Ion Sân-Giorgiu
Encyclopedia
Ion Sân-Giorgiu was a Romania
n modernist
poet, dramatist, essayist, literary and art critic, also known as a journalist, academic, and fascist
politician. He was notably the author of works on the Sturm und Drang
phenomenon and the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
. During his early years, he was influenced by Expressionism
and contributed to the literary magazine
Gândirea
; he progressively moved towards support for the Iron Guard
(the Legionary Movement), edited the far right
journal Chemarea Vremii, and spent his last years a member of Horia Sima
's government in exile
.
, Sân-Giorgiu was educated in Germany
. He debuted as a traditionalist poet, affiliated with the group originally formed around Sămănătorul
magazine. According to literary historian Eugen Lovinescu
, he was, with Anastasie Mândru and George Vâlsan, one of the best-known Sămănătorul poets in the Regat
regions.
With time, Sân-Giorgiu moved towards modernist literature
. In 1921, he contributed a serialized column on "Dramatic Expressionism" to Adevărul Literar şi Artistic, later published as a single volume. Sân-Giorgiu's views on Expressionism and modernism, like those of Gândirea itself, oscillated: in early 1923, he commented negatively in regard to the tendencies of younger poets to "discard metaphor
s", but later authored reviews and essays welcoming the trend. At the time, Sân-Giorgiu notably contributed essays on the literature of Georg Kaiser
and Walter Hasenclever
to Gândirea. His 1922 play Masca ("The Mask"), which followed Expressionist guidelines, was among the series of avant-garde
productions staged by Victor Ion Popa
during the interwar period
.
During the early 1930s, he seconded Victor Eftimiu
inside the Romanian PEN Club
(of which he was General Secretary). A frequenter of Casa Capşa
restaurant, Sân-Giorgiu was, according to the art collector Krikor Zambaccian, involved in a dispute with poet N. Davidescu which eventually turned violent. By that time, he was again discarding modernist approaches to literature, and returning to traditionalist techniques and subjects.
Initially, he was opposed to antisemitism, defining it as "an act of poverty of a failed intellectual
or a cheap opportunity of self-assertion" and "a stupid ferment of anarchic
agitation". Nevertheless, he changed his position, by rallying with the leading antisemitic and fascist camp. By 1938, Sân-Giorgiu expressed his support for Nazism
and reportedly made a habit of wearing a Nazi-inspired swastika
on his clothes, while maintaining close contacts with the authoritarian
King
Carol II
. According to the marginalized Romanian Jewish
author Mihail Sebastian
, rumor had it that, in 1936, Sân-Giorgiu sought endorsement from Nazi Germany
and competed for its attention with Nae Ionescu
, a far right philosopher who had broken with Carol and supported the Iron Guard. The same account has it that Sân-Giorgiu and his journalist ally Pamfil Şeicaru managed to undermine Ionescu's standing, by presenting Nazi officials with proof that the philosopher had dealings with the prominent Jewish banker Aristide Blank.
Sân-Giorgiu was a member of the fascist and antisemitic National Christian Party
(PNC), which took power when Carol appointed its leader Octavian Goga
as Premier
. In 1938, after the PNC fell in disfavor with the monarch, Ion Sân-Giorgiu rallied with the latter's National Renaissance Front
, becoming its official journalist. Goga's dismissal caught Ion Sân-Giorgiu on a theatrical tour of Germany. Sebastian, who conversed with him right after, mentions him being "unrecognizable", and records his claims that the PNC was responsible for a series of mistakes, and notes that Sân-Giorgiu took no apparent displeasure in talking to a Jew, being "friendly and communicative". Also according to Sebastian, Sân-Giorgiu claimed to have registered major successes in Germany, having stated: "Not even Ibsen
had such a triumph; not one unfavorable review."
In November 1940, after the Iron Guard established its National Legionary State
government, Sân-Giorgiu threw his support behind the latter, while expressing his new thoughts on the Romanian Jewish community and racial policies in a column for Chemarea Vremii:
During the same year, Sân-Giorgiu's newspaper published influential essays by Mihail Manoilescu
, which advocated corporatism
and called for its implementation in the National Legionary State. Having survived the violent clash between the Iron Guard and their nominal partner, Conducător
Ion Antonescu
(events known as the Legionary Rebellion
), he left Romania after Antonescu's regime and Romania's alliance to the Axis Powers
both crumbled in autumn 1944 (see Soviet occupation of Romania
). He joined Sima's Vienna
-based Legionary cabinet, holding a nominal office as Minister of Education. The justice system in Communist Romania
tried him in absentia
, and sentenced him to death. The writer died in exile.
