''Sămănătorul'' or ''Semănătorul'' (,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
for "The Sower") was a
literary
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
and
political magazine
Political journalism is a broad branch of journalism that includes coverage of all aspects of politics and political science, although the term usually refers specifically to coverage of civil governments and political power.
Political journa ...
published in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
between 1901 and 1910. Founded by poets
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
George Coșbuc
George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) 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. In 19 ...
, it is primarily remembered as a tribune for early 20th century traditionalism,
neoromanticism and
ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various politi ...
. The magazine's ideology, commonly known as ''Sămănătorism'' or ''Semănătorism'', was articulated after 1905, when historian and literary theorist
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 ...
became editor in chief. While its
populism
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
, critique of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
and emphasis on peasant society separated it from other
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
groups, ''Sămănătorul'' shared views with its main conservative predecessor, the ''
Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost pers ...
'' society, particularly in expressing reserve toward
Westernization
Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, economi ...
. In parallel, its
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
agenda made it stand in contrast to the
Poporanists, a Romanian populist faction whose
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
-inspired ideology also opposed rapid
urbanization
Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...
, but there was a significant overlap in membership between the two groups. ''Sămănătorul''s relationship with the dominant
National Liberal Party was equally ambiguous, ranging from an alliance between ''Sămănătorul'' and National Liberal politician
Spiru Haret
Spiru C. Haret (; 15 February 1851 – 17 December 1912) was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician. He made a fundamental contribution to the ''n''-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approx ...
to Iorga's explicit condemnation of 20th century
Romanian liberalism.
Promoting an idealized interpretation of
local history
Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small bu ...
, basing its aesthetic ideals on the work of
national poet
A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...
and conservative essayist
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active memb ...
, the publication advertised itself as the voice of oppressed
Romanians
The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Culture of Romania, Romanian culture and Cultural heritage, ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they l ...
in
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 ...
and other areas controlled by
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
prior to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Its
irredentism
Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...
, as well as its outspoken criticism of the political and cultural establishment, made ''Sămănătorul'' a popular venue for young Romanian intellectuals from both 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 ...
and the regions surrounding it. The traditionalist literary faction coalescing around the magazine was generally opposed to
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 ...
and the aesthetics of
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
, but was more tolerant of
Symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
. In time, ''Sămănătorul'' became host to a subgroup of the
local Symbolist movement.
Although short-lived, ''Sămănătorul'' was a major influence on later
Romanian literature
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.
History
The development of the Romanian literature took place in parallel with tha ...
and
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
in general. Its legacy stood at the center of cultural debates between traditionalism and modernism lasting throughout the 20th century. While Iorga personally tried to revive it with the magazines ''
Drum Drept
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
'' and ''
Cuget Clar'', ''Sămănătorism'' was adopted by other traditionalist or
agrarian currents, and was a contributing factor to the cultural tenets of local
far right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
and
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
groups. During the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
, it also made a significant impact in
Bessarabia
Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Be ...
(a region since divided between
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
). The ''Sămănătorist'' ideology itself was traditionally criticized for encouraging
isolationism
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entang ...
and
xenophobia
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
, as well as for its flirtation with
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. In literary and art criticism, the term ''Sămănătorist'' acquired pejorative connotations, denoting specific
pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
and
patriotic
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
clichés.
History
Origins
![Ludovic Basarab - La treierat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Ludovic_Basarab_-_La_treierat.jpg)
The establishment of ''Sămănătorul'' was linked by researchers to a set of significant events of ''
fin de siècle
() is a French term meaning "end of century,” a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom "turn of the century" and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without context ...
''
European economic history.
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
historian Francisco Veiga placed the emergence of ''Sămănătorul'' in direct connection to a European-wide evolution of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
and related phenomena affecting the
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
: "In the traumatic circumstances of late 19th and early 20th century
imperialist
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
crises
..and the rejection of
urban-industrial society by the
petty
Petty may refer to:
People
* Bruce Petty (born 1929), Australian political satirist and cartoonist
* Bryce Petty (born 1991), American football player
* Dini Petty (born 1945), Canadian television and radio host
* Eric D. Petty (born 1954), Amer ...
and medium
bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
threatened by the crisis of capitalism, ''Sămănătorism'' can be identified with those groups of intellectual movements seeking to preserve national identity in front of threats, by resorting to an idealized past." Alongside the "identity crisis" provoked by "the traumatic advance of industrial
modernization
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
inside a country with a majority peasant and
illiterate
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...
population", researcher
Paul Cernat
Paul Cernat (born August 5, 1972 in Bucharest) is a Romanian essayist and literary critic. He has a Ph.D. summa cum laude in philology. Cernat has been a member of the Writers' Union of Romania since 2009. As of 2013, he is lecturer of Romanian li ...
discusses the "decline" of local
boyar
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the Feudalism, feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgarian Empire, Bulgaria, Russian nobility, Russia, Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia, Wallachia and ...
aristocracy as issues preparing the ground for ''Sămănătorul'' and like-minded journals. Likewise,
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
art historian
Tom Sandqvist views ''Sămănătorul''s focus on the peasant community as a source of legitimate culture as connected with economic change and "emerging
industrialization
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
": "In the mid-1870s grain prices had declined catastrophically, and it became more and more obvious that the image of the grateful farmer and the 'natural' village community as bearer of true Romanian culture was false and did not correspond very well with a reality characterized by utmost poverty, misery, autocratic boyars, ruthless profiteers, moneylenders, and village
gendarmes
Wrong info! -->
A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "men-at-arms" (literally, " ...
".
[Sandqvist, p.60] The emergence of ''Sămănătorism'' and Poporanism, Sandqvist notes, happened "in spite of this—or rather because of it", since both still proclaimed "the special character of Romanian culture as deriving from the traditional village community."
Researcher Rodica Lascu-Pop presents a similar perspective, discussing ''Sămănătorism'' as "an echo of mutations occurring in society at the beginning of the century: the acute crisis of the peasant issue
.. the social gap between the urban and rural environments."
The historical moment represented by ''Sămănătorism'' has also been linked by historians with various tendencies in
Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
. Its rejection of industrial society was thus seen as equivalent to the sentiments expressed in the poems of
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
or
Francis Jammes
Francis Jammes (; 2 December 1868, in Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées – 1 November 1938, in Hasparren, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was a French and European poet. He spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Basque Country and his po ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
Comparatists John Neubauer and
Marcel Cornis-Pope described the magazine as part of the larger phenomenon of "
populism
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
and
agrarian nationalism" in
East-Central Europe
East Central Europe is the region between Germanic languages, Germanic, West Slavic languages, West Slavic, and Hungarian language, Hungarian-speaking Europe and the East Slavs, East Slavic countries of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Those lands a ...
, together with
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
's ''
Głos'' magazine and
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
's ''
Naturizmu'' current, with the ideologies of
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
's
Dezső Szabó or the ''
Népi írók'', ''
Válasz'' or ''
Kelet Népe'' groups, as well as with the political program of
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
's
Jaan Tõnisson
Jaan Tõnisson (; , – 1941?) was an Estonian statesman, serving as the Prime Minister of Estonia twice during 1919 to 1920, as State Elder (head of state and government) from 1927 to 1928 and in 1933, and as Foreign Minister of Estonia from ...
. Commentators have also found specific similarities between ''Sămănătorul'' and various cultural or political movements in Poland, from the
Galician intellectuals' interest in the local peasantry during the late 19th century (''
Chłopomania'') to the ideology of
Roman Dmowski
Roman Stanisław Dmowski (Polish: , 9 August 1864 – 2 January 1939) was a Polish politician, statesman, and co-founder and chief ideologue of the National Democracy (abbreviated "ND": in Polish, "''Endecja''") political movement. He saw th ...
's
National Democracy National Democracy may refer to:
* National Democracy (Czech Republic)
* National Democracy (Italy)
* National Democracy (Philippines)
* National Democracy (Poland)
* National Democracy (Spain)
See also
* Civic nationalism, a general concept
* ...
. Literary critic
Mircea Anghelescu also places the ''Sămănătorist'' movement's beginnings in conjunction with intellectual fashions prevalent in
Romanian culture
The culture of Romania is an umbrella term used to encapsulate the ideas, customs and social behaviours of the people of Romania that developed due to the country's distinct geopolitical history and evolution. It is theorized and speculated that ...
during the national revival and before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
: the
patriotic
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
travel literature
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...
of
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Romani ...
,
Grigore Alexandrescu
Grigore Alexandrescu (; 22 February 1810, Târgovişte – 25 November 1885 in Bucharest) was a nineteenth-century Romanian poet and translator noted for his fables with political undertones.
He founded a periodical, ''Albina Româneascǎ'' ...
and
George Melidon; the
Neo-Brâncovenesc style in
Romanian architecture
Romanian architecture is very diverse, including medieval, pre-World War I, interwar, postwar, and contemporary 21st century architecture. In Romania, there are also regional differences with regard to architectural styles. Architecture, as the r ...
; and the rediscovery of
national Romanian costume by
Romanian Queen Elisabeth (Carmen Sylva). His colleague
Valeriu Râpeanu contrasts the initial rise of ''Sămănătorism'' with the moment of "crisis" experienced in
Romanian letters, at a time when a generation of major writers—
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale (; commonly referred to as I. L. Caragiale; According to his birth certificate, published and discussed by Constantin Popescu-Cadem in ''Manuscriptum'', Vol. VIII, Nr. 2, 1977, pp. 179-184 – 9 June 1912) was a Romanian playw ...
,
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 in Bucharest – April 29, 1918 in Iași) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.
Early life and ...
,
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 ...
etc.—were approaching the end of their careers.
In large measure, the propagation of ''Sămănătorist'' ideas was also helped along by the sentiment that the conservative establishment had abandoned the cause of
Romanians
The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Culture of Romania, Romanian culture and Cultural heritage, ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they l ...
living in
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 ...
