Donar Munteanu (born Dimitrie Munteanu;
[ Rodica Zafiu, "Munteanu Donar", in Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', Vol. II, p. 155. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. ][Mihail Straje, ''Dicționar de pseudonime, anonime, anagrame, astronime, criptonime ale scriitorilor și publiciștilor români'', p. 464. Bucharest: ]Editura Minerva
Editura Minerva is one of the largest publishing houses in Romania. Located in Bucharest, it is known, among other things, for publishing classic Romanian literature
Romanian literature () is literature written by Romanian authors, although the ...
, 1973. June 26, 1886 – 1972) was a Romanian poet, representing the provincial wing of
Romanian Symbolism, ''
Convorbiri Critice'' circle and, later, the ''
Gândirea
''Gândirea'' ("The Thinking"), known during its early years as ''Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială'' ("The Literary - Artistic - Social Thinking"), was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine.
Overview
Founded by Cezar Pet ...
'' literary movement. Generally considered a good, but not great, author, from his thirties and into old age he belonged to the devotional school of
Orthodox Church
Orthodox Church may refer to:
* Eastern Orthodox Church
* Oriental Orthodox Churches
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand
* State church of the Roman Empire
* True Orthodox church
See also
* Orthodox (di ...
writers, producing mostly
sonnets. Professionally, he was active as a magistrate and prison inspector, a career which allowed him to visit the country and to participate in the literary life of
Bessarabia. He withdrew from public life following the establishment of
Romanian communist regime, and remained largely forgotten.
Biography
Born in
Răcari,
Dâmbovița County
Dâmbovița County (also spelt ''Dîmbovița'', ) is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Târgoviște, the most important economic, political, administrative and cultural center of the county.
It has an area o ...
, Munteanu was of
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
n roots: his father, a schoolteacher,
was a first-generation immigrant to the
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
.
[Călinescu, p. 1023] Making his publishing debut in
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...
's ''Forța Morală'' in 1901,
and subsequently joining the Symbolist writing club at ''
Literatorul'', he enlisted at the
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...
. He was a member of the ''Pahuci'' student fraternity, inviting Macedonski to its sessions, before graduating with a degree in law.
Additionally, his work was hosted in
Caion's ''Românul Literar''.
Macedonski held him in high esteem as "the incomparable maestro", but, according to literary historian
George Călinescu
George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...
, this should not dissuade from the fact that Munteanu was "minuscule" as a poet.
In 1904, he published the Symbolist magazine ''Pleiada'', which ran for two editions,
usually signing his pieces there as ''Donar''.
A regular at
Mihail Dragomirescu
Mihail Dragomirescu (March 22, 1868 – November 25, 1942) was a Romanian aesthetician, literary theorist and critic.
Born in Plătărești, Călărași County, he completed primary school in his native village in 1881, followed by Bucharest's G ...
's ''
Convorbiri Critice'' magazine (from 1907), he was introduced by his new mentor an "idyllic poet from the Macedonski school". Dragomirescu also proposed that his piece ''Țiganii'' ("The Gipsies") should be considered "a descriptive, colorful, masterpiece". Published in May 1907, the poem was explained by Donar himself as a sample of "my wandering soul."
[Nicolae Scurtu, "Încă un poet dâmbovițean – Donar Munteanu", in ''Litere'', Nr. 4/2007] Munteanu was also co-opted by
Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu (; 6 January 1881 – 11 April 1944) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor (the latte ...
at the radical Symbolist review, ''
Revista Celor L'alți''. His contribution there was noted by the anti-Symbolist traditionalist
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga (; sometimes Neculai Iorga, Nicolas Jorga, Nicolai Jorga or Nicola Jorga, born Nicu N. Iorga;Iova, p. xxvii. 17 January 1871 – 27 November 1940) was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet ...
, who believed Munteanu to be "a good versifier". The episode strained relations between Dragomirescu and Munteanu, since the former was being attacked by Minulescu. In April 1908, Munteanu wrote to apologize, and noted that, by then, he had already decided to end his collaboration with ''Revista Celor L'alți''.
In May, he joined the ''Convorbiri Critice'' editorial committee, which, by then, also comprised
I. Dragoslav,
Emil Gârleanu
Emil Gârleanu ( 4/5 January 1878 – 2 July 1914) was a Romanian prose writer.
