Emil Isac

Emil Isac (; May 27, 1886 – March 25, 1954) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian poet, dramatist, short story writer and critic. Noted as one of the pioneers of Symbolism and modernist literature in his native region of Transylvania, he was in tandem one of the leading young voices of the Symbolist movement in the neighboring Kingdom of Romania. Moving from prose poems with cosmopolitan traits, fusing Neo-romantic subjects with modernist free verse, he later created a lyrical discourse in the line of Social Realism. Isac was likewise known for criticizing traditionalist and nationalist trends in local literature, but, by the end of World War I, opened his own poetry to various traditionalist influences.

Isac was a participant in civic or political causes, defending the rights of ethnic Romanians in Austria-Hungary from a socialist position, and, during the 1918 union with Romania, served as a community representative. He was however interested in preserving good relations between his ethnic group and the Hungarians. An occasional contributor to Hungarian-language reviews, he reached out over political divides, maintaining close contacts with Hungarian intellectuals such as Endre Ady, Oszkár Jászi, János Thorma, and Aladár Kuncz.

During the final part of his career, which was spent in Communist Romania, Emil Isac was affiliated with Steaua magazine and enjoyed political endorsement. In this context, he took the controversial decision of adapting his style to Socialist Realism, producing a number of political poems which doubled as agitprop.

Biography

Early life A native of Kolozsvár (Cluj), a city in Transylvania, the future writer was born to ethnic Romanian parents: his father, Aurel Isac, was a lawyer, later noted for representing the Romanian civil disobedience Memorandum movement, after it was prosecuted by the Hungarian authorities; his mother, Elisabeta-Eliza née Roșescu, was a schoolteacher. As the poet later recalled in a tongue-in-cheek memoir of his childhood: "I was born in Cluj, when the Someș was boiling with blood and my father reaped the flowers of pain [...]. I came around when called upon by my mother—and the priest baptized me in Eau de Cologne, or blood, or tears, or holy water—and my godfather wanted to give me the name Alfred, for he loved Musset, but my father gave me the name Emil, since he loved Rousseau."

From a young age, Isac was an avid reader. As he later recalled, he found an optimistic faith in science after being introduced to Jules Verne's popular novels. He began his education in German, attending a Transylvanian Evangelical Church school in his native city, and later (1895–1901) a Hungarian-language Catholic school run by the Piarists.

It was followed a year later by his Hungarian-language translation of two poems, collected from Romanian folklore and printed by the local periodical Koloszvári Friss Ujság under the pen name Emisac. Its rejection of convention was hotly contested by the tribune of Transylvanian traditionalism, Țara Noastră: it called Isac a "bane" for his generation and a "political traitor", referring to his lyrics as "babblings".

In 1910, Isac took a degree in law from Franz Joseph University. Isac's own affiliation with Symbolism was facilitated by a voyage to France, where he observed first-hand the impact of artistic innovation.

Political beginnings and Symbolist militancy Postcard sent to Isac by Ion Luca Caragiale, in which the latter explains the reasons for not wishing to preface one of Isac's works. Issued from Caragiale's home in Berlin, April 1911 Like his father before him, Emil Isac became interested in advancing the cause of Romanians throughout Transleithania (the regions administered directly from Budapest). This nationalist militancy merged with his advocacy of left-wing causes, leading him to become a member of the Transylvanian Social Democratic Party. Emil Isac's later memoirs describe in some detail Densusianu's dandy habits and generosity, which the academic kept as a standard even as he was facing material ruin, and note that such efforts accounted for Denusianu being ostensibly "weighed down", "impoverished", "submerged in thoughts".

Although involved in such projects, Emil Isac spend the pre-World War I years building bridges with members of the ethnic Hungarian elite in Transylvania and beyond. He maintained personal contacts with opinion leaders, among them poets Endre Ady, Mihály Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi, and painter János Thorma.

