• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

COMENIUS MULTILATERAL PROJECT FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION THROUGH THE L.L.P. PROGRAMMES “ R.R.E.V.“ (REDISCOVER THE REAL EUROPEAN VALUES) PARTNERS: Romania, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Norway, France, Cyprus, Holland, Turkey. ION CREANGĂ ‘This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.’ LET’S DISCOVER THE BEAUTY OF READING !!! SHORT BIOGRAPHY Ion Creangă (June 10, 1839 – December 31, 1889) was a Moldavian- born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes. Creangă's main contribution to fantasy and children's literature includes narratives structured around eponymous protagonists ("Harap Alb", "Ivan Turbincă", "Dănilă Prepeleac", "Stan Păţitul"), as well as fairy tales indebted to conventional forms ("The Story of the Pig", "The Goat and Her Three Kids", "The Mother with Three Daughters-in-Law", "The Old Man's Daughter and the Old Woman's Daughter"). Widely seen as masterpieces of the Romanian language and local humor, his writings occupy the middle ground between a collection of folkloric sources and an original contribution to a literary realism of rural inspiration. 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. 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. MAIN WORK Memories of My Boyhood is one of the main literary contributions of Romanian author Ion Creangă. The largest of his two works in the memoir genre, it includes some of the most recognizable samples of first-person narratives in Romanian literature, and is considered by critics to be Creangă's masterpiece. Structured into separate chapters written over several years (from 1881 to ca. 1888), it was partly read in front of the Junimea literary club in Iaşi. While three of the total four section were published in Creangă's lifetime by the Junimea magazine Convorbiri Literare, the final part was left incomplete by the writer's death. Part 1 of Memories of my boyhood • Creangă's account opens with an extended • After spending some time being tutored by soliloquy and a nostalgic description of his teacher Iordache, whom the text depicts as a native area, with a short overview of Humuleşti's drunk, a sudden outbreak of cholera kills his history and his family's social status. The first teacher and pushes Smaranda and Ştefan to send chapter introduces and focuses on several their child out of the village. Nică follows the characters directly linked to Nică's earliest school path of transhumance and is assigned to the care years: Vasile a Ilioaei, the young teacher and of shepherds, but he himself falls ill with what Orthodox cleric, who enlists him in the new the narrator claims was cholera, and, upon class; Vasile's supervisor, the stern parson; returning home with a high fever, is instantly Smărăndiţa, the intelligent but misbehaved cured with a folk remedy of vinegar and lovage. daughter of the priest; Creangă's father Ştefan A while after, claiming insolvency, Ştefan and mother Smaranda. One of the first episodes withdraws his son from school. Owing to detailed by the book relates to corporal Smaranda's persistence, the child follows his punishment as recommended by the priest: maternal grandfather David Creangă to Broşteni, children were made to sit on a chair known as where he and his cousin Dumitru are enlisted in Calul Balan ("White Horse") and strapped with a a more affordable establishment. This requires device called Sfântul Nicolai (or "Saint Nicholas", adaptation on the part of Nică and Dumitru, after the school's patron saint). The fragment is both of whom weep once their long hair is also a humorous retrospective account of his shaved off on the new teacher's orders. They are interactions with other children, from their both hosted by a middle-aged woman, Irinuca, in favorite pastimes (trapping flies with the a small house on the Bistriţa, where their horologion) to Creangă's crush on Smărăndiţa proximity to goats results in a scabies infection. and the misuse of corporal punishment by a Creangă then recounts how, while attempting to jealous peer tutor. Creangă recounts his early cure themselves with frequent baths in the river, disappointment with school activities and he and his cousin dislodged a cliff which rolled appetite for truancy, noting that his motivations down and tore through Irinuca's household. for attending were the promise of a priest's After leaving Broşteni in a hurry and spending a career, the close supervision of his mother, the while in Borca, the two children hasten for David Bălan horse prospects of impressing Smărăndiţa, and the Creangă's home in Pipirig. After an eventful trip material benefits of singing in the choir. School is through the Eastern Carpathians, the