,
Bukovina
Bukovinagerman: Bukowina or ; hu, Bukovina; pl, Bukowina; ro, Bucovina; uk, Буковина, ; see also other languages. is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe (or both).Klaus Peter BergerT ...
and other regions controlled by
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
(particularly those who, the new intellectual leaders cautioned, were threatened by
Magyarization
Magyarization ( , also ''Hungarization'', ''Hungarianization''; hu, magyarosítás), after "Magyar"—the Hungarian autonym—was an assimilation or acculturation process by which non-Hungarian nationals living in Austro-Hungarian Transleithan ...
policies).
The group's protest against the political class' perceived lack of
patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
was joined with what Veiga defines as "an offshoot of renewed Romanian agitation in Transylvania".
[Veiga, p.165] In parallel, Veiga notes, the group was also reacting against "an opportunistic international policy" and the penetration of foreign capital on the Kingdom's markets.
At the time, however, the National Liberals were reluctantly committed to supporting
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Carol I
Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...
's alliance with the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
, and, through it, with Austria-Hungary. According to literary historian
Z. Ornea
Zigu Ornea (; born Zigu Orenstein Andrei Vasilescu"La ceas aniversar – Cornel Popa la 75 de ani: 'Am refuzat numeroase demnități pentru a rămâne credincios logicii și filosofiei analitice.' ", in Revista de Filosofie Analitică', Vol. II, N ...
, the will to demonstrate "the unity of the Romanian population in matters of specific spiritual life" formed one of the characteristics of ''Sămănătorism''.
[ Iulian Ciocan]
"De la sămănătorism la postmodernism"
, in '' Revista Sud-Est'', Nr. 4/2002
Establishment
![Samanatorul - Logo - 20 martie 1905](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Samanatorul_-_Logo_-_20_martie_1905.png)
Published in the capital
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 ...
, ''Sămănătorul'' was co-founded by two already established writers, Alexandru Vlahuță, from the "
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
", and the Transylvanian-born
George Coșbuc
George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) 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. In 19 ...
, in late 1901. Both of them were already known as editors of magazines with traditionalist agendas: Vlahuţă had founded and edited the magazine ''
Vieața'', while Coșbuc had done the same with ''
Vatra''. Among the original staff of writers were several formerly associated with ''Vieața'':
Ștefan Octavian Iosif
Ștefan Octavian Iosif (; 11 October 1875 – 22 June 1913) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian poet and translator.
Life
Born in Brașov, Transylvania (part of Austria-Hungary at the time), he studied in his native town and in Sibiu befor ...
,
Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel (; July 16, 1872 – November 13, 1914) was a Romanian poet.
Anghel was of Aromanian descent from his father. His first poem was published in ''Contemporanul'' (1890). His debut editorial ''Traduceri din Paul Verlaine'' was publi ...
,
Ion Gorun
Ion Gorun (pen name of Alexandru I. Hodoș; December 30, 1863–March 30, 1928) was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian prose writer, poet and translator.
Biography
Born in Roșia, Sibiu County, his parents were Iosif Hodoș and his wif ...
,
Constanța Hodoș and
Vasile Pop.
[Călinescu, p.61] The regular contributors included
Ion Agârbiceanu
Ion Agârbiceanu (first name also Ioan, last name also Agărbiceanu and Agîrbiceanu; September 12, 1882 – May 28, 1963) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian writer, journalist, politician, theologian and Greek-Catholic priest. Born among the ...
,
I. A. Bassarabescu,
Panait Cerna,
Elena Farago,
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 ...
,
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga (; 1 April 1881 – 7 May 1938) was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.
Life and politics
Goga was born in Rășinari, near Sibiu.
Goga was an active member in the Romanian nationalisti ...
,
Constantin Sandu-Aldea
Constantin Sandu-Aldea (November 22, 1874 – March 21, 1927) was a Romanian agronomist and prose writer.
Born in Tichilești, Brăila County, his parents were the cart driver Sandu Petrea Pârjol and his wife Tudora. After completing studies at ...
,
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
and
I. E. Torouțiu. Other notable collaborators throughout the early years were
Zaharia Bârsan
Zaharia Bârsan ( – December 13, 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian playwright, poet and actor.
He was born in Sânpetru, Brassó County, in what was then the Transylvania region of Austria-Hungary. His parents were Zaharie Bâr ...
,
Paul Bujor
Paul Bujor (born Pavel Bujor;Mărghitan & Mancaș, p. 43 August 2, 1862 – May 17, 1952) was a Romanian zoologist, physiologist and marine biologist, also noted as a socialist writer and politician. Hailing from rural Covurlui County, he studied ...
,
Ilarie Chendi
Ilarie Chendi (November 14, 1871 – June 23, 1913) was a Romanian literary critic.
Born in Darlac, Kis-Küküllő County, now Dârlos, Sibiu County, in Transylvania, his father Vasile was a Romanian Orthodox priest, while his mother Eliza ( ...
,
Virgil Cioflec,
Alexandru Davila
Alexandru Davila (; February 12, 1862 – October 19, 1929) was a Romanian dramatist, diplomat, public administrator, and memoirist.
Biography
The son of Carol Davila, a distinguished military physician of French origin, and Ana Racoviţă (a de ...
,
Sextil Pușcariu and
Constantin Xeni
Constantin is an Aromanian language, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian language, Megleno-Romanian and Romanian language, Romanian male given name. It can also be a surname.
For a list of notable people called Constantin, see Constantine (name).
See ...
,
alongside the lesser known Ion Ciocârlan and Maria Cunțan.
The new publication received support and funds from
Spiru Haret
Spiru C. Haret (; 15 February 1851 – 17 December 1912) was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician. He made a fundamental contribution to the ''n''-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approx ...
, the National Liberal Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation (Romania), Education Minister, who saw in it an opportunity for improving the lifestyle of peasants, for raising the interest of intellectuals nationwide, and for endorsing planned changes to the Education in Romania, state-sponsored education system. It is sometimes described as a successor to ''Semănătorul (1870–1876), Semănătorul'', a magazine published in Bârlad during the 1870s, and to a similarly titled magazine published in Galaţi during 1899.
[''Sămănătorul'']
entry in the Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava Library database; retrieved October 30, 2009 In the years after it was set up, ''Sămănătorul'' inspired the creation of like-minded smaller journals published in provincial cities, from Craiova's ''Ramuri'' to Bârlad's ''Făt Frumos (magazine), Făt Frumos''. Its doctrine was largely replicated in Transylvania by the publication ''Luceafărul (magazine), Luceafărul'', founded in 1902 by Goga and his fellow activists Alexandru Ciura and Octavian Tăslăuanu.
The new magazine's first-ever issue carried the date of December 2, 1901.
Printed in cooperation with Editura Minerva publishing company,
it was financed and owned by Iosif, who also worked on the editorial staff.
[Călinescu, p.602] The editorial office itself was located at Regală Street, No. 6, near Calea Victoriei (on present-day Ion Câmpineanu Street)
and in the same building as Minerva's printing presses.
[ Ion Simuţ]
"Centenarul debutului sadovenian"
, in ''România Literară'', Nr. 41/2004 The editorial piece introducing the first-ever issue, written by the two main editors but left unsigned, carried the title ''Primele vorbe'' ("The First Words"), and expressed concern over the lack of positive messages in Romanian literature.
This overview was completed in the second issue by Coșbuc's piece, ''Uniți'' ("United"), which condemned what he called "imported" and "sick" literature.
The paper frequently alternated the spellings of its name over the following years: founded as ''Sămănătorul'', it became ''Semănătorul'' from 1901 to 1902, returned to the original spelling until 1909, and changed back to the ''e'' spelling in its final year.
The two were literal synonyms for "the sower", but their metaphorical meaning was more complex. Historian Irina Livezeanu wrote: "The Romanian word and concept is not easy to translate. It derives from the verb ''a semăna'' or to sow, or plant (seeds), and suggests that literature should be fundamentally rural and agrarian, concerning itself with the life and customs of the 90 percent of the Romanian population who were indeed peasants or 'sowers'." The term also refers to the dispersion of ideas among the general public, in line with Haret's own agenda. Literary historian George Călinescu connects the programs of ''Vieața'' (whose name, an antiquated spelling for ''viața'', means "the life") and its successor by commenting on their titles: "[''Sămănătorul''] was supposed to deal with 'life' and 'plant' ideas into the masses."
He also notes that the notion had been highlighted by Vlahuţă in one of his poems, also titled ''Sămănătorul'':
The finality of this program was seen by Râpeanu as comprised by the poem's final part, which reads:
Sadoveanu and Iorga's arrival
![Samanatorul - Logo - 14 mai 1906](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Samanatorul_-_Logo_-_14_mai_1906.png)
In 1903, ''Sămănătorul'' was joined by Mihail Sadoveanu, the future novelist, who was described by critic Tudor Vianu as the group's greatest asset. It was also that year when
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 ...
began publishing his first articles for the paper.
In Sanqvist's definition, Iorga, "one of the most representatives of Romanian Ethnic nationalism, ethno-nationalism beside the philosopher and poet Lucian Blaga", was the publication's "most important contributor",
while Neubauer and Cornis-Pope refer to him as "the most powerful and original thinker of the [East-Central European] region." By 1904, Sadoveanu had achieved national fame with his debut volumes, published simultaneously by Minerva and praised by Iorga in his chronicles for the magazine (one of which proclaimed 1904 "the Sadoveanu year").
In parallel, Iorga's slowly introduced his own tenets, beginning with a May 1903 article titled ''O nouă epocă de cultură'' ("A New Cultural Epoch"), which called for setting up a national culture beyond social class distinctions, and referred to the "wicked monkey business" and spiritual "corruption" arriving from the Western world.
He later took charge of a permanent ''Sămănătorul'' column, carrying the title ''Cronică'' ("Chronicle").
