¹ Lucian, Blaga, “I Will Not Crush the World's Corolla of Wonders,” in At the Court of Yearning: Poems by Lucian Blaga, translated and with an introduction by Andrei Codrescu (Columbus, 1989), 3.Google ScholarThe poem first appeared in Glasul Bucovinei (The voice of Bukovina) on January 16, 1919.Google Scholar

² On some of the differences between modernism and the avant-garde, see Matei, Calinescu, Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism, 2d ed. (Durham, 1987), 140–41.Google Scholar

³ English-language introductions to Blaga's work are Andrei, Codrescu, introduction to, and Marcel Cornis-Pop, afterword to, Blaga, At the Court of Yearning;Google ScholarKeith, Hitchins, introduction to Lucian Blaga, Zalmoxis: Obscure Pagan, trans. Doris, Plantus-Runey (Jassy, 2001);Google Scholar and Keith, Hitchins, “‘Gâdirea': Nationalism in a Spiritual Guise,” in Studies on Romanian National Consciousness (Rome, 1983).Google Scholar The bibliography by and about Blaga is enormous. A guide to it is Vatamaniuc, D., Lucian Blaga 1895–1961: Bibliografie (Bucharest, 1977).Google Scholar The year 1995, which was the centenary of Blaga's birth, saw many events and books dedicated to his work. Angela, Botez, in her introductory study in Dimensiunea metafiza a operei lui Lucian Blaga (Bucharest, 1996), 8,Google Scholarasserts that Blaga was proposed for the Nobel Prize in 1954, but that the Romanian government protested the honor. It is not clear if the nomination succeeded. No source is cited for this information.Google Scholar

⁴ Costica, Bradatan, O Introducere la istoria filosofiei româneşi în secolul XX (Bucharest, 2000), 51.Google Scholar

⁵ Lucian, Blaga, Opere, vol. 9, Trilogia Culturii, ed. Dorli, Blaga (Bucharest, 1985).Google ScholarThe three parts of the trilogy appeared originally in 1935-–37, and first in book form in 1944 (see Al. Tanase, “Srudiu inrroductiv,” introduction to Blaga, Trilogia Culturii, 5).Google Scholar For a critique of the concept, see Henri, Stahl, Eseuri critice despre cultura populara româneasca (Bucharest, 1983), 130–40.Google Scholar

⁶ About Blaga's, career after World War II,Google Scholarconsult Pavel, Tugui, Amurgul demiurgilor: Arghezi, Blaga, Ca (dosare literare) (Bucharest, 1998), 104–66;Google Scholar and Achim, Mihu, “Lucian Blaga în Clujul postbelic,” in Miorita culta a spiritualitatii româneşti (Bucharest, 1995), 162–222.Google Scholar

⁷ For examples of some contemporary Blaga controversies, see Katherine, Verdery, National Ideology under Socialism: Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceauşescu's Romania (Berkeley, 1991), 130, 165, 337;Google Scholar and Achim, Mihu, “Cazul Blaga,” in Miorita culta, 137–239.Google Scholar

⁸ See Péter, Hanák, “Social Marginality and Cultural Creativity in Vienna and Budapest (1890–1914),” in The Garden and the Workshop: Essays on the Cultural History of Vienna and Budapest (Princeton, 1998), 147–77.Google Scholar

⁹ See Hitchins, , “‘Gândirea,’” 235-–58.Google ScholarThese categories are modified by Verdery, , National Ideology under Socialism, 46-–47, who adds a third, “pro-Orientals,” to the two more common ones of traditionalists and Europeans.Google Scholar

¹⁰ See, for example, Zigu, Ornea, Traditionalism şi modernitate în deceniul al treilea (Bucharest, 1980);Google Scholar and Dumitru, Micu, “Gîndirea” şi gîndirismul (Bucharest, 1975).Google ScholarNote that Gîndirea is an alternate spelling of Gândirea. Romanian has had two spelling reforms in the past sixty years, so some words are spelled differently, depending on the date of publication.Google Scholar

¹¹ Nichifor, Crainic, for example, noted in his memoirs: “[T]he great victory of Greater Romania suddenly shattered the ideal in whose fire I had steeled myself during my school years. The sky closed over my forehead. I wouldn't want anyone to imagine that I started to bewail … the achievement of the national ideal. This fact, which crowned in greatness the history of a whole people … gave to me, as to any Romanian, ecstasies…. But once achieved, it was transformed from a blue sky into a pedestal on which my feet danced. The victory absorbed a credo, destroying it, and leaving behind a desert.”Google ScholarCrainic, , Zile albe, zile negre (Bucharest, 1991), 147. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from Romanian are mine.Google Scholar

¹² Crohmalniceanu, Ovid S, Literatura româna între cele doua razboaie mondiale, vol. 2 (Bucharest, 1974), 6–7.Google Scholar