While Goga, defended by Endre Ady during his political imprisonment of 1912, soon disappointed the group with his antisemitic rhetoric and his uncompromising stance, Isac remained close to the liberal or left-wing Hungarian circles. After witnessing the end of Goga's friendship with Ady, he was himself involved in a conflict with the former's radical approach, arguing that people "on both sides" needed "to evaluate, without prejudice, their own blemishes and virtues". Around 1912, Isac was working with Kuncz on a trans-communal theatrical project: the staging of Ady's A műhelyben ("In the Workshop") by a theater in Bucharest, to coincide with the Budapest performance of plays by Isac and the prestigious comedy author Ion Luca Caragiale. The project was abandoned, probably because of Caragiale's sudden death in Berlin. By the same time, the young poet was entering another polemic with the more traditionalist wing of Romania's intellectual movement, represented at the time by historian and literary theorist Nicolae Iorga, former editor of the nationalist tribune Sămănătorul. In 1912, he became a contributor to the short-lived Symbolist review Simbolul, issued in Bucharest by the high school students Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco and Ion Vinea (all of whom were later avant-garde figures). It was there that Isac published satire specifically aimed at Iorga's group. Those articles where he specifically targeted Iorga's principles enlisted a negative response from Consânzeana, the Orăştie-based review of Romanian Orthodox priest Ioan Moţa (it called Isac Don Quijote de la Cluj, "the Don Quixote of Cluj").

Meanwhile, Isac's articles continued to champion mutual respect between Hungarian and Romanian intellectuals: a letter defending Ady in his dispute with Goga saw print in Ady's Világ review (February 1913), and another one, to Ignotus, was published in Nyugat as Az új magyar irodalom ("The New Hungarian Literature"); the same year, Nyugat also received his Új románság ("New Romanians") essay, in which Isac claimed that the two communities had a common interest in resisting the threat of Pan-Slavism. A year later, at the buildup to World War I, Nyugat published Isac's review of Goga's political play Mr. the Notary, his sympathetic obituary to the neutralist King Carol I of Romania, and his A román-magyar béke ("The Romanian-Hungarian Peace"), which optimistically argued that the policies of István Tisza could limit dangerous distrust between the two sides in question.

World War I and unionist activity Early during the war, Isac was carrying on with his literary work in the Romanian Kingdom, which still pursued a neutrality policy before joining the Entente Powers in summer 1916 (see Romania during World War I). During that interval, he again outraged the traditionalist public, when his dramolet Maica cea tânără ("The Young Nun"), questioning the Romanian Orthodox view of monastery life, was staged by the National Theatre Bucharest (1914). His second volume, comprising prose poems, was issued in and dedicated to his native region: Ardealule, Ardealule bătrân ("Transylvania, Old Transylvania"), published in 1916 by the Orthodox Diocese of Arad. Isac also contributed his texts to Cronica, a literary and political magazine published in Bucharest by Symbolist poet Tudor Arghezi; this review was later criticized by the mainstream politicians as a venue for collaborationists and Germanophiles. Among the other magazines who received his contributions was the Symbolist tribune Absolutio, published in Iaşi by the Arghezian disciple Isac Ludo.

By 1918, Isac was seeking to obtain an amicable solution to the ethnic conflicts rekindled by the war, in the context of Austria-Hungary's dissolution, the Aster Revolution, and the advent of a Hungarian Democratic Republic. As early as 1917, Isac signed an open letter, published by Világ, in which he rallied with pacifist thinker Oszkár Jászi (who became Minister of Nationalities in the Aster Revolution), arguing: "For us of the [other] nationalities your name in recent months has sounded like a reassuring chime of bells, your name has signified to us vigorous defense, and through your writings democratic Hungary has made its voice heard." Historian György Litván notes that this was the type of messages motivating Jászi to "stubbornly" believe that his Danubian Confederation projects could win support from all sides, even though other reactions were already showing their practical limitations and their unpopularity. There, on December 1, the Romanian socialist clubs, together with the Romanian National Party and the various other civic forces, demanded the union with Romania (see Great Union). According to fellow socialist Tiron Albani, Isac first sparked disagreements within the unionist gathering, after endorsing proposals that the Romanian Kingdom become a republic in exchange for union. Isac's controversial address to his peers, as cited by Grapini, stresses: "a quarter of an hour ago you have approved of the resolution [to uphold civil liberties]. Now you are revolted that a human idea is being expressed. Today, when three emperors have been ejected and their crowns hurled back at them! Would you be more consistent! [...] a king may well be good and wise, but he may also be a tyrant, and he'll still be king". In the end, the socialist delegation renounced its republican aims, placated by a resolution to ensure land reform and workers' rights throughout the resulting nation. His call to the "great masses" of Romanians and Hungarians, read: "There is only one possible politics in Romania: the politics of true democracy. By its very nature such politics safeguards the rights of everybody, [including] Hungarians, who lead today an isolated life in Transylvania. [...] it is the duty of Romanian writers to initiate divorce proceedings from the negative traditions". He gave a positive review to Jászi's renewed campaigning in favor of a Danubian Confederation to replace competing nation states, but argued that there was little prospect of "today's generation", in both Romania and Hungary, to endorse the project. Three years later, Isac's Symbolist colleague Davidescu reviewed his entire work in the critical essay Poezia d-lui Emil Isac ("Mr. Emil Isac's Poetry"), contributed for a November 1922 issue of Flacăra journal. He was also an occasional contributor to Ion Vinea's avant-garde venue, Contimporanul.

