Ion Creangă

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Ion Creangă

Ion Creangă (born June 10, 1839 in Humuleşti in Neamț County , Principality of Moldova , today Romania ; † December 31, 1889 in Iaşi ) was a popular Romanian writer .

childhood and education

Creangă gave his own date of birth in Fragments de biografie as March 1, 1837. In the birth register of his hometown Humuleşti , however, June 10, 1839 is noted. Creangă was born as the first of eight children to a farming family. His mother wanted him to be trained for the priesthood . Traditionally, this is a prestigious position within the village community. More details about his youth can be found in his “Amintiri din copilărie” ( childhood memories ). He began his training in Humuleşti, then studied briefly in Broşteni before returning home and enrolling in the school in neighboring Târgu Neamț . After a year in the seminary in Fălticeni , he left this to continue his preparations for the priesthood at the monastery school of Socola in Iași (in the Romanian Moldova).

job

Creangă became a deacon after completing his studies in Socola in 1858 , and in 1859 married the 15-year-old Ileana Grigoriu, the daughter of a priest from Iași, who employed him as a cantor , but with whom he soon fell out. In 1860 he began studying theology at the newly founded University of Iași . After the faculty was closed there, he began teacher training at the Vasile Lupu School in 1864. This was headed by the well-known politician and literary critic Titu Maiorescu , for whose educational reform ideas he was enthusiastic. Creangă worked as an assistant teacher and worked on textbooks intended to teach primary school students to read and write.

Church and political conflicts

Creangă had great difficulty adapting to urban life in Iași. He was politically active on the side of the nationalists, attracted attention with anti-Semitic statements and in 1866 advocated the re-secession of the Principality of Moldova from Romania, which was only unified in 1861. His wife left him around 1867. Because of “godless behavior” he often came into conflict with his church superiors, such as visiting the theater in Iași and the alleged shooting of crows in the courtyard of the Golia monastery, where he was officiating. Eventually, his frequent criticisms of church officials and eccentric behavior - he wore his hair cut short - led to his suspension as a deacon and, in 1872, as a teacher. To make a living, he opened a tobacco shop . In addition, he bought a modest house on the outskirts of Iași, which he called "bojdeuca". There he lived a rural life, just like in his childhood in Humuleşti.

Creangă's house Bojdeuca in Iași

Literary creative phase

With the help of Titu Maiorescu , Creangă was reinstated in 1874. The following year, during an inspection of the school where he taught, he met the young poet Mihai Eminescu , who later worked as a school inspector. This resulted in a lasting friendship. Eminescu suggested to Creangă to write down the stories that he often retold orally and brought him to the Junimea literary circle (“The Chic Youth”). After the establishment of the Romanian state, intellectuals initially oriented themselves towards French culture, but their literary sympathies soon changed. Junimea became the leading intellectual force of the pro-German intellectuals like Duiliu Zamfirescu and Ion Luca Caragiale , who oriented themselves on the cultural scenes of Vienna and Berlin.

The main part of his work wrote Creangă between 1875 and 1883. Then he got increasing health problems, withdrew from teaching in 1887 and died two years later, on December 31, 1889, of an epileptic attack .

On October 28, 1948, he was accepted post mortem as an honorary member of the Romanian Academy , along with other famous Romanian writers such as Ion Luca Caragiale, Mihai Eminescu and Alexandru Vlahuță .

plant

In addition to his lively and humorous masterpiece "Amintiri din copilărie" ("childhood memories"), some of his best-known stories are "Harab Alb" (German first in 1910, under the title "The White Mohr" 1952, "Prince Stutensohn" 1954), "Moș Ion Roată și Unirea " , " Dănilă Prepeleac " , " Povestea porcului " , " Fata babei și fata moșului " and " Ivan Turbincă " . The stories are original and spontaneous, without literary models, and in their rustic narrative tone are close to folk tales. The dialogues in particular are written in the Moldovan dialect and faithfully reflect the mentality and expression of the people. Creangă's work had a strong influence on Romanian prose; many of his idioms entered common usage.

In “Childhood Memories”, Creangă describes how his energetic and energetic mother helped him to enter the seminary. "Capra cu trei iezi" ("The goat with the three kids") corresponds to the widespread fairy tale of the mother goat and her cubs who are chased by the wolf, but it is much more drastic than the version of the Brothers Grimm and does not end happily. "Harap Alb" , the fairy tale of the youngest son of the king, who has to pass a series of tests of courage, in which the animals and mythical creatures help him, is characterized by his special artistry and material and linguistic peculiarities. Another fairy tale, "Povestea lui Stan-Pățitul" , varies the theme of Hans im Glück . In other stories like “Soacra cu trei nurori” the realistic portrayal of village life is in the foreground.

Stories and fairy tales

  • Capra cu trei iezi (1875) The goat with the three little goats
  • Dănilă Prepeleac (1876)
  • Fata babei și fata moșneagului (1877) The daughter of the old and the daughter of the old
  • Făt Frumos, fiul iepei (1877) Prince Mare's son
  • Povestea lui Harap-Alb (1877) The fairy tale of the White Moor
  • Ivan Turbincă (1878) Ivan Torbinka
  • Povestea lui Ionică cel prost (1877)
  • Povestea lui Stan-Pățitul (1877) The story of the experienced Stan
  • Povestea porcului (1876) The fairy tale of the pig
  • Povestea poveștilor (1878)
  • Povestea unui om leneș (1878)
  • Punguța cu doi bani (1875) The sack with two groschen
  • Soacra cu trei nurori (1875) The mother-in-law with the three daughters-in-law

stories

  • Acul și barosul (1874)
  • Cinci pâini (1883)
  • Inul și cămeșa (1874)
  • Ion Roată și Cuza-Vodă (1882)
  • Moș Ion Roată și Unirea (1880)
  • Păcală (1880)
  • Prostia omenească (1874)
  • Ursul păcălit de vulpe (1880)

Novellas

  • Moș Nichifor Coțcariul (1877)
  • Popa Duhul (1879)

Autobiographical novels

  • Amintiri din copilărie (1879)
  • Fragment of the autobiography

Letters

Letters to the family

  • To Gheorghe Creangă
  • To Zaheiul Creangă
  • To Ecaterina Vartic
  • To Elena Creangă-Chiței

Letters to friends

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Keyword Ion Creangă. In: Walter Jens (Ed.): Kindlers new literature lexicon. Volume 4, Munich 1996, pp. 281-284.

Web links

Commons : Ion Creangă  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Creangă, Ion
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Humulești , Moldova
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1889
Place of death Iași