Sân-Giorgiu's daughter, Ioana, stayed behind in Romania. She later married Vintilă Corbul, a genre fiction
author, screenwriter and former lawyer, who had faced political persecution in the 1950s. Ioana Sân-Giorgiu died of cancer in 1969; ten years later, Corbul defected
and restarted his writing career in France
(where he died in 2008).
and Mihai Eminescu
, were though by Lovinescu to be "lacking in originality". As he gradually moved towards modernism, Lovinescu notes, the poet displayed "abuse of imagery", "the perkiness of free forms", "egocentrism
" and "tumultuous sensualism
."
The earliest of his plays were characterized by Lovinescu as "Expressionist travesties, which do away with observation and even with talent, being content with ideas and theories". Masca showed the interactions between three amorous couples, all of whom are masked. One of the pairs, a female billionaire and her male artist lover, find themselves on the verge of an existential crisis as their masks are removed, and is on the verge of splitting up. According to Lovinescu: "It's fortunate that the author-theorist would intervene to put [their masks] up again, thus enabling them to go on lying to one another." In the 1925 drama Femeia cu două suflete ("The Woman with Two Souls"), Expressionism is toned down, but still present, particularly in the author's refusal to specify the setting and the characters' background—in reference to this aspect, Lovinescu writes: "Nothing [in it] is [...] seen, individualized, localized; everything is reduced to a possible subject." The plot deals with a forceful ménage à trois
situation: the female singer Mona, obsessively loved by the sculptor Dionis, accepts the advances of Fink, a theater manager, and, overwhelmed by shame, decides to kill herself.
By 1926, having discarded Expressionism and returned to a traditional style, Sân-Giorgiu wrote a series of satirical
plays, among which was Banchetul ("The Banquet"). Lovinescu notes that they owed inspiration to 19th century author Ion Luca Caragiale
.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
poet, dramatist, essayist, literary and art critic, also known as a journalist, academic, and fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
politician. He was notably the author of works on the Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
phenomenon and the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
. During his early years, he was influenced by Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
and contributed to the literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
Gândirea
Gândirea
Gândirea , known during its early years as Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială , was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine.- Overview :Founded by Cezar Petrescu and D. I...
; he progressively moved towards support for the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
(the Legionary Movement), edited the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
journal Chemarea Vremii, and spent his last years a member of Horia Sima
Horia Sima
Horia Sima was a Romanian fascist politician. After 1938, he was the second and last leader of the fascist and antisemitic para-military movement known as the Iron Guard.-In Romania:...
's government in exile
Government in exile
A government in exile is a political group that claims to be a country's legitimate government, but for various reasons is unable to exercise its legal power, and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usually operate under the assumption that they will one day return to their...
.
Biography
Born in BotoşaniBotosani
Botoșani is the capital city of Botoșani County, in northern Moldavia, Romania. Today, it is best known as the birthplace of many celebrated Romanians, including Mihai Eminescu and Nicolae Iorga.- Origin of the name :...
, Sân-Giorgiu was educated in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. He debuted as a traditionalist poet, affiliated with the group originally formed around Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul or Semănătorul was a literary and political magazine published in Romania between 1901 and 1910. Founded by poets Alexandru Vlahuţă and George Coşbuc, it is primarily remembered as a tribune for early 20th century traditionalism, neoromanticism and ethnic nationalism...
magazine. According to literary historian Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the Sburătorul literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the uncle of Horia Lovinescu, Vasile Lovinescu, and Anton Holban...
, he was, with Anastasie Mândru and George Vâlsan, one of the best-known Sămănătorul poets in the Regat
Romanian Old Kingdom
The Romanian Old Kingdom is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Danubian Principalities—Wallachia and Moldavia...
regions.