Iorga's other contributions were polemical pieces, targeting various of his colleagues who opposed what he defined as a new direction in historiography (''școala critică'', "the critical school"): Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Grigore Tocilescu, V. A. Urechia and A. D. Xenopol among them. One such piece read: "With all my powers, I follow a cultural and moral ideal for my country, and whoever shall stand in the way of this, my life's most cherished goal, is my enemy, an enemy I will never spare no matter what, however unpleasant or painful this may prove, no matter what troubles I may encounter as a result."
[Nastasă (2003), p.170] His position received endorsement from another ''Sămănătorul'' contributor, literary chronicler
Ilarie Chendi
Ilarie Chendi (November 14, 1871 – June 23, 1913) was a Romanian literary critic.
Born in Darlac, Kis-Küküllő County, now Dârlos, Sibiu County, in Transylvania, his father Vasile was a Romanian Orthodox priest, while his mother Eliza ( ...
, who alleged that, since
Romanian literature
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.
History
The development of the Romanian literature took place in parallel with tha ...
was facing "spiritual decadence", the main exponents of a moral consciousness were historians of the new directions (a reference to Iorga, Ion Bogdan (historian), Ion Bogdan and Dimitrie Onciul).
Iorga's criticism of his older peers often focused on topical and personal issues, such as when he argued that Xenopol was a poor judge of literary value, who had promoted mediocre writers (from Xenopol's own wife Cornelia "Riria" Gatovschi to Victor Vojen). Elsewhere in his articles for the magazine, he called Tocilescu "a scholar of the least substantial species and a critic whose norm is the personal gain". In 1904, also involved in the polemic was Ion Găvănescul. Originally acknowledged by Iorga as a figure of importance on the academic scene, Găvănescul was referred to as "a scoundrel and a coward" in one of his new articles for ''Sămănătorul''. Another such piece criticized researcher George Ionescu-Gion, whose published work on the history of Bucharest was judged inconsistent and poorly structured by Iorga (arguments he retracted decades later). In tandem, his articles for the magazine defended linguist Sextil Puşcariu, who had sided with his colleague's methods but was being himself exposed to criticism from ''Luceafărul''. In 1905, Iorga also used ''Sămănătorul'' to express some regret for the tension reached during the conflict between his generation and the older Hasdeu or Xenopol: "It was also the fault of the young men, all of us being too keen on advertising and enriching ourselves, at the expense of old men who had not been much focused on consuming, and were far from being satisfied."
In 1905, editorial leadership over ''Sămănătorul'' was assumed by Iorga. This moment, Veiga argues, signified a change in policies and appeal: "''Sămănătorul'' only managed to acquire have its own force when it progressively transformed itself into a catalyst for a whole series of young discontent intellectuals".
Integrated within such changes of discourse, Veiga writes, were Iorga's "fickle" opinions, which had turned into suspicions that the National Liberal Party was endorsing Political machine, clientelism and a ''camarilla'' regime.
Despite its growth in influence, the publication had a modest circulation by Romanian standards, reportedly publishing no more than 300 copies per issue.
George Călinescu, who indicates that Iorga was trying to link the venue with "a clearer program" and "his own direction", assesses that such goals failed to introduce a fundamentally new approach, and contends that the magazine continued to maintain a "secondary role" when compared other platforms of its kind.
1906 campaign, successive splits and Iorga's departure
![Samanatorul - Prima pagina - 13 decembrie 1909](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Samanatorul_-_Prima_pagina_-_13_decembrie_1909.jpg)
Iorga's form of campaigning produced significant results in March 1906, when, incited by the National Theatre Bucharest, Bucharest National Theater's decision to host a performance in French language, French (instead of translating the play into
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
), he organized a boycott and mass student rallies which degenerated into street battles.
Later in 1906, Iorga had ended his association with the magazine.
[Victor Iova, "Tabel cronologic", in Nicolae Iorga, N. Iorga, ''Istoria lui Mihai Viteazul'', Vol. I, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1979, p.xxxix. ] On October 22 of that year, ''Sămănătorul'' announced that the split occurred in amiable terms: "Mr. N. Ioga
..announces us that his many duties prevent him from carrying on as the magazine's [editorial] director, but that he wishes us best of luck and wants us to triumph".
However, according to one account, he had decided to leave after his editorial policy had made him the target of criticism in other magazines.
Iorga went on to publish a new journal, ''Neamul Românesc'', and created, together with the Iași-based agitator A. C. Cuza, the Democratic Nationalist Party (Romania), Democratic Nationalist Party, which stood for a similar agenda but added explicitly Antisemitism, antisemitic content targeting the History of the Jews in Romania, Jewish Romanian community.
[ Ovidiu Morar]
"Intelectualii români și 'chestia evreiască' "
, in ''Contemporanul'', Nr. 6/2005 (republished b
''România Culturală''
) That same year, a left-wing dissident group, comprising Sadoveanu, parted with ''Sămănătorul'' to affiliate with ''Viața Românească'' journal, newly founded by the Poporanists Constantin Stere and Garabet Ibrăileanu. A third dissident wing emerged at the same stage: Chendi, Iorga's former associate, left the circle in 1906 to create the rival periodical ''Viața Literară'' (set up and disestablished in 1907).
[ Ion Simuţ]
"''Viaţa literară'' în 1907"
in ''România Literară'', Nr. 12/2004 According to Cernat, ''Sămănătorul'' itself experienced "reactionary ideologization" following the breakups.
[Cernat, p.20]
The paper steadily declined over the following four years. This phenomenon is described by Râpeanu as owed to a loss of direction: "[''Sămănătorul''] no longer enjoyed the same impact, no longer sparked the interest or the polemics of 1903–1906. It brought nothing new to the landscape of Romanian literature. One could say that, in parting with ''Sămănătorul'', N. Iorga took its soul with him."
Among the last major issues affecting the journal's history was the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, peasants' revolt of 1907, which aired the social tensions of the Kingdom and was met with violence by the National Liberal cabinet of Dimitrie Sturdza. According to Sandqvist, traditionalist perspectives "clashed badly with reality" during the events, leading "almost immediately to a regressive approach among many intellectuals
..who had previously encouraged and endorsed Romania's turn to the West".
Political outlook
General principles
![Boerenhoeve uit de buurt van het klooster Bistritza](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Boerenhoeve_uit_de_buurt_van_het_klooster_Bistritza.jpg)
A dominant portion of ''Sămănătorul''s outlook sought to define and preserve the notion of Romanian specificity through the lens of Romantic nationalism. This vision, Veiga notes, was "the first systematic attempt" of its kind in Romania, and implied recourse to "intellectual myths." Attached to the portrayal of peasants as models of excellence was Iorga's own scholarly perspective on History of Romania, Romanian history and the origin of the Romanians. By that moment in his career, Iorga had come to construct a theory according to which Romanian peasants living in the Romania in the Early Middle Ages, Early and Romania in the Middle Ages, High Middle Ages had organized themselves into communal republics ruled by representative democracy, and was arguing that the Romanian state itself had grown organically around an unattested uncodified constitution. This went in tandem with his suggestion that there was an ancient solidarity between the traditional social classes of free peasants and
boyar
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the Feudalism, feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgarian Empire, Bulgaria, Russian nobility, Russia, Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia, Wallachia and ...
s.
Veiga, who views this concept as a major component of ''Sămănătorism'', interprets it as the "model of ''Volksgemeinschaft''—real or fictitious".
In order to recover that cohesion, the historian was proposing a specific set of institutions, from political bodies representing the villages (''obști'') to credit unions working for the benefit of peasants.
A figure who inspired much of ''Sămănătorul''s outlook was the deceased
national poet
A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...
and cultural critic
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active memb ...
, who, as both a conservative and nationalist, had been a maverick member of the ''
Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost pers ...
'' literary club. Researcher Ioana Both describes the "reactionary" circle formed around the magazine as a main source for the "cult of Eminescu", as well as for some of the earliest Eminescu anthologies. In a 1903 article for the magazine, Iorga welcomed the publication of his posthumous writings as the revelation of a "new Eminescu", or "a complete man" opposed to the modern times which had "shattered" mankind. The same author deemed Eminescu's activism an "Annunciation" for the new ideology of a "healthy race". According to Iorga's rival, cultural historian and Classical liberalism, classical liberal thinker Eugen Lovinescu, the historian shared in particular the "reactionary" attitudes of Eminescu: a "hatred" of the bourgeoisie who endorsed
Romanian liberalism, support for "protectionism" and the nostalgia for "Patriarchy, patriarchal life".
[ Ioan Stanomir]
"Despre canon, critică și revizuiri: o recapitulare lovinesciană"
, in ''Cuvântul (literary magazine), Cuvântul'', Nr. 378
Another main element of ''Sămănătorul''s preoccupations was didacticism, twinned with calls for education reform: the magazine urged the Education in Romania, education system to actively and primarily dedicate itself to the cause of peasants. This closely followed the National Liberal agenda, which had facilitated innovation in the field after 1898, and was in tune with the wide-ranging reforms pushed by
Spiru Haret
Spiru C. Haret (; 15 February 1851 – 17 December 1912) was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician. He made a fundamental contribution to the ''n''-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approx ...
. In Veiga's account, the interest in educating the lower classes was partly owed to European precedents: the Jules Ferry laws in France and the ''Realschule'' system in the German Empire, as well as the efforts of Romanian Transylvanian teachers to compete with the officially-endorsed Hungarian language, Hungarian-language institutions of learning.
[Veiga, p.166] In parallel, the policy reflected Iorga's belief that spreading awareness of
Romanian culture
The culture of Romania is an umbrella term used to encapsulate the ideas, customs and social behaviours of the people of Romania that developed due to the country's distinct geopolitical history and evolution. It is theorized and speculated that ...
would cement the unity of Romanians on either side of the Carpathian Mountains.
According to historian and Comparative literature, comparatist Ștefan Borbély, an additional reflection of the group's educational theory was its encouragement of a "public fantasy" by depicting children as "nasty" human beings who need to be kept in tight check.
