ASPECTS OF PEASANT LIFE IN THE FOLK NOVEL FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY
ASPECTS OF PEASANT LIFE IN THE FOLK NOVEL FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: The 1848 writer-revolutionaries approached, in a subsidiary way, the rural theme, which found its representation, for the time being, in the first form of organization of social material – the popular novel (sensational, mystery, morals) – a model imported from the French space. Thus, „Istoria lui Alecu Șoricescu”, by Ion Ghica, „Tainele inimei”, by Mihail Kogălniceanu, the sentimental novels „Manoil” and „Elena”, by Dimitrie Bolintineanu, but also „Serile de toamna la țară”, by Al. Cantacuzino, or the historical narrative „Baptiste Veleli”, by V.A.Urechia paint, in shadows and penumbras, through a mosaic of styles and thematic registers, the image of the rural world of the Middle Ages, a period of existential dramas, characterized by the situation of slavery of the peasants, forced to work the land of the master, without days of rest, kneeling on the boyar's estate. The eclectic formula of the novel „Ciocoii vechi și noi”, bringing together realistic, romantic and classical moralizing influences defines the specificity of a fundamental book from which all social novels about the rise of the arivists and the collapse of the old classes are derived.

• Details
• Contents