DUILIU ZAMFIRESCU (I)

👤Author

Name: Eugen Simion
Affiliation: Academia Română

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: SIMION, Eugen. „Duiliu Zamfirescu (I)”. In: RITL, New Series, VIII, No. 1-4, January-December 2014, p. 7–28.
Titlul: DUILIU ZAMFIRESCU (I)
Title: DUILIU ZAMFIRESCU (I)
Pages: 7-28
Language: Romanian
URL: https://ritl.ro/pdf/2014/1_E_Simion.pdf

Abstract: This article represents the first part of an analysis that Academician Eugen Simion sets out to unravel on Duiliu Zamfirescu’s works. This author’s novels are the target of this analysis although his correspondence (his letters) is found to be of high knowledge, interest and especially of high literary value. Much information is taken for this analysis on Zamfirescu’s novels out of his letters written to Titu Maiorescu, among others. Duiliu Zamfirescu is found to militate against our people’s indiscrete copying of other peoples influence; in this direction, he gives Sweden as an example of rising on its own. As regards art, Duiliu Zamfirescu is ambiguous and abstract. He rejects the use of the unbelievable in epics. His good intentions regarding his continuously renewed methods and substance that ought to be applied in novels are again found in his letters. He is against I.L. Caragiale, he dislikes the latter’s skepticism and irony, and especially the triviality. Duiliu Zamfirescu is found to be a complicated spirit, an amount of contradictions. Thus, his realism is balanced, lacking cruelties and refined psychology; his intentions go towards intellectualization but does not make appeal to any social sciences. His ethicism places him among visionaries with high unrealistic ideals. Readers can easily take interest in his novels because the narration captivates one’s interest. The writer however obviously does everything to compromise his characters that he programmatically hates. More objectivity and less triviality in his characters’ language would have made his characters achieve a more visible outline.

Keywords: Duiliu Zamfirescu, novels, correspondence, realism, intellectualization, ethicism.