the people. The earliest known texts written in Romania are chronicles in Old Church Slavonic. In the sixteenth century a number of religious texts were translated into Romanian, and the introductions to them are the first known original writings in the Romanian language. Of significance in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the chronicles written by a number of writers in Moldavia and in Walachia. Dimitrie Cantemir, ruler of Moldavia, wrote the Description of Moldavia and History of the Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire during the same period. A Transylvanian school of writing stressed the Latin origin of the Romanian people and their language and utilized a latinized Romanian in its writing. It was influential in awakening the national consciousness of Transylvanian Romanians. Four members of the Vacarescu family wrote lyrical poetry in the eighteenth century. The best of them, Iancu Vacarescu, is regarded as the father of Romanian poetry. The lyric tradition was carried on in the early nineteenth century, and much of the poetry dealt with historic subjects and expressed the growing patriotism and nationalist sentiment of the time. In the early nineteenth century the Latinist movement of Transylvania spread into Moldavia and Walachia and began to Romanianize the hitherto Hellenic culture of the Romanian upper class. The founding of the College of Saint Sava in Bucharest, using Romanian as the language of instruction, laid the foundation for the development of a reading public for Romanian literature. At the same time, the founding of a Romanian-language newspaper with a literary supplement gave writers a publication outlet. The newspaper was founded by Eliade Radulescu, who also founded the Philharmonic Society and the Romanian Academy, thus giving major impetus to the development of Romanian literature and culture. In Moldavia, Gheorghe Asachi originated the historical short story, wrote verse, and also founded a newspaper. The literary supplement of Asachi's newspaper provided an outlet for Moldavian writers. The nineteenth century was the romantic age of Romanian literature. Writers and poets wrote under the influence of Russian, French, and English romanticists whose works were widely translated. Outstanding among the poets was Grigore Alexandrescu, who also wrote fables and satires along the lines of Alphonse de Lamartine and Jean de LaFontaine. Many historical works were written by Nicolae Balcescu and Mihail Kogalniceanu, both of whom were political figures in the nationalist movement of their time as well as important writers. The founding in 1840 of the literary magazine Dacia Literata by Kogalniceanu marked the beginning of the traditionalist school, which was characterized by the use of specifically Romanian themes. An outstanding exponent of this school was the short story writer, Constantine Negruzzi. The second half of the nineteenth century saw the development of modern literature through the impetus of serious criticism based on German and French philosophical thought and cultural trends. The period was dominated by Vasile Alecsandri and Mihail Eminescu. During Alecsandri's long career, he produced outstanding works in every form of literary expression-prose, poetry, drama, and nonfiction. Together with Negruzzi and Kogalniceanu, he was one of the early directors of the National Theatre in Iasi. Eminescu is Romania's outstanding poet and holds his place among the important poets of the world. His lyrical poetry is influenced by Romanian folklore, Hindu thought, and German philosophy. His ballad Luceafarul (Evening Star) is a well-known classic. In addition to poetry, Eminescu wrote short stories and political and philosophical essays. He was one of the leaders of the Junimea, a literary circle for youth in Iasi, which was founded by the important critic Titu Mairescu. Other important members of the circle were Ion Luca Caragiale, a playwright who first introduced social comedy to Romania, and Ion Creanga, who wrote about the peasant life from which he stemmed. Around the beginning of the twentieth century the growing popularity of peasant themes and descriptions of peasant life in the writing of such authors as Ion Slavici and Gheorghe Cosbuc led to the publication of a new literary periodical, Samanatorul, and the development of a literary school that took its name. The school stressed the national heritage of Romania, its folklore, and its rustic life as subjects for literary creation, in contrast to the cosmopolitan outlook of the Junimea circle. Parallel to the Samanatorul school developed poporanism (of the people), which was similar to the then-current Russian populism in its social and political motivation. Its organ was Viata Romaneasca, which featured populist causes. Several writers remained apart from any of the schools. Among them was Barbu Delavrancea, well-known for his trilogy about Stephen the Great and for stories of Walachian peasant life, and the poet Alexandru Macedonski, who introduced French symbolism to Romanian literature. The period between the two world wars gave rise to the novel, which quickly took its place beside lyrical poetry as an important form of literary expression. An important contributor to the development of the novel was Liviu Rebreanu, whose Forest of the Hanged is a powerful description of the horrors of war. His other important novels are Ion, dealing with peasant life, and Ciuleandra, a psychological