With time, Sân-Giorgiu moved towards modernist literature
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
. In 1921, he contributed a serialized column on "Dramatic Expressionism" to Adevărul Literar şi Artistic, later published as a single volume. Sân-Giorgiu's views on Expressionism and modernism, like those of Gândirea itself, oscillated: in early 1923, he commented negatively in regard to the tendencies of younger poets to "discard metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
s", but later authored reviews and essays welcoming the trend. At the time, Sân-Giorgiu notably contributed essays on the literature of Georg Kaiser
Georg Kaiser
Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist.-Biography:Kaiser was born at Magdeburg....
and Walter Hasenclever
Walter Hasenclever
Walter Hasenclever was a German Expressionist poet and playwright.-Biography:...
to Gândirea. His 1922 play Masca ("The Mask"), which followed Expressionist guidelines, was among the series of avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
productions staged by Victor Ion Popa
Victor Ion Popa
Victor Ion Popa , in Moldavia, Romania – March 30, 1946 in Bucharest) was a Romanian dramatist.He went to primary school in the village of Călmăţui where his father was a teacher. At Iaşi he finished his first five years of junior high/high school and his last two years of high school at the...
during the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
.
During the early 1930s, he seconded Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
inside the Romanian PEN Club
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
(of which he was General Secretary). A frequenter of Casa Capşa
Casa Capsa
Casa Capşa is a historic restaurant in Bucharest, Romania, first established in 1852. At various times it has also included a hotel; most recently, it reopened as a 61-room hotel 17 June 2003....
restaurant, Sân-Giorgiu was, according to the art collector Krikor Zambaccian, involved in a dispute with poet N. Davidescu which eventually turned violent. By that time, he was again discarding modernist approaches to literature, and returning to traditionalist techniques and subjects.
Initially, he was opposed to antisemitism, defining it as "an act of poverty of a failed intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
or a cheap opportunity of self-assertion" and "a stupid ferment of anarchic
Anomie
Anomie is a term meaning "without Law" to describe a lack of social norms; "normlessness". It describes the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and their community ties, with fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values. It was popularized by French...
agitation". Nevertheless, he changed his position, by rallying with the leading antisemitic and fascist camp. By 1938, Sân-Giorgiu expressed his support for Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and reportedly made a habit of wearing a Nazi-inspired swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
on his clothes, while maintaining close contacts with the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
. According to the marginalized Romanian Jewish
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
author Mihail Sebastian
Mihail Sebastian
-Life:Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group...
, rumor had it that, in 1936, Sân-Giorgiu sought endorsement from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and competed for its attention with Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu was a Romanian philosopher, logician, mathematician, professor, and journalist. Near the end of his career, he became known for his antisemitism and devotion to far right politics, in the years leading up to World War II.-Life:...
, a far right philosopher who had broken with Carol and supported the Iron Guard. The same account has it that Sân-Giorgiu and his journalist ally Pamfil Şeicaru managed to undermine Ionescu's standing, by presenting Nazi officials with proof that the philosopher had dealings with the prominent Jewish banker Aristide Blank.
Sân-Giorgiu was a member of the fascist and antisemitic National Christian Party
National Christian Party
The National Christian Party was a Romanian political party, the product of a union between Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party and A. C. Cuza's National-Christian Defense League; a prominent member of the party was the philosopher Nichifor Crainic...
(PNC), which took power when Carol appointed its leader Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
as Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
. In 1938, after the PNC fell in disfavor with the monarch, Ion Sân-Giorgiu rallied with the latter's National Renaissance Front
National Renaissance Front
The National Renaissance Front was a fascist Romanian political party created by King Carol II in 1938 as the single monopoly party of government following his decision to ban all other political parties and suspend the 1923 Constitution, and the passing of the 1938 Constitution of Romania...
, becoming its official journalist. Goga's dismissal caught Ion Sân-Giorgiu on a theatrical tour of Germany. Sebastian, who conversed with him right after, mentions him being "unrecognizable", and records his claims that the PNC was responsible for a series of mistakes, and notes that Sân-Giorgiu took no apparent displeasure in talking to a Jew, being "friendly and communicative". Also according to Sebastian, Sân-Giorgiu claimed to have registered major successes in Germany, having stated: "Not even Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
had such a triumph; not one unfavorable review."
