Nicolae Petrașcu

Nicolae Petrovici (; December 5, 1859 – May 24, 1944), known as Nicolae Petrașcu and commonly rendered as N. Petrașcu or Pĕtrașcu, was a Romanian journalist, essayist, literary critic, novelist, and memoirist. The author of monographs on major figures in Romanian literature, Petrașcu was originally affiliated with the conservative literary society Junimea, but did not embrace all its tenets. Like his friend, novelist Duiliu Zamfirescu, he parted with the group and, together with Dimitrie C. Ollănescu-Ascanio, established a new circle around the magazine ("Romanian Literature and Art").

During the 1890s, his group carried an extended polemic with Junimea, and Petrașcu developed his own tenets, which took Historicism, Sociological positivism, and Determinism as its main sources of inspiration. He was also noted for endorsing the views of Western European thinkers such as Hippolyte Taine and Émile Hennequin. In this context, he engaged in public debates with the Junimist intellectuals Titu Maiorescu, P. P. Negulescu, and Mihail Dragomirescu. Alongside Ollănescu-Ascanio and Zamfirescu, his circle came to include, among others, poet Alexandru Vlahuță, novelist Gala Galaction, and architect Ion Mincu. N. Petrașcu was the brother of Gheorghe Petrașcu, a renowned painter.

Petrașcu authored a single novel, titled Marin Gelea. The work deals with the status of geniuses in the late 19th century Romanian Kingdom, and contains several references to important cultural figures of the day.

Biography

Early life and career Born in Tecuci as the son of Costache Petrovici-Rusciucliu and Elena Bița, he had his surname changed to Petrașin—according to literary historian George Călinescu, this was on the initiative of Gheorghe and Nicolae's cousin. His other literary idol inside Junimea was Mihai Eminescu (later recognized as Romania's national poet): Petrașcu was one of the young and aspiring authors who had discovered Eminescu's work just before the poet went mad and isolated himself, a generation subsequently classified as "Eminescian".

At the time, Petrașcu published a series of studies on Romanian writers, including the Romantic Dimitrie Bolintineanu and the Junimist figures Eminescu and Vasile Alecsandri (both of whom successively affiliated with Romanticism and Junimea). Some of his other essays were noted for their polemic tone: among these was his earliest, a piece on short story writer Barbu Ștefănescu-Delavrancea, and an 1888 text on Constantin Mille and his only novel, Dinu Millian.

His work for the Convorbiri Literare journal included a study of Eminescu's work. It was published as a series between 1890 and 1891 (that is, in the two years following Eminescu's death), but carried the title Mihail Eminescu, studiu critic 1892 ("Mihail Eminescu, Critical Study 1892") [sic]. Petrașcu later admitted that the writing was actually "an admiring recollection of the great poet". While Dobrogeanu-Gherea spoke of social causes behind the poet's attitudes, Petrașcu attributed these to "a change in the fundamental forces of the contemporary soul, that is to say in the relation between intelligence, will, and faith". Dobrogeanu-Gherea chose not to reply to these points. The study was nevertheless acknowledged decades later by Dobrogeanu-Gherea's disciple, literary historian Garabet Ibrăileanu, who noted its biographical research. Investigating the circumstances of Eminescu's illness and the impact it had on the poet's work, Ibrăileanu used assessments made by Petrașcu (and, separately, the testimonies of poet Mite Kremnitz), to conclude that Eminescu had been incapable of producing any more poems after the full onset of his symptoms.

Transition Nevertheless, his views were often shaped by outside influences. According to literary historian Z. Ornea, Maiorescu's rejection of most new literary trends may have been resented from early on by several young Junimists: alongside Petrașcu, these included the radical politicians George Panu and Nicolae Xenopol.

He clarified his position in time, through polemics, and, during an April 1892 lecture he gave at the Romanian Athenaeum, confessed that he impressed by Positivism following an 1890 trip to Paris.

In contrast to both Junimea and the Romantic writer Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Petrașcu showed that he accepted Realist and Naturalism.

The journal soon enlisted contributions from other adversaries of Junimea, including Zamfirescu, Dimitrie Anghel, Ștefan Octavian Iosif, George Coșbuc, Alexandru Vlahuță, G. Dem. Teodorescu, and Ștefan Petică. In parallel, he was interested in Émile Hennequin's Positivism, with its notion of "scientific criticism". According to Petrașcu, the elder critic replied saying: "My opinion is that this [new school of criticism], toward which I see you are inclined, can only be a passing trend, since it only deals with secondary issues, such as the social environment."

Convorbiri Literare answered through this attack through the intervention of its editor, the philosopher P. P. Negulescu. Negulescu pointed out that, in accusing Junimea of having failed to support young writers, Petrașcu had overlooked the encouragements Maiorescu had given to Eminescu, Coșbuc, and Samson Bodnărescu; he also argued that the society had not awarded any form of special treatment to its own affiliates. (stating that Taine was "hard to take into consideration as an authority on the matter"). In 1895, further criticism of N. Petrașcu was voiced by Mihail Dragomirescu, who was still a supporter of the literary group: Dragomirescu indirectly assimilated both Dobrogeanu-Gherea and Petrașcu with various known detractors of Eminescu, such as Aron Densușianu and Alexandru Grama (in his review of the article, Ornea indicated that this was done "abusively").

Later years 2014 photo of Petrașcu's house in Bucharest, Piața Romană, nr. 1, designed by Ion Mincu Several years after his polemic with Negulescu, Petrașcu acknowledged the importance of Junimea, and, in 1899, his magazine defined Maiorescu as "a superior man from several points of view". For a while before 1902, they were probably joined by Demetriescu's young pupil Mateiu Caragiale, the son of dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale and himself a future novelist. (who also published and commented Petrașcu's autobiography).

Among N. Petrașcu's final works was his essay on the life and work of Anghel Demetriescu (published by Tipografia Bucovina company and undated), where he notably provides quotes on his friend's old age nostalgia and eccentric projects. In 1929, Petrașcu also authored a monograph on Duiliu Zamfirescu. Literary critic Perpessicius argued that the work had "volubility", "sense of the picturesque" and "critical intuition".

Marin Gelea Building on his sociological theories, Petrașcu postulated that there was a contrast between the men of genius and the expectations of the local public. He believed that "All the Romanian talents have been deviated or defeated by our society, most of them in the flower of their youth and manhood, when they did not yet have time to lend their power to full measure". Unlike Zamfirescu, Călinescu suggested, N. Petrașcu had little sympathy for high society, seeing as "lacking in national sentiment and any contact with the country's tradition".