„UMBRE” DUPĂ URMUZ. GENERAȚIA POST-URMUZIANĂ ȘI FENOMENUL „EPIGONISMULUI”
"SHADOWS" AFTER URMUZ. THE POST-URMUZIAN GENERATION AND THE PHENOMENON OF "EPIGONISM"

Summary/Abstract: Urmuz’s literary discourse served as a model that influenced a generation of avant-garde writers in the interwar period, many of whom were critically linked to his volume “Weird Pages”. These writers, often dismissed as imitators, faced criticism for producing texts considered derivative, simplistic, and lacking originality. This article aims to (re)evaluate the so-called post-Urmuzian generation, part of the so-called “secondary” avant-garde in the Romanian literary context, by analyzing some interwar, post-war, and post-2000 critical discourses. We examine how these writers, such as Grigore Cugler, Madda Holda, Ionathan X. Uranus, Jacques G. Costin, F. Brunea-Fox, and Victor-Valeriu Martinescu, Moldov, have been persistently compared to Urmuz and often overshadowed by him. Particular attention is given to recurring critical clichés and long-standing prejudices that have hindered deeper literary analysis. Despite accusations of epigonism, the article would argue that these writers offered distinct literary visions shaped by their diverse trajectories and contexts (for example, exile in the case of Grigore Cugler, feminine activity in the case of Madda Holda, and esotericism in the case of Ionathan X. Uranus), contributing to a differentiated, yet cohesive avant-garde discourse. While earlier criticism marginalized these voices, recent studies, after 2000, show a growing effort to reassess and integrate their contributions, exploring themes of emulation, continuity, and transformation of Urmuz’s model.

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