¹³ Ornea, , Traditionalism, 126–27.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Romulus, Dianu, “Cu d. Cezar Petrescu despre el şi despre alţii,” Rampa 15, no. 3228 (02 25, 1929);Google Scholarcited in Ornea, , Traditionalism, 289.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Camil, Petrescu, Revista vremii 3, no. 11–12 (07 1923): 22;Google Scholarcited in Ornea, , Traditionalism, 127. On Gândirea's early eclecticism,Google Scholarsee Dumitru, Micu, Literatura româna în secolul al 20-lea (Bucharest, 2001), 41.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Crohmalniceanu, , Literatura româna, vol. 2, 371; Centenar Marcel Iancu, 1895–1995:Google ScholarMarcel Iancu Centenary, 1895–1995 (Bucharest, 1996), 15.Google ScholarIancu's work is archived and documented at the Marcel Iancu Museum in Ein Hod, Israel.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Micu, , “Gîndirea,” 56.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Ion, Darie, “Pe marginea unei discuţii,” Gândirea 3, no. 15 (1924): 389.Google ScholarIon, Darie is a pseudonym for Cezar Petrescu. For a longer list of foreign authors published in Gândirea,Google Scholarsee Emil, Pintea, “Expresia unei generaţii,” in Gândirea: Antologie literara, ed. idem (Cluj, 1992), 8–9.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Lucian, Blaga, “începuturile şi cadrul unei prietenii,” Gândirea 19, no. 4 (1940);Google Scholarreprinted in Pintea, , ed., Gândirea, 425.Google Scholar

²⁰ Micu, , “Gîndirea,” 32-–35, 56-–58.Google Scholar

²¹ Ibid., 70-–74; Crohmˇlniceanu, , Literatura româna, vol. 1, 51-–52.Google ScholarThe 1998 exhibit “Brâncuşi and the Romanian Avant-Garde, 1916–1947” at Ubu Gallery in New York documented Romanian avant-garde art and literature for the interwar period.Google ScholarSee Michael, Ilk, Brancusi, Tzara und die Rumänische Avantgarde (Bochum, 1997), which served as a catalogue for the show.Google Scholar

²² The term samanatorism derives from a semana, “to sow,” and suggests that literature should concern itself with Romanian realities, that is, rural peasants or “sowers.” “To sow” also hints at a propagandists, social role for literature—dispersing knowledge among the masses and knowledge about them to educated readers.Google Scholar

²³ Eugen, Lovinescu, Istoria literaturii române contemporane (Bucharest, 1981),Google Scholar originally published in six volumes (1925–29).

²⁴ See Micu, , Literatura, 39-–40.Google Scholar

²⁵ Lucian, Blaga, Hronicul şi cîntecul vîrstelor (Bucharest, [1965]), 10–11, 21–23, 41-–43,97;Google Scholar and Vatamaniuc, D., “Student la Sibiu,” in Lucian Blaga: Contributii documentare la biografia sa şi a operei (Bucharest, 1998), 92.Google Scholar

²⁶ Blaga, , Hronicul, 3-–5, 28–29, 35, 70-–71, 100–101, 105-–6; and Vatamaniuc, “Elev la Braşov: Începururile activitatii literare,” in Lucian Blaga: Contributii documentare, 82-–91.Google Scholar

²⁷ See Lucian, Blaga, Corespondenta (A-F), ed. Mircea, Cenuşa (Cluj, 1989), 150–51.Google Scholar

²⁸ Blaga, , Hronicul, 162-–76.Google Scholar

²⁹ Vatamaniuc, , “Student la Sibiu,” 94-–99.Google Scholar

³⁰ Blaga, , Hronicul, 214–15; Blaga, Corespondena, 97.Google Scholar

³¹ Blaga, , Corespondenta, 89-–90, 97.Google Scholar

³² Ibid., 90

³³ Ibid., 100.

³⁴ Ibid., 155

³⁵ For Blaga's impressions, see Ion, Balu, Viata lui Lucian Blaga, vol. 1 (Bucharest, 1995), 210–12.Google Scholar

³⁶ Ibid., 211; Constantin, Turcu, Lucian Blaga sau fascinatia diplomatiei (Bucharest, 1995), 22.Google Scholar

³⁷ Vatamaniuc, , “O intrare spectaculoasa în literatura,” in Lucian Blaga: Contributii documentare, 117;Google ScholarBalu, , Viata, 301, 320–22, 352-–59.Google Scholar

³⁸ Glasul Bucovinei was started in still Austrian Czernowitz (Cernauti) in October 1918 by Romanian patriots, militants for the province's independence from Austria and for union with Romania.Google ScholarSee Sextil, Puşcariu, Memorii (Bucharest, 1978), 318–26;Google ScholarIrina, Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation Building, and Ethnic Struggle (Ithaca, 1995), 57;Google Scholar and Vatamaniuc, , “O intrare spectaculoasa în literatura” 110–17. For Puşcariu's impressions of Blaga and his work, see Memorii, 326–27, 442, 509,533, 617.Google Scholar