[Ștefan Borbély, "A Psychohistorical Insight into Past and Present Romania", i]
''The New Europe College Yearbook 1996–1997''
, New Europe College, Bucharest, 2000, p.35.
Radical nationalism
The rejection of cosmopolitanism by ''Sămănătorul'' implied the recourse to arguments that many cultural historians have described as samples of "
xenophobia
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
". Historian of ideas Lucian Boia discusses ''Sămănătorism'' among the earliest nationalist currents which promoted
isolationism
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entang ...
and promoting the Romanians' "own specific genius", rather than trying to remedy Romanian marginality on the world stage by accepting
Westernization
Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, economi ...
.
[Boia, p.221] He paraphrases this view as: "[Romanians] are not Western and nor should they try to become Western."
Cultural historian Lucian Nastasă refers to ''Sămănătorul''s attitudes as an attempt to impose "defensive Wiktionary:prophylaxis, prophylaxis" on Western ideas, and "a sort of spiritual autarky". In criticizing the "old school" of historians, Nastasă notes, Iorga was in large part reacting against historians who did not value ethnocentrism in history, as well as airing professional and personal grievances.
The 1906 campaign against cultural Francophilia was nevertheless explained by Iorga himself not as hostility toward French culture, but mainly as a belief that Romania needed to emancipate itself from foreign influence. Iorga had maintained a poor impression of Parisian society (in particular its Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter) from the early 1890s, when he had first visited the city. His claim, echoing the sentiments expressed decades earlier by Eminescu, was that France's influence stood for two distinct models: a negative one, of "coffeehouses and taverns" which had wrongly been perceived as factors of civilization by "our youth"; and a positive one, represented by "the French literary and scientific societies", and supported by "the sacred family of French bourgeoisie, which is the nation's foundation." He also claimed that the upper class' preference for French was tantamount to a loss of national character, "the history of a ruling class' decline and a people's straying away from the natural path indicated by its past and leading into its future." Some of these views were echoed by other key affiliates of ''Sămănătorul'', such as Coșbuc (who believed that the commonplace use of foreign languages among the cultivated was expanding the gap between the elite and the mass of the people).
Primarily focused on condemning the perceived pessimism of other currents, ''Primele vorbe'' editorial also stated the goal of doing away with the "mockery" and "sullying" of Romanian language by "those who scatter empty phrases".
The attack on foreign influence was nevertheless limited, being contained by the ambiguous stances of its leaders. According to
Valeriu Râpeanu: "There was talk of [Iorga's] opacity and the fight against translations and literature in general. N. Iorga was nevertheless demanding
..the expansion of the translated works area to all sets of European literature: German language literature, German, English literature, English, Italian literature, Italian, Russian literature, Russian, Scandinavian literature, Nordic."
Boia also notes that Iorga was not an isolationist, having already pioneered research into Romania's traditional links with the Eastern European sphere.
Iorga's contributions for ''Sămănătorul'' occasionally stood as manifestations of his antisemitism, as was the case with a November 1904 article. The text was structured around the allegation that Iași city had been taken over by the Jewish Emancipation, non-emancipated Jews and the policies of Zionism: "Iaşi is three-quarter Jewish. They own its wealth, its life, its activity. The flame of Zionism was lit and burns more brightly over there. We [Romanians] only have two things in Iaşi: the school and the church. And the King of Romania arrives into [the city] persecuted by the filthy business-minded existence of another nation. Through his acts and his deeds, our past and present are again inextricably linked in opposition to the pagan and hostile alien. For no matter how long the polluted wave of the gain-seeking ones shall be sweeping over us, the land is ours. And the wind shall at once take with it the chaff it brought upon us, and we shall endure."
A leading presence among the political theorists contributing to ''Sămănătorul'' was the Transylvanian Aurel Popovici. Political scientist and literary critic Ioan Stanomir notes a paradox in the synthesis of platforms endorsed by Popovici: a proponent of federalization in Austria-Hungary rather than an advocate of the irredentist cause (inventor of the ''United States of Greater Austria'' concept), but a conservative voice in line with those of his ''Sămănătorul'' colleagues, the intellectual leader was also a vocal supporter of scientific racism and racial antisemitism. Popovici's essay ''Naționalism sau democrație'' ("Nationalism or Democracy"), serialized by ''Sămănătorul'' from 1909 to 1910, outlined its author's growing admiration for authoritarianism. While the conservative tone was preserved by references to the 18th century theorist Edmund Burke and by an outspoken critique of social contract philosophy, ''Naționalism sau democrație'' mirrored other theories about the organic, popular, nature of Romanian statehood, and borrowed from the racial theories of Eminescu, Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. The approach, Stanomir writes, was "counterfactual". The essay also depicted Jews in general as Anti-Romanian discrimination, anti-Romanian, profiteering and manipulative, while claiming that they exercised their power by controlling the Cisleithanian and Romanian press (''Neue Freie Presse'', ''Neues Wiener Tagblatt'', ''Adevărul'', ''Dimineața''). Its title alluded to its central theme, which is Popovici's belief that democracy was an enemy of national identity (coupled with his claim that Romania had an opportunity to choose between the two systems).
''Sămănătorul'', ''Junimism'' and mainstream conservatism
While ''Sămănătorul'' had emerged from a partnership with the National Liberals, Iorga's background made him close to Romania's traditionalist conservatism, represented at the time by the ''Junimea'' and the Conservative Party (Romania, 1880–1918), Conservative Party (the National Liberal's competitor within the Kingdom's two-party system).
The main point of contention between him and the other groups was irredentist policy: like Nicolae Filipescu and other dissenting Conservative, Iorga objected to the political current's inclination toward preserving the ''status quo'' on the Transylvanian issue. Discussing this ideological transition, Ioan Stanomir noted: "The hybridization [of Iorga's discourse] allows for the integration of a nationalist and populist seam."
In addition to referencing the ''Junimist'' Eminescu, the arguments put forth by Iorga owed much to the ''Junimea'' doyen and Conservative Party politician Titu Maiorescu. Like Maiorescu, Eminescu and Iorga both cautioned against the National Liberal version of
modernization
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
and Westernization, which they viewed as too imitative and fast-pace to be naturally absorbed by Romanian society ("forms without substance"). However, Stanomir notes, the newer discourse, with its references to a supposedly ancient legislation and radical criticism of the 1866 Constitution of Romania, 1866 Constitution, was a radical break with the ''Junimea'' worldview: "The distance between Iorga's critique and the ''Junimist'' hypothesis is obvious and can be identified in the weight that national tradition is assigned with the ideological discourse. At no moment in its evolution did ''Junimism'', as an ideal form of conservative liberalism, intend to correlate constitutional deconstruction with the praise of an ancient constitution that would have preceded modernity. The fundamental flaw of the 1866 Constitution [in ''Junimea''s opinion] was most of all its inadequacy, and this inadequacy could be gradually corrected by stimulating a bourgeois environment and by increasing the constitutional norm's very efficiency." Overall, Stanomir proposes, ''Sămănătorism'' stood for a break with ''Junimist'' "Victorian literature, Victorianism" by the "imposition of a Romantic paradigm", a process in which "the stem of 'Reactionary, reactionarism' [produced] a form of heterodox conservatism".
While Maiorescu and his circle of followers generally upheld the values of art for art's sake and neoclassicism in front of didacticism, there was a measure of overlap with traditionalist currents in Maiorescu's theories about the inspirational value of Folklore of Romania, Romanian folklore, as well as in his endorsement of the ''poporan'' ("people's") and Literary realism, realist literature illustrated by the work of ''Junimists'' such as Ion Creangă or
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
. There followed numerous rapprochements, made possible by the measure to which ''Junimism'' was opening itself to traditionalism and nationalism shortly after 1900. ''Sămănătorul''s existence coincided with a final transition in ''Junimist'' ideology, during which the club's magazine, ''Convorbiri Literare'', came to be led by scientist Simion Mehedinţi, who adopted an agenda closer to that of nationalist groups. According to
Z. Ornea
Zigu Ornea (; born Zigu Orenstein Andrei Vasilescu"La ceas aniversar – Cornel Popa la 75 de ani: 'Am refuzat numeroase demnități pentru a rămâne credincios logicii și filosofiei analitice.' ", in Revista de Filosofie Analitică', Vol. II, N ...
, the aged founder of ''Junimea'' had, for reasons unknown, chosen not to enter a fight with a didacticist current he would have otherwise been likely to reject. Before Maiorescu's retirement, Mehedinţi had even contributed to Iorga's journal and, Ornea notes, remained "a ''Sămănătorist'' of strict observance who only lacked the gifts of an apostle." In highlighting the closeness between ''Convorbiri Literare'' and the traditionalist venue, George Călinescu also notes that they shared contributors between them, citing the cases of short story writers
I. A. Bassarabescu and Nicolae Gane.
These developments had as their side effect a schism within ''Junimea'' itself, provoked when Maiorescu's disciple Mihail Dragomirescu created his own magazine, ''Convorbiri Critice''. Opposed to ''Convorbiri Literare'', the new publication sought to reinstate and closely follow Maiorescu's early theories, seeking to extend their application into the 20th century. However, Dragomirescu's own ideological approach was also relatively close to that of ''Sămănătorul'', accepting some of its nationalist and didacticist guidelines. ''Convorbiri Critice'' therefore became the center of a club comprising various authors formerly affiliated with either ''Sămănătorul'' or ''Făt Frumos (magazine), Făt Frumos''. Another isolated ''Junimist'' to resist ''Sămănătorist'' literature was novelist Duiliu Zamfirescu, who spoke out against the views on peasantry promoted by current, as well as against Maiorescu's views on ''poporan'' works, and who promoted his own form of conservatism. Reviewing these choices, Ornea argued that there were still essential links between Zamfirescu's views and those of his ''Sămănătorist'' adversaries.