In parallel, the poet was pursuing his interest in visual arts, and especially involved in the professionalization of Transylvania's art scene. To this goal, he joined Aurel Popp, George Bacaloglu and János Thorma in setting up the Collegium Artificum Transilvanicorum, an art salon where artists of all trades and ethnicities could exhibit their work (February 1921). From 1925 to 1931, As superintendent of the theaters and cultural activist, Isac also participated, with journalist Ion Clopoţel, on a major cultural reunion of Hungarian, Transylvanian Saxon and Romanian authors (November 1928); other noted participants were Miklós Bánffy, Mária Berde, Egon Hajek, Sándor Makkai, Adolf Meschendörfer, Károly Molter and Heinrich Zillich.

During the interwar period, Emil Isac published several new volumes of poetry and prose, beginning with Poeme în proză ("Prose Poems", Oradea, 1923), and followed by two books of articles and essays, both printed in 1925 under the auspices of the Arad Diocese: Cartea unui om ("A Man's Book") and Notiţele mele ("My Little Notes"). The writer also issued a print version of Maica cea tânără (Cluj, 1931), and two volumes of collected poems, published in 1936 by, respectively, Cartea Românească publishing house and the eponymous publishing company of Adevărul newspaper.

World War II and late 1940s During World War II and after the cession of Northern Transylvania to Hungary, Isac left Cluj for the part of the country still controlled by Bucharest. He made his return to Cluj some time after the August 23, 1944 Coup which toppled the authoritarian Ion Antonescu regime, aligned Romania with the Allies, and initiated the recovery of Northern Transylvania (see Romania during World War II). Literary historians note that he subsequently became, with Lucian Blaga and Ion Agârbiceanu, one of the most important Romanian writers to continue residing in that city after 1945. In 1946, poet Miron Radu Paraschivescu, who had already published a review of Isac's lifelong contributions in Timpul newspaper (1942), supervised the publication of his integral edition, Opere ("Works"). Of the Cluj writers, he and Agârbiceanu became associates of the communists, while Blaga resisted such advances and was censored. Both of them, however, were for a while equally unsuccessful in setting up new Romanian-language cultural reviews: their projects were rejected by the communist authorities, who would only allow the existence of a Hungarian venue (Utunk) and literary supplements in local newspapers (such as Almanahul Literar, which was published together with Lupta Ardealului).

Although not enlisted in the ruling Communist Party—or, as it styled itself at the time, the Workers' Party, PMR—Isac also received Ordinul Muncii medal, the regime's recognition of social or cultural importance.

Steaua affiliation and final years Isac was affiliated with Almanahul Literar before 1949, when it was redesigned as Steaua monthly (for long still the only Romanian-language literary periodical published in Cluj). His contributions reflected the politicized editorial line, especially by endorsing the personality cult of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin: his poem Scrisoare către Stalin ("A Letter to Stalin") opened the very first issue of Steaua, and another such piece, Slavă nemuritorului Stalin ("Glory to the Immortal Stalin"), was hosted by the review upon Stalin's 1953 death.

In 1951, Isac was part of Steaua jury presided upon by poet Anatol E. Baconsky, awarding the magazine's annual prize to a high school student by the name of Ion Motoarcă. They were thus the unwitting subjects of a prank, played on them by the anti-communist poet and Sibiu Literary Circle member Ştefan Augustin Doinaş: waging that he could write poetry better poetry than those authors promoted by the regime, and probably enticed by the prospect of financial gain, Doinaş had agreed to hide his parodic contributions under Motoarcă's signature.

Emil Isac died in March 1954, in Cluj. he was also called "a [Symbolist] exception on the other side of the Carpathians" by literary historian Paul Cernat.