novel. Mihail Sadoveanu, whose most important works were published in the 1920s and 1930s, is considered the foremost realist of the twentieth century. His writings deal mostly with history and with peasant life. In 1924 he won the national prize for literature, and in 1949, the Gold Peace Medal. Outstanding interwar poets were Lucian Blaga, Ion Barbu, and Tudor Arghezi. Blaga's poetry was an exposition of his philosophy based on the traditional way of life interpreted as a cosmic mystery. Barbu's poems are of an abstract and esoteric nature. Arghezi is considered the greatest poet since Eminescu on the basis of his use of language and symbolism. Immediately after World War II poetry again took the lead in literary expression. Although much prose was published, none of it was considered of particular importance. The poetry can be divided into three main schools: surrealist poetry, poetry of spiritual revolt, and a return-to-tradition balladry. Several of the prewar writers and poets continued to produce after the communist takeover and subjected themselves to the constraints of Socialist Realism. Among them were Sadoveanu, Calinescu, Camil Petrescu, and Arghezi. Others were denounced for their previous writings and became silent. The literary output of the 1950s is generally regarded as second rate. Several notable novels, however, were published in the early 1960s. Among them were George Calinescu's Bietul Ioanide (Poor Ioanide), Ion Sadoveanu's Ion Sintu (Saint John), and Petru Dimitriu's Cronica de Familie (Family Chronicle). Of particularly outstanding merit and lasting quality are Marin Preda's peasant epic Morometii (The Moroments) and Eugen Barbu's naturalist novel Groapa (The Trench). With the relaxing of cultural controls in the mid-1960s, many of those who had been silent resumed their writing, together with a new group of younger writers. The mid- and late-1960s saw an outpouring of literary creativity that had been pent up during the preceding decade. The variety of genres and styles was impressive; some continued the traditions of the past, others repudiated their literary traditions and ventured into new areas of expression. Lyricism dominated the poetry of Ion Alexandru, Adrian Paunescu, Marin Sorescu, and others. Their greatest appeal was among young people whose doubts, hopes, and restlessness they expressed. Prose showed two trends: realism, which was now free to examine all aspects of human existence; and antirealism, which showed influences of some contemporary French writers. Literary criticism, which had played an important role in the development of Romanian literature, was revived as a literary art and was removed from politics. Both old and new works were examined and evaluated, and Romanian literary traditions were studied and analyzed. The literary output of the 1950s was attacked for its lack of imagination and creativity. The retightening of controls in 1971 reduced the volume of new works being published, and many writers retreated into a self-censorship, which restricted their creativity. Literary periodicals and other publication media were more selective in deciding what to publish, whereas some critics attacked the volume and quality of the recent literary output. SCHOLARSHIP AND RESEARCH A tradition of scholarship and research has in the past been limited to a small intellectual elite centered in Bucharest and Iasi. The group was oriented toward France and, to a lesser extent, Germany in terms of professional contacts and sources of inspiration. During the 1930s a number of sociologists at the University of Bucharest established a reputation for outstanding and original work in their field. The great expansion of the educational system since the 1940s has provided a much broader base for scholarly activity but, in keeping with ideological dictates, scholarly activity must be socially useful, that is, directly applicable to the needs of the society. Therefore, great emphasis has been placed on applied research in the sciences and technology designed to improve the economy. All research is sponsored by the state and is directed and supervised by the National Council for Scientific Research. The interest in sociology has continued, but work in this field, as in the other social sciences, has suffered from the restrictions imposed by communist ideology. The only accepted philosophy is that of Marxism-Leninism, and all scholarly work must be based on its precepts, which frequently leads to sterile research or preconceived results. Two developments by Romanians in the field of medicine have caused considerable controversy among specialists in other parts of the world. One is a regeneration therapy for the aged based on the administration of procaine, which was developed by Anna Aslan of the Institute of Gerontology. The therapy, strongly backed by the government, is intended to free the elderly from the various chronic discomforts of advanced age and thereby make them more active. Many prominent gerontologists have questioned the efficacy of the treatments and the results claimed by the Institute of Gerontology, but others have reported it to be fully effective. A Romanian-developed drug used in the treatment is extensively sold in Europe. The other medical development acclaimed by Romania but questioned by many specialists in the field is the use of an extract obtained from cattle eyes for the treatment of many human eye diseases. The extract was developed by Professor Petre Vancea.