''Sămănătorul'', socialist groups and Poporanism
![Lumea Noua St si Lit 1895](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Lumea_Noua_St_si_Lit_1895.jpg)
On the left-wing of the political spectrum, the ''Sămănătorists'' met the advocates of socialism, who had survived the fall of the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party. Although the two currents disagreed over central issues, they also held a set of common beliefs, particularly in matters of literary theory. While he had entered a polemic with ''
Vieața'', the leading socialist figure and literary critic Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea admired (and probably inspired) Vlahuţă's branch of didacticism, preferring it to early ''Junimism''.
[ Mihai Zamfir]
"De la Marx citire"
in ''România Literară'', Nr. 37/2009 According to Călinescu, the entire ''Sămănătorist'' movement was a mutation of Dobrogeanu-Gherea's ideology, which "subordinated art to a social goal": "The nationalists kept the central point which suited them, that is art as a means, and only replaced the goal [...]. Even some of the ideals are shared between them. The socialists display interest in the peasants, this being our proletarian class for the time being; the nationalists, as the peasants they themselves are, are of course revolutionary peasantists."
Critic Mihai Zamfir, who notes that Dobrogeanu-Gherea was by then blending his Marxism into a "more autochthonous" perspective on politics, also argues that him and his colleagues at ''Contemporanul'' review were by then becoming aware that Romanian socialist literature was failing their expectations.
In his assessment, the local product of Marxist literary criticism, Marxist guidelines was "sub-mediocre", the theorist himself being "perfectly aware" of such inadequacies.
Zamfir concludes that "the more and more vociferous nationalists around ''Sămănătorul''" were one of the factors to replace "socially-themed" currents, and that their success prompted Dobrogeanu-Gherea to part with literature.
Likewise, Râpeanu notes that, contrary to the Marxist leader's expectations, ''Contemporanul'' and its 1890s satellite ''Literatură și Știință'' had not "managed to set up a current", and that they compensated by publishing traditional authors such as Vlahuță.
''Sămănătorul'' also competed for the public's attention with the left-leaning populist movement, Poporanism—the latter owing some inspiration for its rural socialism to the Narodnik movement of the Russian Empire.
[ Alexandru George]
"După un faliment (V)"
in ''Ramuri'', June 24, 2006 Despite the generic disagreements, the two groups shared views on a number of topical issues, and even a number of partisans.
Lucian Boia identified the main difference as one between the "Patriarchy, patriarchal" views of the ''Sămănătorists'' and the "more social" perspective of Poporanism. A similar point was earlier made by Călinescu, who noted that the Poporanists were "nationalist democrats" rather than socialists, and that they advocated amending the traditionalist pronouncements for reaching the same basic goals. Historian Ion Ilincioiu describes both movements as being rooted in "Romantic philosophy", ''Sămănătorul''s "aggressive" anti-capitalism being opposed to the Poporanists' attempt at reforming the system from within.
Literary and artistic credo
Aesthetics
![Ipolit Strambu - Ciobanas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Ipolit_Strambu_-_Ciobanas.jpg)
''Sămănătorul''s views on aesthetics,
Romanian literature
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.
History
The development of the Romanian literature took place in parallel with tha ...
and Art of Romania, Romanian art were closely connected to its discourse about Romanian specificity, the peasant class and didacticism. Discussing the ''Sămănătorist'' stage of Iorga's career, Sandqvist notes: "In Iorga's opinion literature and culture in general must be oriented toward the specific nature of the Romanian people and
..bring forth a love for the Romanian village and its people. To him art has a specific ethical-ethnic function, a mission to stimulate and to express the Romanian farmer, in accordance with the notion of the need for the artist and the poet to unite in a 'holy' union with the woods, the rivers and the whole of nature in a constant uprising against a civilization that has Social alienation, alienated man from his natural, original existence."
Such pronouncements on the matter were reported with critical detachment by historians: Veiga writes that the peasant promoted by ''Sămănătorul'' was "archaic and eternal, very 'decorative' and bucolic",
while Sandqvist refers to both ''Sămănătorists'' and Poporanists as producing "nationalistic anthems", "unctuous songs of praise to the Romanian peasant and the Romanian village", as well as "pathetic glorifying of the past". According to
Paul Cernat
Paul Cernat (born August 5, 1972 in Bucharest) is a Romanian essayist and literary critic. He has a Ph.D. summa cum laude in philology. Cernat has been a member of the Writers' Union of Romania since 2009. As of 2013, he is lecturer of Romanian li ...
, the ''Sămănătorist'' worldview favored, instead of both modernity and art for art's sake, "an idyllic, rudimentary-populist, picturesque-Ethnography, ethnographic and Sentimentality, sentimental moralism."
Other researchers have also described ''Sămănătorist'' writings as being primarily characterized by excessive patriarchal nostalgia.
One essential theme of ''Sămănătorist'' literary theory was the imagery of urban alienation. In Călinescu's definition, the group reacted against what it perceived as "the Neurosis, neuroses [and] the putrefaction of the urban class", and was demanding instead "a 'healthy' literary production, which could only be rural."
Art and literary critic Dan Grigorescu notes in this nationalist guideline the opposition between "the 'tentacular' city, the 'killer' city, [and] the patriarchal image of rustic life." On the margin of the ''Sămănătorul'' circle, this ''Sămănătorist'' sensibility was specifically identified in some poems written by
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga (; 1 April 1881 – 7 May 1938) was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.
Life and politics
Goga was born in Rășinari, near Sibiu.
Goga was an active member in the Romanian nationalisti ...
during the same years. In matters of style, the ''Sămănătorist'' circle was also interested in prolonging the legacy of ''Junimist'' writers, starting with Vlahuţă (who adhered closely to or imitated Eminescu's poetics).
The ''Junimist'' affiliate and folk writer Ion Creangă was one of ''Sămănătorul''s recommended sources of inspiration for prose writers. However, Tudor Vianu notes, this was questionable, since Creangă's uncomplicated "rural authenticity" made him "the least ''Sămănătorist'' among our writers."
Committed to preserving the legacy of painter Nicolae Grigorescu as a mainstay of Art of Romania, Romanian visual arts, ''Sămănătorism'' also touched the field of art criticism. Vlahuţă, a great admirer of Grigorescu, had already dedicated him a monograph in which he stated his special appreciation for the painter's pastoral themes: "And how handsome the shepherds guarding Grigorescu's flocks! And how proud. It's as if they were kings, monarchs of the mountains, that is how they walk, how they stand, how they gaze upon their realms." Such praise of Grigorescu was regularly featured in the magazine's art column, signed by writer and collector
Virgil Cioflec,
and in Iorga's art essays, which describe Grigorescu as a discoverer of Romania's ''genius loci''. The magazine hailed the painter as the model to follow, but only selected those aspects of his work which it could fit within its approach, largely ignoring his urban-themed works.
[Drăguț ''et al.'', p.169–172; Grigorescu, p.427] ''Sămănătorism'' directly encouraged visual artists occasionally described as "Grigorescu's Wiktionary:epigone, epigones", who concentrated on rural, pastoral and picturesque subjects.
The category notably includes two Genre painting, genre painters, the Transylvanian Ipolit Strâmbu and the Brăila native Arthur Verona, followed closely by Ștefan Popescu. The ''Tinerimea Artistică'' society, which grouped some of the ''Sămănătorist''-inspired painters alongside older and younger artists, upheld Nicolae Grigorescu's style as an alternative to the academic art of the day, and borrowed elements from newer European-wide manifestations of Art Nouveau, but did not articulate an aesthetic program.
Cultural confrontations
![Stefan Octavian Iosif si Dimitrie Anghel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Stefan_Octavian_Iosif_si_Dimitrie_Anghel.jpg)
The rise of ''Sămănătorism'' was hotly contested by cosmopolitan or Decadent movement, decadent trends, which were inspired by French-imported
Symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
and set the ground for avant-garde and
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 ...
. The magazine found one of its main rivals in poet and theorist Alexandru Macedonski, recognized as the doyen of the Symbolist movement in Romania, Romanian Symbolist school and an enemy of traditionalist literature even before the year 1900, who put out the magazine ''Literatorul''. The controversy was taken to the public sphere: a regular of the Kübler Coffeehouse, Macedonski is reported to have publicly mocked the ''Sămănătorists'' who had reserved the table opposite him. By 1908, criticism of traditionalist currents was taking the forefront in the activities of other Symbolist figures: the rebellious poet Ion Minulescu and the professional critic Ovid Densusianu, who openly suggested a literature based on urban models. As early as 1905, Densusianu had begun a polemic with ''Sămănătorul'' and the Poporanists by means of his own publication, ''Vieața Nouă'', accusing his adversaries of hopelessly trying to cut Romania from the worldwide context and from progress itself.
Despite such heated exchanges, the magazine stressed the importance of a writers' solidarity: Iorga's articles on this topic are credited by some with having helped in the 1909 establishment of a Romanian Writers' Society. By then, ''Sămănătorul'' was itself acquiring a Symbolist section (albeit one more akin to the neoromantic school), primarily illustrated by Iosif and fellow poet
Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel (; July 16, 1872 – November 13, 1914) was a Romanian poet.
Anghel was of Aromanian descent from his father. His first poem was published in ''Contemporanul'' (1890). His debut editorial ''Traduceri din Paul Verlaine'' was publi ...
(who also used the magazine as a testing ground for their collaborative poetry experiments, which were signed with the common pen name ''A. Mirea''). Also included in this faction were other young authors, such as Ştefan Petică, Al. T. Stamatiad, Alice Călugăru and
Elena Farago. According to Cernat, such collaborations evidenced the "identity break among the 'conservative' wing of autochthonous Symbolism." Another paradox was the presence of writers with modernist tendencies among the occasional contributors to ''Sămănătorul'', including the radical Minulescu and the moderate Densusianu. Eugen Lovinescu, who moved between currents and later became a figure of Eclecticism, eclectic modernism, is also known to have tried his hand at becoming a ''Sămănătorul'' contributor
[ Nicolae Manolescu]
"Lovinescu şi Tabla de valori a modernităţii româneşti interbelice"
, in ''Cuvântul (literary magazine), Cuvântul'', Nr. 351 and even to have supported the 1906 campaign against French influence.