two boys however abruptly interrupted when Vasile a arrive in the village, where they are welcomed by Ilioaei is lassoed off the street and forcefully David's wife Nastasia. She cures their scabies drafted into the Moldavian military. using another local remedy, birch extract. • • After a few paragraphs in which he focuses on the serendipitous nature of such outcomes, which serve him to avert producing further damage, Creangă moves on to describe his first employment: pulled out of school by Ştefan, the boy is enlisted in the village's textile trade, and becomes a spinner. It is there that he meets Măriuca, a daughter his age, for whom he develops a sympathy. She jokingly assigns him the nickname Ion Torcălău ("Ion the Spinster"), which causes him some embarrassment for being shared with a Romani man, and therefore crossing a traditional ethnic divide. Nică is shown to be enjoying the work despite the fact that it is traditionally performed by women, but he is irritated by additional tasks such as babysitting his youngest sibling. Disobeying his mother's word, the boy leaves the cradle unattended and runs away to bathe in the river. After recounting the superstitious rituals performed by children during such escapades (such as dripping water from one's years onto stones, of which one is God's and the other the Devil's), the narrator describes being caught in the act by Smaranda, who punishes him by taking hold of all his clothes and leaving him to return naked through the village. This he manages following an elaborate route, from one hiding place to another, and avoiding being bitten by angry dogs by standing absolutely still for a long interval. After reaching his house, the narrator indicates, "I tidied up and cleaned the house as well as any grown-up girl", a behavior earning praises from his mother. The chapter ends with another overview, itself concluded with the words: "I myself was placed on this Earth like a clay figure endowed with eyes, a handful of animated humus from Humuleşti, who's never been handsome before age twenty, wise before age thirty, nor rich before age forty. But neither was I ever as poor as I was this year, last year and throughout life!" Part 3 of Memories of my boyhood • The narrative then focuses on Creangă's time at the being marked by rudeness, womanizing and even seminary (catechism school) in Fălticeni, where, to his shoplifting. The writer also makes vague mention of his confessed surprise, he reunites with Nică Oşlobanu. relationship with the daughter of a priest, who Creangă's entry into the school follows the discovery becomes his first lover. that all his close friends were moving out of Teodorescu's school and leaving him directly exposed • Creangă's account also focuses on practical jokes, used to the teacher's severity. He ultimately persuades his by him and others as punishment for friends he father to bribe seminary teachers with gifts, noting believed were not reciprocal in sharing their Christmas that such presents could effectively spare a student supplies. These involve "posts", contraptions which are from all learning effort. Parts of the text however designed to singe one's toes during sleep, and their insists on the teaching methods employed by the application manages to alienate the victims, who leave seminary, which involve learning by heart and chanting the house on by one. However, the final such attempt elements of Romanian grammar or entire works of produces a scuffle between the two camps, so loud commentary on the Bible, and lead the narrator to that neighbors mistaken it for a fire or an attack by the exclaim: "A terrible way to stultify the mind, God alone Austrian troops stationed in Fălticeni (a military knows!" Living far from parental supervision and presence concomitant to the Crimean War and a sharing a house with some of his colleagues and their Moldavian interregnum). This ends when all young landlord Pavel the cobbler, the young man pursues a men are evicted from the house, Creangă himself bohemian lifestyle and is introduced to the drinking moving in with a local smith. In spring, it becomes culture. The narrator sketches portraits of his friends, apparent that the Fălticeni school is to be closed down, based on their defining abilities or moods: the old man and its students moved to the Socola Monastery in Iaşi. Bodrângă, who entertains the group with flute songs; The chapter ends with mention of the uncertainty Oşlobanu, a man of the mountain, can lift and carry a gripping students: some decide to attempt their cartload of logs on his back; the handsome David, chances in Socola by the start of a new school year, whose early death is attributed by the writer to while others abandon their career prospects.

Load more

  10

Copy Link