THE WORLD of ROMANIA Works That Made This Planet a Better Place - Part II
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THE WORLD OF ROMANIA Works that made this planet a better place - Part II - The following editorial dossier is elaborated by students at the Master’s Program “International Economic Diplomacy”, from the Faculty of International Business and Economics, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania. THE WORLD OF ROMANIA TITU MAIORESCU: “CRITICISM Can BE BITTER, BUT IT MUST BE RIGHT” Alexandru IORDĂNESCU f Romanian modern culture and civilization had an in- stance”. He condemns the introduction of institutions im- ventory of its “Founding Fathers”, Titu Maiorescu would ported from the West and which did not correspond to the definitely stand at the forefront. He was a man of his mentality, culture and dispositions of the Romanian peo- words and a man of his deeds: literary critic, essayist, ple. A central personality of the Romanian culture, Maio- Iwriter, aesthetician, professor, philosopher, jurist and pol- rescu is a founding member of the Romanian Academy. itician. He took active part in the establishment of the Ro- manian Academy, but, first and foremost, in the establish- The politics of a true national language ment of critical and creative spirit in both intellectual and civic life, his true legacy. The year 1871 definitively enshrines the entrance of Unlike the other illustrious politicians of his generation, the Junimists on the side of political activism. On April 15, Titu Liviu Maiorescu came from a peasant family from 1871, a meeting between Gheorghe Costaforu and Titu Bucerdea, near Blaj. His father, Ioan, the son of a Maiorescu took place in Iaşi, the first propos- Transylvanian peasant, was called Trifu, but ing to Junimea’s mentor that the members he was named Maiorescu to emphasize of the society should get into politics. his relationship with Petru Maior. He This was a turning point in the histo- was a history teacher, director of ry of Romanian conservatism and the Central School of Craiova, a politics. The Junimists will adopt diplomatic agent of the Walla- an action program in keeping chian government. His mother, with the 1857 Ad Hoc Assem- Maria Popasu, was the sister blies’ decisions, of which a of the scholar Bishop of Ca- series were to be fulfilled: ransebeş. compliance with the Sub- After graduating from lime Porte capitulations, gymnasium in Craiova guaranteed neutrality and and Braşov, young Titu even the achievement of is sent to the Theresian our country’s indepen- Academy in Vienna, dence. which, in July 1858, he The leader of the Juni- graduated as valedictori- mist group made a mark an. He enrolled at the Uni- on the entire cultural versity of Giessen, where, movement of the day. His in 1859, he obtained his works were published in doctorate in Philosophy Convorbiri Literare; of their with the distinction “mag- multitude, we are only in- na cum laudae”. Maiorescu terested in those that focus continued his studies at the on Romanian language and Sorbonne University in Paris, literature, studies by which Titu where he obtained the degree in Maiorescu became the guide of Letters, Philosophy and Law. Romanian literature, our first liter- Through the developmental trends ary critic. As a literary critic, he will of the age, there was a new, modern decisively put his mark on Romanian direction being infused into our culture, de- creations and creators, having a significant fined by its ethical spirit and the sense of aes- intuition for the discovery of talent. thetic value. The conditions in the country were growing The Romanian language spoken today has a founder different from those of the times of Ion Heliade Rădulescu, in Titu Maiorescu. In terms of aesthetics, he will establish Vasile Alecsandri, or Nicolae Bălcescu. Maiorescu and his a stable foundation for the study of literary works, will offer colleagues represented the new generation, the Junimea true lessons of taste, refinement and culture to the young, literary society, with a new conception of the Romanian so- thus proving the most penetrating personality of the sec- cial and cultural life. Titu Maiorescu is also the author of the ond half of 19th century. Junimist and conservative theory of “forms without sub- Titu Maiorescu’s language ideas include three main di- No 10/2018, Mar. - Apr. 26 The betterment of civilizati`on emphasizing the value of the art of correcting and admonishing”. He listed the three great ideolo- gies launched by Titu Maiorescu: the match between substance and form, the inauguration of the critical spirit, and the “placing of criticism on the edges of the truth, that is, its clearing out of any constraint from outside”. We have turned our attention to this aspect because we be- lieve that he himself has speci- fied his role in the era, his stated purpose being not to produce poets but to embellish a “new direction” in Romanian culture in terms of understanding the character and the authentic fea- tures of art. In addition, the later