Born in Iași, his parents were Emanoil Gârleanu, a colonel in the Romanian Army, and his wife Pulcheria (''née'' Antipa). He began high school in his native ...
,
A. de Herz,
Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu (; 31 October 1881 – 16 July 1943) was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the ''Sburătorul'' literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the u ...
,
Anastasie Mândru,
Corneliu Moldovanu
Corneliu Moldovanu (pen name of Corneliu Vasiliu; 15 August 1883 – 2 September 1952) was a Romanian poet, prose writer and playwright.
Born in Bârlad, his parents were Dumitrache Vasiliu, a merchant, and his wife Ruxandra (''née'' Rășca ...
, and
Cincinat Pavelescu
Cincinat Pavelescu ( – November 30, 1934) was a Romanian poet and playwright.
Born in Bucharest, his parents were the engineer Ion Pavelescu and his wife Paulina (''née'' Bucșan). He attended school in his native city, followed by the law ...
.
After a "long and tiresome" administrative trip through
Northern Dobruja, which he considered retelling as a novel, Munteanu began collecting his poetry into one "tiny volume", the 1909 ''Aripi negre'' ("Black Wings").
While he remained close to Dragomirescu, for whom he maintained "an unbound intellectual sympathy",
Munteanu eventually moved on. From 1911 to 1916, he was a contributor to ''
Flacăra
''Flacăra'' (Romanian language, Romanian for "The Flame") is a weekly literary magazine published in Bucharest, Romania.
History and profile
''Flacăra'' was started in 1911. The first issue was published on 22 October 1911. The founder was Co ...
''.
His activity was interrupted by World War I and the battles on the
Romanian front
The Romanian Front ( ro, Frontul Românesc, FR) was a moderate fascist party created in Romania in 1935. Led by former Prime Minister Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, it originated as a right-wing splinter group from the mainstream National Peasants' Part ...
. In 1916–1917, he was in
Bârlad
Bârlad () is a municipiu, city in Vaslui County, Romania. It lies on the banks of the river Bârlad (river), Bârlad, which waters the high plains of Western Moldavia.
At Bârlad the railway from Iași diverges, one branch skirting the river S ...
as a military prosecutor, visiting with
Alexandru Vlahuță
Alexandru Vlahuță (; 5 September 1858 – 19 November 1919) 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 ...
and joining the literary club known as ''
Academia Bârlădeană'', also frequented by
George Tutoveanu,
Victor Ion Popa
Victor Ion Popa (; July 29, 1895 in Bârlad – March 30, 1946 in Bucharest) was a Romanian dramatist.
He went to primary school in the village of Călmăţui, a village in the Grivița commune, in the former Tutova County, where his father was a ...
, and
Vasile Voiculescu
Vasile Voiculescu (, literary pseudonym V. Voiculescu; 27 November 1884 – 26 April 1963) was a Romanian poet, short-story writer, playwright, and physician.
Biography
Early life and education
Voiculescu was born in Pârscov, Buzău County ...
. He had begun writing religious-themed poems such as ''Golgota'', which Vlahuță reportedly asked him to recite at every ''Academia'' meeting, and more specifically his first
sonnets. Munteanu had also served as a magistrate at
Piatra Neamț,
Iași,
Bazargic,
Câmpulung
Câmpulung (also spelled ''Cîmpulung'', , german: Langenau, Old Romanian ''Dlăgopole'', ''Длъгополе'' (from Middle Bulgarian)), or ''Câmpulung Muscel'', is a municipality in the Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is situated amon ...
,
Brăila, and, during the interwar, performed similar tasks in
Sibiu
Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...
,
Odorhei,
Deva and ultimately
Chișinău.
In July 1919, he was royal prosecutor at the trial of Hungarian academic
István Apáthy, accused of "conspiracy against Romanian citizens" during the
war over Transylvania.
During his stay in
Bessarabia, he began contributing to the literary review ''Teatrul'', put out by his ''Convorbiri Critice'' colleague, Pavelescu, and also had samples of his work featured in Transylvania's ''
Gândirea
''Gândirea'' ("The Thinking"), known during its early years as ''Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială'' ("The Literary - Artistic - Social Thinking"), was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine.
Overview
Founded by Cezar Pet ...
'' (from 1930).
In 1931, he married the Bessarabian Maria Niță, a teacher of Russian.