³⁹ The article appears as an appendix in Vatamaniuc, D., “Lucian Blaga şi Bucovina in 1918–1919: Un moment de rascruce în viata şi activitea literara,” in Eonul Blaga: întâiul veac: culegere de lucratri dedicata Centenarului Lucian Blaga (1895–1995), ed. Mircea, Borcila (Bucharest, 1997), 124–30.Google ScholarSee also Balu, , Viata, 224–26.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Vatamaniuc, , “O intrare spectaculoasa,” 117.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴² Cited in Balu, Viata, 226.Google Scholar

⁴³ These appeared in Unirea, Dacia, Patria, and Renaşterea româna.Google Scholar See Ibid., 229; and Vatamaniuc, , “Lucian Blaga şi Bucovina,” 112–13.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Poemele luminii (Sibiu, 1919);Google ScholarPietre pentru templul meu (Sibiu, 1919).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Cited in Balu, Viate, 241.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Ibid., 249-–53.

⁴⁷ Blaga, , Corespondenta 163-–64.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Blaga, , “începuturile”; reprinted in Pintea, ed., Gândirea, 423.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Balu, , Viata, 242-–49.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Iorga's article is reproduced in Blaga, Hronicul, 237-–38.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Ibid., 244-–46; Balu, , Viata, 252.Google Scholar

⁵² Vatamaniuc, , “Lucian Blaga şi Academia româna,” in Lucian Blaga: Contributii documentare, 1–2. Vatamaniuc concludes that young Blaga's May 1919 visit to Bucharest at that particular triumphal conjuncture helped him to penetrate Romania's literary establishment “already with his first volumes.”Google Scholar

⁵³ Blaga, , Corespondenta 163-–64;Google ScholarLucian, Nastasa, “Lucian Blaga: Avatarurile unei catedre universitare,” in Itinerarii istoriografice: Profesorului Leonid Boicu la împlinirea vîrstei de 65 de ani, ed. Gabriel, Badˇrau (Jassy, 1996), 502.Google ScholarOn the Romanization of the University of Cluj, see Livezeanu, , Cultural Politics, 219–26.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ This play has recently been rendered into English as Zalmoxis: Obscure Pagan (see n. 3 above). A more faithful translation of Blaga's original title would be Zamolxe: A Pagan Mystery.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Cited in Blaga, , Corespondentˇ, 35.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Vatamaniuc, , “Lucian Blaga şi Academia româna,” 6-–7.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Cited in Ibid., 37.

⁵⁸ “Discursul de receptie rostit de Lucian Blaga la primirea în Academia Româna: Elogiul satului românesc,” in Vatamaniuc, Lucian Blaga: Contributii documentare, 62.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ibid., 40.

⁶⁰ Ibid., 40-–42.

⁶¹ Ibid., 43.

⁶² For a critical reading of Blaga's “sociological” writings about Romanian village culture, see Stahl, , Eseuri critice, 76-–92, 94–148.Google Scholar

⁶³ For an analysis of this phenomenon and the demographic basis for it, see Livezeanu, , Cultural Politics, passim.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ “Discursul de receptie,” 45-–46.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid., 50. See also Blaga, Trilogia culturii, 72–119, 175-S6, 189-–331.

⁶⁶ “Discursul de receptie,” 50-–51. The last two words of this passage are stratul mumelor.Google ScholarThis term conveys the meaning of a profoundly nurturing layer, a kind of placenta, of the folk culture. Blaga chooses mumelor rather than the more common mamelor precisely to allude to the legendary maternal creatures of Romanian folk fairy tales. I am grateful to Marius Lazˇr for help in deciphering this term.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ “Raspunsul lui Ion Petrovici la discursul de receptie rostit de Lucian Blaga,” in Vatamaniuc, Lucian Blaga: Contributii documentare, 52,54.Google Scholar On Petrovici, see also Marius, Lazar, “‘Akademisches’ und ‘nicht-akademisches’ Denken: Die Philosphie in Rumänien zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen,” Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte 4 (2001): 68–82.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Lucian, Blaga, “Schita unei autoreprezentari filozofice (1938),” in Botez, Dimensiunea metafizica, 32;Google ScholarBlaga, , “Douˇ tipuri de cunoaştere (1942),” in Botez, Dimensiunea metafizicˇ, 76-–81; “Cunoaştere individuata,” “Cunoaştere luciferkca,” and “Cunoaştere paradisiaca,”Google Scholarin Diaconu, F. and Diaconu, M., Dictionar de termeni filozofici ai lui Lucian Blaga (Bucharest, 2000), 79–88.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Petrovici, , “Raspunsul lui Ion Petrovici,” 58-–61.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ See Lazar, , “‘Akademisches’ und ‘nicht-akademisches’ Denken,” 76. He argues that the new Romanian philosophy evolved in the interwar years away from canonical philosophical themes toward “ethnocentric and culturalist self-contemplation.”Google Scholar