For part of its existence, the magazine even hosted translations of texts by French Symbolists, decadents or Parnassianism, Parnassians. While these associations were seen by George Călinescu as additional proof that ''Sămănătorul'' lacked a coherent program,
Cernat discusses them as part of a wider transition at the end of which Symbolism reemerged as classical and assimilable.
The internalized Symbolist tendency irritated Iorga, who, in 1905, used ''Sămănătorul'' to condemn the floral imagery of Anghel's writings as having been inspired by an urban and "boyar" garden.
[Ornea (1998), p.77] Five years later, when both had ended their association with the magazine, Iorga returned with an article in ''Neamul Românesc'', explaining that he considered Anghel's poems to be a form of "contempt" for a traditionalist venue.
In Călinescu's opinion, Iorga was by then giving a disproportionately positive reception to writers of little value, which he held to mean that, under Iorga's direction, ''Sămănătorul'' was transforming itself into a venue for the least important traditionalist authors. Râpeanu also writes: "Like any critic, [Iorga] could be mistaken, particularly in cases where he did not take into consideration the aesthetic criterion and expressed words of sympathy
..for minor writers who endeavored, with no calling, to apply the magazine's principles."
A similar assessment was provided by literary critic Ion Simuţ, who noted that Iorga tended to promote all his followers in the literary world, regardless of value, failing to see an actual difference between
Vasile Pop and Sadoveanu.
Sadoveanu had also noticed this trait, and recalled not having been flattered by Iorga's explicit comparison between his works and those of Pop.
Objections to ''Sămănătorist'' attitudes were also being expressed outside the modernist circles. Romania's celebrated dramatist and Romanian humor, comediographer
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale (; commonly referred to as I. L. Caragiale; According to his birth certificate, published and discussed by Constantin Popescu-Cadem in ''Manuscriptum'', Vol. VIII, Nr. 2, 1977, pp. 179-184 – 9 June 1912) was a Romanian playw ...
, although himself a former ''Junimist'' somewhat close to traditionalist circles such as ''
Vatra'', found ''Sămănătorist'' literature amusing, and made it a target of his sarcasm. The left-leaning Henri Sanielevici, a pioneer of sociological criticism, was also known for setting up in 1905 the Galați-based review ''Curentul Nou'', which was in large part dedicated to anti-''Sămănătorism''.
Among the main points of contention between Sanielevici and Iorga were the latter's didacticism and its application: Sanielevici claimed that, by endorsing Sadoveanu's early works, which depicted scenes of adultery and rape, Iorga had effectively contradicted his own views about morality in art.
One of the most prominent conflicts was that between
Ilarie Chendi
Ilarie Chendi (November 14, 1871 – June 23, 1913) was a Romanian literary critic.
Born in Darlac, Kis-Küküllő County, now Dârlos, Sibiu County, in Transylvania, his father Vasile was a Romanian Orthodox priest, while his mother Eliza ( ...
and his former colleagues, even though Chendi was still being inspired by ''Sămănătorist'' aesthetics.
Chendi and the "Chendists" (among them
Zaharia Bârsan
Zaharia Bârsan ( – December 13, 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian playwright, poet and actor.
He was born in Sânpetru, Brassó County, in what was then the Transylvania region of Austria-Hungary. His parents were Zaharie Bâr ...
,
George Coșbuc
George Coșbuc (; 20 September 1866 – 9 May 1918) 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. In 19 ...
,
Ion Gorun
Ion Gorun (pen name of Alexandru I. Hodoș; December 30, 1863–March 30, 1928) was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian prose writer, poet and translator.
Biography
Born in Roșia, Sibiu County, his parents were Iosif Hodoș and his wif ...
and Andrei Naum) are said to have been avoiding their ''Sămănătorist'' rivals at the Kübler, where the ''Sămănătorists'' only held session during mornings.
Legacy
Early influence
![Neamul Romanesc - logo - 8 noiembrie 1907](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Neamul_Romanesc_-_logo_-_8_noiembrie_1907.png)
Among the first direct ideological successors of ''Sămănătorul'' was Iorga's own Democratic Nationalist Party (Romania), Democratic Nationalist Party. According to Veiga: "In this new phase, Iorga did not resort to very different arguments, but merely sought to render a more politically explicit expression to the literary aesthetics of ''Sămănătorul''." In Stanomir's account, the "avatars" represented by the Democratic Nationalist program and ''Neamul Românesc'' are, like ''Sămănătorul'', episodes in a "series marked by the recovery and valorization of the Eminescian assets". Despite its intention of addressing the peasantry, ''Sămănătorul'' is thought to have mostly appealed to white-collar workers. Călinescu, who contrasted its approach with the elitism and professionalization advocated by ''Junimea'', concluded: "[''Semănătorul''] primarily gathered writers of little culture, officers, young men who did not complete their education [and] Autodidacticism, autodidacts [...]. The magazine made itself well liked by schoolteachers, provincial professors, Romanians outside the borders, and, in spreading throughout these environments, it educated the masses in view of accepting proper literature. It is true that the very same readers were left with horror for all things 'alien', 'unhealthy', but when did it ever happen that the multitudes reach a level required for the understanding of more refined art? One could say that ''Semănătorul'' and all the other like-minded publications assumed the thankless mission of promoting ''Junimist'' ideas all around, while renouncing the [art for art's sake principle] at the risk of compromising themselves in front of literary historians less sympathetic to a magazine's goals."
Sandqvist also notes that the main group to be attracted by traditionalism, particularly after the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, 1907 revolt, mostly comprised "underpaid classicists, historians, and lawyers who composed the nation's overstaffed bureaucracy".
Before and during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, ''Sămănătorism'' (like Poporanism) became a favorite target of ridicule for the young modernist or avant-garde writers and artists. In Sandqvist's opinion, this answered to "a certain exclusivism" of the two established currents, which, he notes, only served to provoke "an avant-garde reaction." One of the first avant-garde magazines to host articles specifically aiming the traditionalist currents was ''Simbolul'', published by Tristan Tzara, Ion Vinea and Marcel Janco in 1912. Vinea in particular followed up with attacks on the ''Sămănătorist'' legacy by means of other publications, primarily ''Facla'' and ''Chemarea'', while his colleague in Iași, dramatist and future critic Benjamin Fondane, vocally rejected ''Sămănătorists'' and Poporanists as "talentless writers" destined to be "forgotten". According to Dan Grigorescu, ''Sămănătorul'' magazine and its affiliates had a paradoxical role as a "catalyst" for Expressionism, which manifested itself in Romanian art beginning in the 1910s, and which contemplated urban life as a tragic experience: "However odd it may seem, ''Sămănătorism'' created a favorable atmosphere for ideas akin to those which would lead to the revelation of Expressionist attitudes in the Occident." Some former ''Sămănătorists'' migrated toward Symbolist or post-Symbolist publications, as in the cases of traditionalist-inspired prose writers I. Dragoslav (who began collaborating with ''Insula'', a magazine published by Minulescu in 1912) and Gala Galaction (who joined poet Tudor Arghezi and socialist journalist N. D. Cocea in editing a succession of leftist and modernist reviews).
By the 1920s, ''Sămănătorism'' had firmly established itself as a tendency in Romanian academia, and, according to Lucian Nastasă, held back innovative approaches and promoted conformity. Iorga himself, convinced that the ''Sămănătorist'' tenets were still applicable, set up a series of journals which advertised themselves as reincarnations of the defunct publication; in addition to ''Neamul Românesc''s literary supplement, these were: ''
Drum Drept
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
'' (1913–1947, merged with ''Ramuri'' in 1914) and ''
Cuget Clar'' (or ''Noul Sămănător'', "The New Sower", 1936–1940). Among the disciples who followed him in this attempt was the journalist Pamfil Șeicaru, noted for his more radical political opinions. The new venues prolonged ''Sămănătorism'' (or "neo-''Sămănătorism''") as a phenomenon of the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
, that is after the Union of Transylvania with Romania, Transylvania's union and the creation of Greater Romania, based on Iorga's belief that the movement had survived its political context and was still relevant in setting cultural norms.
[Ghemeș, p.147] Cultural historian Ileana Ghemeș notes that Iorga's claim was debatable: "At the beginning of the 1920s, when modernist artistic formulas where progressively making their offensive
..felt, Nicolae Iorga was convinced that the 'Anomie, anarchy' could be quelled by restating the ethical and ethnic factors as ones subordinating the aesthetic. The times were nevertheless different, and the recovery of old ''Sămănătorist'' themes and motifs had less and less powerful effects with a public that was more visibly aligned with the European values of the day."
Interwar neo-''Sămănătorism'' and the far right
Among the main purposes of Iorga's new magazines was a campaign against its opponents on the cultural scene, particularly modernism and the new avant-garde. ''Drum Drept'', which stated its respect for the other surviving platforms of traditionalism (including the Poporanist ''Viaţa Românească''), was noted for its rejection of literary critics who viewed ''Sămănătorist'' aesthetics with dislike or reserve: Densusianu, Dragomirescu, Lovinescu. The anti-modernist campaign was taken to a new level by ''Cuget Clar'', noted for its claim that Lovinescu and Arghezi had together turned Romanian literature into what Iorga deemed "monstrosities". It heralded a nationalist offensive, which accused various Romanian writers, usually modernists, of having promoted and endorsed "pornography". At the time, Iorga and his followers were also stating that the local avant-garde had an alien, primarily Jewish, source. In the 1930s, the campaign against non-traditionalist literary works made its way into the pages of Iorga's own synthesis of literary history, ''Istoria literaturii româneşti contemporane'' ("The History of Contemporary Romanian Literature"), which partly consisted of excerpts from his earlier articles. In tandem, his rival Lovinescu was developing criticism of the neo-''Sămănătorist'' agenda into an ideology, which fused urban-themed modernism, classical liberalism and Impressionism (literature), literary impressionism with direct references to some of Maiorescu's art for art's sake principles.