Isac's trademark contribution to the development of Romania's Symbolist movement was his work in the prose poem genre, with exotic reveries borrowing from a cosmopolitan model set in English literature by Oscar Wilde. Alternating free verse with more conventional forms (he was among the few affiliates of the movement to still appreciate the traditional metrical foot), his Symbolist poetry is defined by Călinescu as a compilation of elements borrowed from poets based in the Kingdom of Romania: Minulescu (in his descriptions of furnished interiors) and Bacovia (the "heart rending" ambiance and the references to musical instruments). I no longer trust in you, I'm trapped by the fog. Within me dies, within me dies The love for life.

Here comes the white fog, A life, a life of black

Maica cea tânără, a one-act verse drama called "neo-romantic dramolet" by Călinescu, shows an Orthodox nun committing murder against the bride of her former lover. According to John Neubauer and Marcel Cornis-Pope, Isac's interwar career exemplified one of the two schools in Transylvania's Romanian-language poetry: to the current of Emil Giugiuca and other poets inspired by George Coşbuc's elegiac tone, Isac and Aron Cotruş opposed a neo-romantic and "prophetic" attitude borrowed from Goga. While, in Cotruş's case, this came as an ethno-nationalist discourse about "the ethnic and social battles of the Romanians", Isac "combined social realism with Symbolism, offering dramatic-grotesque descriptions of Transylvanian rural and city culture, and depictions of the poet's existential isolation."

The traditionalist elements in Isac's writings were inventoried by George Călinescu. He suggested that the poet merged Goga's "grief" with elements of social protest ("pale workers gathering at the sound of a siren, orphaned children of the moţi") and even imagery related to that of devotional Romanian Orthodox ("Orthodoxist") poets. Transylvania is the golden fountain Transylvania is silk, Transylvania is tears of bread; Transylvania is as sweet as honey Transylvania is the shepherd and his dog It is the dream with no reveille

The final part of Isac's career was marked by the politicization of his writing, in line with Socialist Realism and its Romanian literary avatar. His poetry pieces for Veac Nou are seen by academic Letiţia Constantin as evidence that Isac had a satisfactory political background from the communist point of view. Constantin describes them as agitprop pieces, stylistically "pastiches" of Soviet poetry.

The contextual relevancy of Isac's lyrical tributes to Joseph Stalin was assessed by literary historians such as Diana Câmpean and Mariana Gorczyca, who researched the impact of communization on the various literary magazines of the 1950s and '60s. In Câmpean's view, Scrisoare către Stalin as one of the signs that Steaua was "tributary to proletkult demands", as a package for the other content, which was more focused on the "actual" and "valuable" elements in Romanian literature (from the celebration of its dead classics to the recovery of non-political voices such as Blaga). According to Gorczyca, Isac's 1949 poem, together with similar ones by Ion Brad, Victor Felea and Miron Radu Paraschivescu, illustrates the "embarrassing obedience" to a political line imposed on writers by the country's officials.

Legacy Several literary historians and critics have described the impact of Emil Isac's contributions in the work of other authors, beginning with those elements which were transferred into Adrian Maniu's modernist poetry (in particular, Călinescu notes, the "pictorial" quality the two shared). Outside this context, Isac was the target of two epigrams by Cincinat Pavelescu (a poet who attended Symbolist circles): connecting his visit to Berlin with Ion Luca Caragiale's death in the same city, they mockingly assert that Caragiale would rather die than have to greet the young poet. Likewise, researcher Carmina Tămăzlăcaru speaks of Cotruş's poems as being in the line of Goga and Isac, but modifying it through the adoption of Expressionism.

According to Gheorghe Grigurcu, Isac's poetic language made possible the development of a "cosmic perspective" in Transylvanian poetry, adopted by the traditionalist-modernist Gândirea contributor Lucian Blaga, and later by Steaua poet Aurel Rău. The links between Isac and Blaga had earlier been noted by Călinescu, who suggested that the innovative elements in Maica cea tânără already announce the "stylized iconography" of Blaga's works for the stage, "which is in effect a Transylvanian perspective on things".

Isac's legacy was touched by the fall of Romanian communism during the 1989 Revolution. His memorial home was effectively disestablished in 2001, following an administrative decision of the Cluj County Council, and the cultural items in its patrimony were transferred to the Octavian Goga County Library.