In the few books that he published at significant intervals (''Aripi fantastice'', 1925; ''Simfonia vieții'', 1943; ''Bisericuța neamului'', 1943),
Romantic echoes are found alongside Symbolist motifs, while, critic
Rodica Zafiu notes, well-drawn images are eclipsed by an ample tendency toward grandiloquence.
His sonnets, reviewer
Ion Șiugariu notes, were conventional and prosaic, echoing both ''
Sămănătorul
''Sămănătorul'' or ''Semănătorul'' (, Romanian for "The Sower") was a literary and political magazine published in Romania between 1901 and 1910. Founded by poets Alexandru Vlahuță and George Coșbuc, it is primarily remembered as a tribune ...
'' and
Parnassianism; although not "a great poet", Munteanu was "earnest", without the "obscurities" of
modernist literature
Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...
.
From 1937 to 1938,
answering to
Justice Minister
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
Vasile P. Sassu, Munteanu worked as general director of penitentiaries. He was on hand to investigate the July 1937 prison riots at
Târgu Ocna
Târgu Ocna (; hu, Aknavásár) is a town in Bacău County, Romania, situated on the left bank of the Trotuș River, an affluent of the Siret, and on a branch railway which crosses the Ghimeș Pass from Moldavia into Transylvania. Târgu Ocna is ...
. Subsequently, he was a Permanent Councilor to the
Legislative Council until June 1945, when he was ordered to retire.
From the 1930s, Munteanu and
Șerban Bascovici had been the two Symbolists turning to Christian-themed poetry, and were vacationing together at the "writers' home" in
Bușteni
Bușteni () is a small mountain town in the north of Prahova County, Muntenia, Romania. It is located in the Prahova Valley, at the bottom of the Bucegi Mountains, that have a maximum altitude of . Its name literally means tree-logs in Romanian. ...
. As noted by literary historian
Dumitru Micu, Munteanu's poetry was by then "within the dogmatic canons of Orthodoxy", which represented the core vision of ''Gândirea''. Such dogmatism, Micu argues, was only maintained by the group's "second-rate" poets: Munteanu,
Sandu Tudor
Sandu Tudor (; born Alexandru Al. Teodorescu, known in church records as Brother Agathon, later Daniil Teodorescu, Daniil Sandu Tudor, Daniil de la Rarău; December 22 or December 24, 1896 – November 17, 1962) was a Romanian poet, journalist, th ...
, and
George Gregorian.
Munteanu survived the establishment of a
Romanian communist regime, and, in 1956, was visiting fellow poet
Dumitru Iov at his home in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
. By 1965, he was living in
Cotroceni
Cotroceni is a neighbourhood in western Bucharest, Romania located around the Cotroceni hill, in Bucharest's Sector 5.
The nearest Metro stations are Eroilor, Academia Militară, and Politehnica.
History
The Hill of Cotroceni was once covered ...
, on Ștefan Furtună Alley. He died in Bucharest in 1972.
Some two years later, fellow Symbolist
Barbu Solacolu suggested a revisiting Munteanu's work, but later critics noted that Munteanu, "quite unfamiliar"
or "downright forgotten" as a writer, "belongs to literary history".
[Iulia Pârvu, "Lecturi în climatul unor istorii trăite", in '']Tribuna
''Tribuna'' (russian: Трибуна) is a weekly Russian newspaper that focuses largely on industry and the energy sector.
History
Tribunas published its first publication in July 1969. Until 1990, the newspaper titled the ''Sotsialisticheska ...
'', Nr. 323, February 2016, p. 10
Notes
References
*
George Călinescu
George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...
, ''Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent''. Bucharest:
Editura Minerva
Editura Minerva is one of the largest publishing houses in Romania. Located in Bucharest, it is known, among other things, for publishing classic Romanian literature
Romanian literature () is literature written by Romanian authors, although the ...
, 1986
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munteanu, Donar
1886 births
1972 deaths
20th-century Romanian poets
Romanian male poets
Symbolist poets
Christian poets
Sonneteers
Romanian magazine editors
Romanian magazine founders
Gândirea
Romanian civil servants
20th-century Romanian judges
Romanian prosecutors
Prison inspectors
People from Dâmbovița County
Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church
University of Bucharest alumni
Romanian Land Forces officers
Romanian military personnel of World War I
Romanian people of the Hungarian–Romanian War