His essays described ''Sămănătorul'' and its descendants as factors preventing cultural development, and named ''Sămănătorism'' "the cemetery of Romanian poetry". Neo-''Sămănătorism'' had a special impact in
Bessarabia
Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Be ...
, a former province of the Russian Empire which formed part of Greater Romania: soon after the political union, traditionalism acquired a special force, but its position was challenged by young writers who followed Symbolism or Expressionism (Alexandru Robot among them).
[ Alexandru Burlacu]
"Poezia basarabeană: Arcadia în negativ (I)"
in ''Convorbiri Literare'', March 2002[ Alexandru Burlacu]
"Poezia basarabeană: Arcadia în negativ (II)"
in ''Convorbiri Literare'', April 2002 Although motivated by nationalist didacticism and supportive of ''Cuget Clar'', writer Nicolai Costenco and his ''Viața Basarabiei'' review were more receptive of innovation, and even pioneered a symbiosis between the two cultural extremes.
In tandem, echoes of ''Sămănătorist'' ideology were fueling some of the new movements aiming to reconfigure Romania's political scene. One such current was the version of agrarianism represented, in a post-Land reform in Romania, land reforms age, by the Peasants' Party (Romania), Peasants' Party and the National Peasants' Party (both of which represented mutations of Poporanism).
In tandem, the magazine was also a reference point for the
far right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
or
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
movements which emerged during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The first among such groups was one formed around the poet-philosopher Nichifor Crainic, a sporadic contributor to Iorga's magazines, after he took over leadership of ''Gândirea'' journal. Crainic's main innovation was in linking
ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various politi ...
and ethnocracy with the notion that the Romanian Orthodox Church was the guarantee of Romanian identity, therefore discarding the implicit secularism of ''Sămănătorist'' thought.
Crainic's "Orthodoxist" views, Veiga notes, were closely related to the ideas of White émigré, Russian ''émigré'' authors, from the Christian existentialism of Nikolai Berdyaev to the political radicalism of the Eurasianism, Eurasianist theorists. Defining his group's exact relation to ''Sămănătorism'' in one of his ''Gândirea'' articles, Crainic stated: "Over the land that we have learned to love from ''Sămănătorul'' we see arching itself the azure tarpaulin of the Orthodox Church. We see this substance of this Church blending in with the ethnic substance." His own literary style was seen as a more robust form of neo-''Sămănătorism'' by Lovinescu, and deemed "Orthodoxism with ''Semănătorist'' modulations" by literary historian Mircea A. Diaconu. In tandem, Crainic's rival on the far right, ''Trăirism, Trăirist'' philosopher Nae Ionescu, paid homages to ''Sămănătorul'' and Iorga's thought.
The ''Gândirist'' claim to ''Sămănătorul'' lineage was received with reserve by Iorga. While ''Istoria literaturii româneşti contemporane'' included Crainic and his magazines with the "signs of improvement" from modernism, it also made a point of criticizing "Othodoxism" as unrealistic and undesirable, and openly stated a secularist approach to politics. On the other side, the lack of religious ideals in the literature promoted by Iorga's neo-''Sămănătorist'' magazines was discussed as a negative trait by Crainic and by Petre Pandrea, at the time a colleague and disciple of Nae Ionescu, who also noted that "the only exception" to this literary secularism was poet Vasile Voiculescu (published by both ''Cuget Clar'' and ''Gândirea'').
[Ghemeş, p.154]
At the end of this succession was the Iron Guard organization, established and led by A. C. Cuza's former disciple Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Evolving into one of Romania's most notorious fascist groups, the Guard also took inspiration from several other sources, among which ''Sămănătorism'' was present: Codreanu, like his father Ion Zelea Codreanu, Ion Zelea, had been convinced by Iorga's views on the peasantry, and, according to Veiga, his propaganda campaigns were ultimately set up in accordance with ''Sămănătorist'' and, to a certain degree, Poporanist models. Like the defunct magazine, Codreanu and his followers referenced Eminescu or borrowed selectively from the ideas of 19th century conservatism or ''Junimism''.
Codreanu is also known to have publicly praised Iorga for having first talked about "the Jewish peril".
As another link with the ''Sămănătorists'', the Iron Guard developed a complex but often close relationship with Crainic's movement, as well as with Nae Ionescu, and supported with them the "Orthodoxist" program. Nevertheless, one other group of Guard affiliates, formed by writer Mircea Streinul and ''Iconar'' review, promoted an alternative rural-themed literature which took its distance from ''Sămănătorul''.
While he had a degree of sympathy for Italian fascism and corporatism, Iorga viewed the Iron Guard as dangerous for Romania. Having parted with Cuza by the 1920s, he was briefly co-opted by the National Peasants' Party, went on to serve as Prime Minister of Romania, Premier, and, in the years leading up to World War II, joined those who advocated the Authoritarianism, authoritarian politics of Codreanu's bitter rival, Carol II of Romania, Carol II. His publicized criticism of Codreanu's methods and the Iron Guard leader's answer played a part in escalating the entire conflict, and, after Codreanu's killing on Carol's orders, made Iorga a potential target for the movement's violent retribution. In November 1940, during the interval when the Guard set up the National Legionary State, National Legionary regime (''see Romania during World War II''), Iorga became a victim of its assassins. This final action, was seen by Lovinescu, as well as by Stanomir and Veiga, as the equivalent of a political patricide.
World War II and communism
A new chapter of the clash between modernists and ''Sămănătorists'' was played out in the post-National Legionary era, following the Guard's clash with its nominal partner, ''Conducător'' Ion Antonescu, who set up a new authoritarian and Axis Powers, Axis-aligned regime (''see Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom''). Braving the censorship imposed on modernism by Antonescu's rule, and holding Lovinescu as their example, the Sibiu Literary Circle publicized its own critique of ''Sămănătorist'' ideals.
[ Bogdan Crețu]
"Tînărul Ion Negoițescu: devenirea unui mare critic (I)"
in ''Convorbiri Literare'', December 2007 Formulated as part of a manifesto drafted by young essayist Ion Negoițescu, it popularized the disparaging term ''pășunism'' (from ''pășune'', "pasture") to define neo-''Sămănătorist'' literature, and alleged that its exponents were Demagogy, demagogues who glorified peasant values without themselves leaving "the comfortable armchairs of the city".
Shortly after the King Michael's Coup, Royal Coup of 1944, which brought Romania under Allies of World War II, Allied supervision, voices condemning ''Sămănătorism'' again made themselves heard publicly. Writing for the National Peasants' Party ''Dreptatea'' newspaper, literary critic Vladimir Streinu paid homage to Lovinescu, Densusianu and Dragomirescu for their previous role in bringing up for discussion the negative aspects of the current, and noted that their objections only had to be slightly adapted when reviewing "Orthodoxism" or other local nationalist currents.
The use of the term ''Sămănătorist'' as a pejorative for the far right's aesthetics was also present in the discourse of Romanian-born modernist essayist and dramatist Eugène Ionesco, better known as a founding figure for the Theatre of the Absurd. Ionesco discussed interwar and wartime ''Sămănătorism'' and other traditionalist trends as symptoms of "a deep-seated intellectual affliction: the refusal of culture."
The negative assessments were later endorsed by literary historian Georgeta Ene, who noted: "Iorga's magazines have drawn around them a significantly large 'constellation' of minor writers and have produced a dull, edulcorated, inconsistent literature, which only went as far as to obstinately perpetuate themes originating in ''Sămănătorism'', demonstrating their fundamental inability of aesthetically reaching the grandeur and sublime contained by Iorga's concept".
According to Ileana Ghemeș: "Certainly, when compared with the modernist offensive, neo-''Sămănătorist'' literature could appear anchored in entirely antiquated clichés. The section of the reading public to which this literature was addressed, situated far from the debates between ideas addressing the Romanian culture's paths of development after [World War I], ill-prepared for receiving the innovative tendencies supported by the modernist publications which had a very limited degree of propagation in the world of Romanian villages, continued to enjoy those traditionalist literary productions furiously defended by Nicolae Iorga."
New assessments of ''Sămănătorism'' and traditionalism followed the 1947–1948 imposition of a Communist Romania, Romanian communist regime. During its first stage, when they created a local Socialist realism in Romania, socialist realist current, the new cultural authorities imposed selective censorship on Romania's literary trends. There were, however, several meeting points with the aesthetics and policies promoted by ''Sămănătorul'' in matters of social and cultural discourse.
[ Mihai Sorin Rădulescu]
"Skansen și muzeele etnografice din București"
in ''România Literară'', Nr. 36/2009 The partial liberalization allowed by the Nicolae Ceaușescu in the late 1960s made room for a new aesthetic reaction to both communist guidelines and neo-''Sămănătorism'', leading from the recovery of interwar modernism and Western influences to the birth of local postmodern literature and the ''Optzeciști'' generation.
During the following decades, as Ceaușescu's ''July Theses'' confirmed national communism and opened the path of
isolationism
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entang ...
, traditionalist and nationalist currents came to be officially reconsidered as ideological precedents.
[ Nicolae Manolescu]
preface to Z. Ornea, ''Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească'' (2009 edition)
(republished by Editura LiterNet, April 8, 2009; retrieved October 19, 2009) However, the period also saw the publishing of
Z. Ornea
Zigu Ornea (; born Zigu Orenstein Andrei Vasilescu"La ceas aniversar – Cornel Popa la 75 de ani: 'Am refuzat numeroase demnități pentru a rămâne credincios logicii și filosofiei analitice.' ", in Revista de Filosofie Analitică', Vol. II, N ...
's influential overview of ''Sămănătorist'' ideology, first printed in 1970.
It took critical distance from the trend, and, literary historian Nicolae Manolescu suggests, thus stood against the renewed official endorsement for the ''Sămănătorist'' program.
