Alexandru Macedonski

Infobox Writer
name = Alexandru Macedonski

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caption = Alexandru Macedonski
birthdate = birth date|1854|3|14|mf=y
birthplace = Bucharest, Wallachia
deathdate = death date and age|1920|11|24|1852|3|14|mf=y
deathplace = Bucharest, Romania
occupation = poet, literary critic, journalist
nationality = Romanian
period = 1870–1912
genre = lyric poetry
movement = Symbolism, Parnassianism, Romanticism
influences = Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval

Alexandru Macedonski (also spelled Alexandru Macedonschi; March 14, 1854, Bucharest— November 24, 1920), the grandson of Dimitrie Macedonski, was a Romanian writer and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in his native country, and influenced by the works of Gérard de Nerval, Charles Baudelaire, and Parnassian poets. He was one of the first Romanian poets to have used blank verse and "vers libre".

Life

At age 16, Macedonski traveled alone through Austria-Hungary, Italy and Switzerland. Afterwards, he resettled in Bucharest.

Starting with the founding, in 1880, of the literary magazine "Literatorul", Macedonski created a poetic school of which he remained the revered master for many years afterwards. The group was a reaction to the cultural dominance of the "Junimea" society, contrasting it with the newer tendencies in European literature. His first period of creativity, lasting until the 1890s, is marked by ample verses and Romantical esthetics or satirical traits. Its most important product is the poetical cycle of "Nopţi" ("Nights"), inspired by the similar "Nuits" in Alfred de Musset's "Poésies nouvelles".

After 1890, Macedonski poetry is usually expressed in "rondel" form, the author being one of the select few of Romanian poets to have chosen this expression form. All five "rondel" cycles ("Rondelurile pribege", "Rondelurile celor patru vânturi", "Rondelurile rozelor", "Rondelurile Senei" and "Rondelurile de porţelan") were reunited in the posthumous volume "Poema Rondelurilor" (1927).

In the early 1900s, Macedonski went to Paris, where he published a novel in French ("Le calvaire de feu"), without encountering much success. After the Romanian artistic life had started being dominated by Mihai Eminescu and his admirers - who rejected the esthetics of Symbolism -, and until his death in 1920, Macedonski was viewed as an important poet only by a few friends and followers. With the advent of Modernism in the 1920s, Macedonski's poetry was rediscovered, and he was regarded as a great precursor by such authors as Tudor Arghezi, Ion Barbu, Tudor Vianu and George Bacovia.

Works

This is a list of his major works.

* Poetry:

"Prima verba" (1872)

"Poezii (1882)"

"Excelsior (1895-1897)"

"Flori sacre" (1912)

"Poema rondelurilor" (1927)

"Ciclul nopţilor"

*Prose:

Dramă banală (1896)

Cartea de aur (1902)

Le calvaire de feu (1906)

Thalassa (1915) Nuvele (a volume of collected short stories) (1923)

*Drama:

"Moartea lui Dante Alighieri" (1916)

External links

*(English) "http://www.macedonski.net"
* [http://www.macedonski.net/ "Pagina familiei"]
* [http://www.wattremez.com/reception_nerval/macedonski.htm Michel Wattremez, "La réception de Gérard de Nerval en Roumanie (1855-1943). Autour de Macedonski"]
* [http://www.romanianvoice.com/poezii/biblio/bib_macedonski.php "Alexandru Macedonski: Timeline"]
* [http://www.ici.ro/romania/en/cultura/l_macedonski.html "About Alexandru Macedonski at ici.ro"]
* [http://art-zone.ro/poezii/alexandru_macedonski.html"Alexandru Macedonski: Poezii- biografie"]