Maiorescu style critique (as ev- idenced in The New Direction in Romanian poetry and prose, Romanian and Foreign Litera- ture, Mr. Caragiale’s Comedies, rections: the writing of the Roman literary language, as Eminescu and his poems, etc.) represents a development opposed to the spoken vernacular; the problem of loan- of the original aesthetic principles formulated during his words, given the disparate influences acting on various studies, being seen as the basis of a true culture that portion of lands inhabited by Romanians; combating the evolves historically, through a concrete manner in which tendencies of language corruption. spiritual values manifest themselves in the historical as- Maiorescu’s principles of writing the Roman language pects of reality. were: introducing the Latin alphabet; removing the Cyrillic Eugen Lovinescu will challenge the validity of the argu- alphabet; phonetic spelling; combating etymological or- ment, arguing that art is not a repaint of intelligence, and thography, where words are written differently from how it demands even greater strain than scientific work. The they are pronounced, as in English. debauchery which Maiorescu speaks of is not confused It is not exaggerated to say that at the root of the great with the fun literature that Lovinescu seems to refer to, but achievements of the Romanian culture we will always dis- is the disinterested action of classical art, in which artistic cover Maiorescu, a lighthouse that illuminates all the aspi- thinking, by its form, has the ability to encompass and in- rations and efforts of the creative and critical spirit. corporate complete meaning in expression. In the study entitled Titu Maiorescu’s Aesthetic Ideas, Tu- The art of correcting and admonishing dor Vianu concludes that the aesthetic ideal that governs the critic’s research is elusive as “while in principle he claims Maiorescu has been criticized for not dedicating more classicism, his developments show some romantic predi- time to literature, but his critically acclaimed work marks one lections”. This idea is generated by the three similarities be- of the most flourishing epochs in the history of Romanian tween affection and poetry: “a greater rapidity of the move- literature: the period of great classics. Junimea (and Maio- ment of ideas, an exaggeration or at least a magnification rescu himself) is (are) related to the creation and pathway and a new look of objects under the impulse of feeling and to the public consciousness of writers such as Eminescu, passion, a rapid growth towards a climax or a catastrophe”. Creangă, Caragiale, Slavici, Duiliu Zamfirescu and others. Maiorescu’s classicist formula explains his intention to Titu Maiorescu had extensive interests, covering many establish the main coordinates of the Romanian poetry of areas. He is the author of ideas, with an original style, char- 1867, but also the artistic exigency manifested against the acterized by a polemic, academic and ironic spirit. He is literature of the moment. also the first literary and cultural critic and he directed the culture in the second half of the nineteenth century. Under his aegis, the literature of the great classics was created. Bibliography He knew how to spot the true value of his contemporaries. Academia Română. 2005. Dicţionarul General al Literaturii Române. Bucureşti: Univers Enciclopedic. He drew attention to the quantity-quality ratio and pulled Manolescu, N. 2000. Contradicţia lui Maiorescu. public regard towards the second part of the equation. Bucureşti: Editura Humanitas. George Călinescu praised Titu Maiorescu as “he is first Orzea, Z. 1997. Viaţa lui Titu Maiorescu, vol. II. Bucureşti: Editura Du Style. of all a great polemicist who can take advantage of the cir- http://cuvintecelebre.ro/citate/autori/titu-maiorescu/. cumstance of living in a world which is inferior to his level, http://enciclopediaromaniei.ro/wiki/Titu_Maiorescu. 27 www.themarketforideas.com THE WORLD OF ROMANIA MIHAIL ManoileSCU: “ProteCTIONISM 2.0” – THE (New) NAME OF THE (OLD) Game IN POStwar DEVelopmentaliSM Larissa BACK ihail Manoilescu, more than an engineer, jour- the First World War, became the General Director of the nalist or professor, was a Romanian political Ministry of Industry and Trade in 1921. and economic thinker. Although in his country Mihail Manoilescu started his incursion into the busi- he was not recognized and his theory used, he ness world through investment in the minerals sector. To- Mhas inspired other countries in different regions. His as- gether with his brother, Grigore Manoilescu, he became cension was great, as great as his fall. Mihail Manoilescu co-owner of Sorecani Mines, in Cluj County. They made a ended up in the darkness of oblivion, obscurity significant investment and opened new galleries and, consequently, death. considerably increasing the production of lignite. They established an agreement Early years with the Belgian company Electrobel to build a power plant in Aghireşu, Mihail Manoilescu was born on inaugurated in 1930.