⁷¹ See Petrovici, , “Rˇspunsul lui Ion Petrovici,” 55, 62.Google Scholar

⁷² cited in Balu, , Viata, 247, 248.Google Scholar

⁷³ Nicolae, Iorga, Istoria literaturii româneşti contemporane, vol. 2, În cˇutarea fondului, ed. Rodica, Rotaru, with a preface by Ion Rotaru (Bucharest, 1985), 251, 351, 371.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Puşcariu, , Memorii, 556.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Ibid., 616. See Bˇlu, , Viata, 322–23, and 336 on Puşcariu's lukewarm reactions to Blaga's plays.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Lovinescu, , Istoria literaturii române contemporane, 2:271-–74.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Mircea, Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga—Ion Breazu: Corespondentˇ (Cluj, 1995), 110–11.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ George, Calinescu, Istoria literaturii rom^ne dela origini pîna în prezent (Bucharest, 1982), 805.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Balu, , Viata, 291-–96.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Ibid., 323.

⁸¹ A literary friendship based on Breazu's appreciation of Blaga's work and Blaga's admiration for Breazu's criticism flowered between the two. Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 32, 64.Google Scholar

⁸² Ibid., 33-–35.

⁸³ He noted in his memoirs, “It's sad that a writer like Blaga cannot manage to have a play printed that is at the very least interesting; and that I, as director in the administrative council of … Ardealul and as a member of the board of the National Culture [Press], cannot arrange for him to publish his play.” Puşcariu, Memorii, 782.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ In a letter to Breazu, Blaga explained that he could not visit him in Paris because he had spent the money to print Manole, adding, “About the success of this play I have no illusions! It will be as little talked about as the others!” Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 44.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ibid., 41-–42. Breazu refers to Bogdan-Duicˇ with the colloquial “Moşu,” which carries a connotation of rural, familial intimacy. The expression can be derogatory, as epithets of old age are in many languages.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Ibid.,43-–44. Bogdan-Duicˇ was born in 1865. Calinescu, , Istoria, 915.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 46, 47, 50, 51.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Ibid., 58-–60; Lucian, Blaga, Din activitatea diplomaticˇ (Rapoarte, articole, scrisori, cereri, telegrame): Anii 1927–1938, vol. 1 (Bucharest, 1995), 131.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 49, 61-–63.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Ibid., 67, 69, 71-–73.

⁹¹ See Teofil, Bugnariu, “Cerem o lamurire: Se joaca sau nu ‘Meşterul Manole’ la Cluj,” Patria 11, no. 180 (08 18, 1929): 2;Google Scholarcited in Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 82.Google Scholar See also Ibid., 74-–94.

⁹² Ibid.., 94-–99.

⁹³ Lucian, Blaga, Filozofia stilului (Cluj, 1924).Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Ibid., 3-–6.

⁹⁵ Balu, Vitata, 315, 318;Google ScholarNastasˇ, , “Lucian Blaga,” 503.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Blaga, , Filozofia stilului, 72-–75.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Balu, Vitata, 310–18.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Nastasa, , “Lucian Blaga,” 504; Puşcariu, Memorii, 742. Many contemporaries pro or contra Blaga sounded the generational theme.Google ScholarVictor, Iancu, for example, wrote in “Literatura Ardealului românesc şi traditia,” Patria 9, no. 89 (05 13, 1927): 1–2:Google Scholar“The new times have brought a new direction. Lucian Blaga, who studied philosophy in foreign countries, brought back a pronounced modern way of thought, which he reconciled with the native soil.” Cited in Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 71. According to Lucian Nastasa, politics pure and simple may also have played a role in this debacle. He argues that Liberals in the university disliked Blaga in part because of his marital association with a family of National Peasantists.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ George, Ganˇ, Opera literariˇ lui Lucian Blaga (Bucharest, 1976), 49–51.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Balu, Vitata, 320–22,352-–53.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 15 n.4.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Ibid., 15–19, 36.

¹⁰³ Gana, , Opera literaa, 49;Google ScholarBalu, , Viata, 354.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Balu, , Viata, 294-–97.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Ibid., 299, 333, 341, 343, 354-–58.

¹⁰⁶ Blaga, , Din activitatea diplomaticˇ, vols. 1-–3, passim.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Cited in Curticeanu, ed., De amicitia Lucian Blaga, 233.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Balu, , Viata, 306-–9.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Ibid., 360-–429.