In November 1940, after the Iron Guard established its National Legionary State
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
government, Sân-Giorgiu threw his support behind the latter, while expressing his new thoughts on the Romanian Jewish community and racial policies in a column for Chemarea Vremii:
"Legionary Romania has solved the Jewish QuestionJewish QuestionThe Jewish question encompasses the issues and resolutions surrounding the historically unequal civil, legal and national statuses between minority Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews, particularly in Europe. The first issues discussed and debated by societies, politicians and writers in western and...
. That which the Oct. GogaOctavian GogaOctavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
-presided government has only attempted, the Legion has managed to achieve in less than three months. The Jews have been removed not just from the state apparatus, but also from the industry [and] commerce, where cooperativeCooperativeA cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
and neat Legionary organizations are striving and succeeding in taking their place. [...] We have a duty to pose overtly and without delay the problem of liquidating this miserable ghettoGhettoA ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
that is currently forming itself. It is time to ask: What do we do with them? Because to leave them free to multiply like rabbits, to consume our goods, to hate us and produce nothing in return, that cannot be. In Legionary Romania there is no room for drones. [...] It would serve Jews to know that we are not the passive bearers of a social rot, but the national surgeons of a national cancer. Hence I ask our own: what do we do with them? And I ask the Jews to reply honestly: what do you do?"
During the same year, Sân-Giorgiu's newspaper published influential essays by Mihail Manoilescu
Mihail Manoilescu
Mihail Manoilescu was a Romanian journalist, engineer, economist, politician and memoirist, who served as Foreign Minister of Romania during the summer of 1940...
, which advocated corporatism
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
and called for its implementation in the National Legionary State. Having survived the violent clash between the Iron Guard and their nominal partner, Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
(events known as the Legionary Rebellion
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
), he left Romania after Antonescu's regime and Romania's alliance to the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
both crumbled in autumn 1944 (see Soviet occupation of Romania
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
). He joined Sima's Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
-based Legionary cabinet, holding a nominal office as Minister of Education. The justice system in Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
tried him in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
, and sentenced him to death. The writer died in exile.
Sân-Giorgiu's daughter, Ioana, stayed behind in Romania. She later married Vintilă Corbul, a genre fiction
Genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
author, screenwriter and former lawyer, who had faced political persecution in the 1950s. Ioana Sân-Giorgiu died of cancer in 1969; ten years later, Corbul defected
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
and restarted his writing career in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(where he died in 2008).
Work
Sân-Giorgiu's early Sămănătorist works, influenced by Panait CernaPanait Cerna
Panait Cerna was a Romanian poet, philosopher, literary critic and translator...
and Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
, were though by Lovinescu to be "lacking in originality". As he gradually moved towards modernism, Lovinescu notes, the poet displayed "abuse of imagery", "the perkiness of free forms", "egocentrism
Egocentrism
Egocentrism is a personality trait which has the characteristic of regarding oneself and one's own opinions or interests as most important or valid...
" and "tumultuous sensualism
Sensualism
Sensualism is a philosophical doctrine of the theory of knowledge, according to which sensations and perception are the basic and most important form of true cognition. It may oppose abstract ideas...
."
The earliest of his plays were characterized by Lovinescu as "Expressionist travesties, which do away with observation and even with talent, being content with ideas and theories". Masca showed the interactions between three amorous couples, all of whom are masked. One of the pairs, a female billionaire and her male artist lover, find themselves on the verge of an existential crisis as their masks are removed, and is on the verge of splitting up. According to Lovinescu: "It's fortunate that the author-theorist would intervene to put [their masks] up again, thus enabling them to go on lying to one another." In the 1925 drama Femeia cu două suflete ("The Woman with Two Souls"), Expressionism is toned down, but still present, particularly in the author's refusal to specify the setting and the characters' background—in reference to this aspect, Lovinescu writes: "Nothing [in it] is [...] seen, individualized, localized; everything is reduced to a possible subject." The plot deals with a forceful ménage à trois
Ménage à trois
Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...
situation: the female singer Mona, obsessively loved by the sculptor Dionis, accepts the advances of Fink, a theater manager, and, overwhelmed by shame, decides to kill herself.
By 1926, having discarded Expressionism and returned to a traditional style, Sân-Giorgiu wrote a series of satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
plays, among which was Banchetul ("The Banquet"). Lovinescu notes that they owed inspiration to 19th century author Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
.