Mihai Eminescu

Mihai Eminescu a.k.a. Mihail Eminovici (January 15 1850 - June 15 1889), late Romantic poet, probably the best-known Romanian poet. Famous poems include Luceaf?rul (Morning Star), Od? în metru antic (Ode in an antique meter), and the 5 Scrisori (Epistles).

Legacy

The Genius

Eminescu was only 20 when Titu Maiorescu, the top literary critic in 1870 Romania dubbed him "a real poet", in an essay where only a handful of the Romanian poets of the time were spared Maiorescu's harsh criticism. In the following decade, Eminescu's fame as a poet grew continually thanks to (1) the way he managed to enrich the literary language with words and phrases from all Romanian regions, from old texts, and with new words that he coined from his wide philosophical readings; (2) the use of bold metaphors, much too rare in earlier Romanian poetry; (3) last but not least, he was arguably the first Romanian writer who published in all Romanian provinces and was constantly interested in the problems of Romanians everywhere.

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He defined himself as a Romanticism, in a poem addressed To My Critics (Criticilor mei), and this designation, his untimely death as well as his bohemian lifestyle (he never pursued a degree, a position, a wife, or fortune) had him associated with the Romantic figure of the genius. As early as the late 1880s, Eminescu had a group of faithful followers. His 1883 poem Luceaf?rul was so famous that a new literary review took its name after it.

Related Topics:
Romanticism - Genius

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The national poet

He was soon proclaimed Romania's national poet, not because he would have written in an age of national revival, but rather because he was adopted as an author of paramount significance by Romanians in all provinces. Even today, he is considered the national poet of Romania, Moldova, and of Romanians who live in Ukraine.

Related Topics:
Romania - Moldova - Ukraine

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Romanian icon

Eminescu is omnipresent in present-day Romania. His statues are everywhere; his face was on the 1000-lei bill issued in 1998 and is on the new 500-lei bill issued in 2005 as the highest Romanian bill (see Romanian leu); many schools and other institutions are named after him. The anniversaries of his birth and death are celebrated each year in many Romanian cities, and they became national celebrations in 1989 (the centennial of his death) and 2000 (150 years after his birth, proclaimed Eminescu's Year in Romania).

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The Right

Due to his conservative nationalistic views, Eminescu was easily adopted as forerunner by the Romanian right. A major obstacle to his full adoption was the fact he had never appeared to be a Christian, but rather expressed indiscriminately Buddhist, Christian, agnostic, and atheist views.

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The Left

After a decade when Eminescu's works were criticized as "mystic" and "bourgeois", Romanian communists ended up adopting Eminescu as the major Romanian poet. What opened the door for this thaw was the poem Împ?rat ?i proletar (Emperor and proletarian), that Eminescu wrote under the influence of the 1870-1871 events in France, and which ended in schopenhauerian critique of human life. An expurgated version only showed the stanzas that could show Eminescu as a poet interested in the fate of proletarians.

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The canon

Eminescu's works are studied in all classes of Romanian. Most of his best-known poems, as well as some of his short stories are compulsory in Romanian schools. New books about his life and work are published each year in Romania.

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Repudiation

Several young Romanian writers provoked a huge scandal when they wrote about their demystified idea of Eminescu and went so far as to reject the "official" appraisement of his work. http://www.algoritma.ro/dilema/fw.htm?current=arhiva_dilema/search1.htm

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