According to Ghemeș, the work also played an essential part in stimulating other such assessments on the current to be published in later decades, including Georgeta Ene's 1984 study of Iorga's neo-''Sămănătorist'' periodicals.
A parallel recovery of ''Sămănătorist'' views is argued to have taken place in the Soviet Union's Moldavian SSR, formed from the bulk of the Bessarabia upon the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, 1940 breakup of Greater Romania. While the local population's cultural identification with Romania was officially discouraged and repressed during the adoption of Moldovenism, Moldovenist ideology, the rural aesthetics of ''Sămănătorism'' were adapted to the proletarian themes favored by official culture.
[ Iulian Ciocan]
" 'Colosul' cu picioare de lut (reflecţii despre proza lui Ion Druță după o relectură)"
in ''Contrafort'', Nr. 3–4/2003 This phenomenon was later described by literary critic
Iulian Ciocan in terms of cultural synthesis: "''Sămănătorism'' was harnessed to the rumbling wagon of proletkultism. The original ideology was, of course, retouched. 'National specificity' was replaced with 'social class specificity', subordinated to 'proletarian internationalism', and the contrast between the idyllic village and the dehumanized city
..is supplanted by the animosity between the agricultural proletariat and the (petty) bourgeoisie. The working class, attenuating the rift between village and city, is called to the forefront."
According to Ciocan, the reaction against this merger was less significant than in Romania, even though postmodern authors also emerged in the Moldavian SSR.
Post-communist developments
A critical evaluation of ''Sămănătorism'' and its impact was still an important factor in cultural and political developments after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 succeeded in toppling communism. During the cultural debates of the early 1990s, literary historian and social critic Adrian Marino argued that the European integration of post-Revolution Romania was being held back by issues relating to its "fundamental social structure" and "the psychology specific to all shut-in traditional communities", since: "A rural and inescapably ethnicist, conservative, isolationist, traditionalist, ''Sămănătorist'', populist Romania will never feel the need for 'Europe'. On the contrary, it will perceive in it a grave danger for the preservation of the 'national being'." In contrast to this situation, he placed his hopes for change with the young, educated and urban
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
familiarizing itself directly with Western culture or pre-communist cultural alternatives to ''Sămănătorism''. Similarly, writer and critic Gheorghe Crăciun negatively assessed that ''Sămănătorul'', alongside other defunct traditionalist publications, continued to dominate the standard reception of Romanian culture, particularly in matters of the Education in Romania, Romanian curriculum after the year 2000.
[ Gheorghe Crăciun]
"Cultura română de azi pe mîine"
in ''Observator Cultural'', Nr. 276, July 2005 State-sponsored education, he assessed, rated Coșbuc and Goga higher than their modernist counterparts Ion Barbu and George Bacovia, and, overall, favored the "parochial, peasant, epic, Ethnography, ethnographic and dazed-metaphysical" elements in Romanian literature.
In contrast,
Valeriu Râpeanu listed ''Sămănătorul'' and ''Gândirea'' among the magazines with "essential contributions to asserting Romanian thought", and argued: "Speaking disparagingly about ''Sămănătorism'', and in particular by deeming ''Sămănătorism'' an obsolete, backward vision lacking any literary value, has even become an act by means of which one invokes one's own aesthetic high ground."
Criticism of ''Sămănătorist'' traditionalism and its presence in various contexts was also voiced in later years. In one such case, historian Mihai Sorin Rădulescu argued that such tendencies had made their way into Romanian museology: "the Museum of the Romanian Peasant
..and the Village Museum both show Romanians in accordance with ''Semănătorist'' tradition".
In a 2007 article critical of Romania's educational policy, textbook author Dumitriţa Stoica described as an anachronism the presence of topics on ''Sămănătorism'' within the standard Romanian Baccalaureate, baccalaureate examination, noting that such subjects had already been stripped from the regular curriculum. In his 2008 book ''Iluziile literaturii române'' ("Illusions in Romanian Literature"), literary historian and theorist Eugen Negrici linked the perpetuation of neo-''Sămănătorist'' guidelines with another nationalist current, protochronism, discussing them as equally negative phenomena: "Even though I feel no pleasure, I must admit that the ideological-literary movements of a ''Sămănătorist'' and Protochronist type appear to be durable, being strictly motivated by the ways in which Romanian society has evolved. They stand for both the protective impulse and the Compensation (psychology), compensatory one [...]. At the first sign of a major peril, we shall be hearing the magmatic rumble of myths rising up again from the deep".
[Dan C. Mihăilescu, "Iluziile unei bresle în derivă", in ''Idei în Dialog'', July 2008]
Following the History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991), Soviet collapse of 1991 and the emergence of independent
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
within the Moldavian SSR's borders, the area witnessed a similar conflict of ideas. Discussing the phenomenon as an attempt to link the emergent Movement for the unification of Romania and Moldova, unionist movement with traditionalist aesthetics still present on the Literature of Moldova, Moldovan literary scene, Iulian Ciocan argued: "Unfortunately, the great majority of those Bessarabian ''Sămănătorists'' who 'cultivate' the masses are themselves uncultured persons. They view themselves as defenders of national values, but, in reality, nurture and exacerbate technophobia and autochthonism [...]. A large part of those who describe in their books the opposition between the (Moldovan) village and the (Russian diaspora, Russian) city, and who warn that Russification threatens our national identity have been faithfully serving the preceding Soviet proletkultism."
A central element of the neo-''Sămănătorist'' literary trend in Moldova, Ciocan argues, is the importance it assigns to the traditionalist writer Ion Druţă.
Notes
References
*Lucian Boia, ''Istorie și mit în conștiința românească'', Humanitas publishing house, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2000.
* Ioana Both, " 'Mihai Eminescu – Poète National Roumain.' Histoire et Anatomie d'un Mythe Culturel", i
''The New Europe College Yearbook 1997-1998'' New Europe College, Bucharest, 2000, pp. 9–70.
*Mircea Braga, preface to Ion Minulescu, ''Într-un bazar sentimental'', Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1977, p. 5-17.
*George Călinescu, ''Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent'', Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1986
*
Paul Cernat
Paul Cernat (born August 5, 1972 in Bucharest) is a Romanian essayist and literary critic. He has a Ph.D. summa cum laude in philology. Cernat has been a member of the Writers' Union of Romania since 2009. As of 2013, he is lecturer of Romanian li ...
, ''Avangarda românească și complexul periferiei: primul val'', Cartea Românească, Bucharest, 2007.
*Vasile Drăguț, Vasile Florea, Dan Grigorescu, Marin Mihalache, ''Pictura românească în imagini'', Editura Meridiane, Bucharest, 1970.
* Ileana Ghemeș
"Aspecte ale neosămănătorismului iorghist interbelic" in the 1 Decembrie 1918 University, Alba Iulia, December 1 University of Alba Iulia'
''Philologica Yearbook'' 2003, pp. 147–155
*Dan Grigorescu, ''Istoria unei generații pierdute: expresioniștii'', Editura Eminescu, Bucharest, 1980.
*Ion Ilincioiu, preface to Vasile Niculae, Ion Ilincioiu, Stelian Neagoe, ''Doctrina țărănistă în România. Antologie de texte'', Editura Noua Alternativă & Social Theory Institute of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1994, p. 7-35.
*Rodica Lascu-Pop, "La revue littéraire ''Vieața Nouă'' et le symbolisme belge", in Jan Herman, Lieven Tack, Koenraad Geldof (eds.), ''Lettres ou ne pas lettres. Mélanges de littérature française de Belgique offerts à Roland Beyen'', Leuven University Press, Louvain, 2001, pp. 565–572.
*Irina Livezeanu, "After the Great Union: Generational Tensions, Intellectuals, Modernism, and Ethnicity in Interwar Romania", i
''Nation and National Ideology: Proceedings of the International Symposium Held at New Europe College, Bucharest. April 6–7, 2001'' Babeș-Bolyai University Center for the Study of the Imaginary & New Europe College, 2002, Bucharest, pp. 110–127.
*Adrian Marino, ''Pentru Europa. Integrarea României: Aspecte ideologice și culturale'', Polirom, Iaşi, 2005.
*Lucian Nastasă,
*
''Intelectualii și promovarea socială (pentru o morfologie a câmpului universitar)'' Editura Nereamia Napocae, Cluj-Napoca, 2003; e-book version at the Romanian Academy's George Bariț Institute of History
*
''"Suveranii" universităților românești. Mecanisme de selecție și promovare a elitei intelectuale'' Vol. I, Editura Limes, Cluj-Napoca, 2007. ; e-book version at the George Bariţ Institute of History
*John Neubauer,
Marcel Cornis-Pope etc., "Part I. Publishing and Censorship", in ''History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe'', Vol. 3, John Benjamins, Amsterdam & Philadelphia, 2004, pp. 39–61.
*
Z. Ornea
Zigu Ornea (; born Zigu Orenstein Andrei Vasilescu"La ceas aniversar – Cornel Popa la 75 de ani: 'Am refuzat numeroase demnități pentru a rămâne credincios logicii și filosofiei analitice.' ", in Revista de Filosofie Analitică', Vol. II, N ...
,
**''Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească'', Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995.
**''Junimea și junimismul'', Vol. II, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1998.
*
Tom Sandqvist, ''Dada East. The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire'', MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, 2006.
*Ioan Stanomir, ''Spiritul conservator. De la Barbu Catargiu la Nicolae Iorga'', Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2008.
*Francisco Veiga, ''Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului'', Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993.
*Tudor Vianu, ''Scriitori români'', Vols. II-III, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1970–1971.
*George Voicu
"The 'Judaisation' of the Enemy in the Romanian Political Culture at the Beginning of the 20th Century" in the Babeș-Bolyai University's
Studia Judaica', 2007, pp. 138–150
External links
Google Books: ''Sămănătorul'', Volume 4, 1905Google Books: ''Sămănătorul'', Volume 5, 1906Google Books: ''Sămănătorul'', Volumes 6–7, 1907Google Books: ''Sămănătorul'', Volumes 7–8, 1908
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