A Study on Romanian Historical Dramas

Abstract

Created in the early 20th century, almost all of Romanian historical dramas, were conceived under the influence of Al. Davila's drama Vlaicu-Vodă. Namely, writers such as Barbu Ş;tefănescu-Delavrancea, Mihail Sorbul, Nicolae Iorga -who is considered as the greatest Romanian historian-, Mircea Dem. Radulescu, Victor Eftimiu and A. de Herz described in their works the conflict between a lord and the nobility, a symptomatic medieval theme. Barbu Ştefanescu-Delavrancea published a trilogy The sunset (Apus de soare, 1909), The snowstorm (Viforul, 1910) and Venus (Luceafărul, 1910). In addition, he created Irinel (1911) and Hagi-Tudose (1912) and The Second conscience (A doua conştiinţă). The first two works, were written on the basis of the short stories he wrote as a young writer, but they were not aesthetically well received by literary critics of the period. Delavrancea wrote an historical trilogy as well. The first part, The sunset, was evaluated as his most successful literary work. This historical work has a strong romantic feature having as background the year of 1504, last year of reign of the glorious prince Stephen the Great, Ruler of Moldova. The sunset is an historical drama that connects three other Romanian historical dramas: Hasdeu's Ravan gi Vidra, Alexandri's Despot-Voda and Davila's Vlaicu-Voda. The plot of Venus, the last part of Delanvrancea's trilogy, is in progress at the beginning of Petru Rareg's reign, the lord of Principality of Moldova. Mihail Sorbul's creation in drama contains ‘dramatic sketches (schiţe dramatice)’ and ‘tragic comedy(comedii tragice)’ centered on some real historical figures. Sorbul's representative work, The chronicles, is a historical drama and it's made up a total of five chapters. In this work, we can also see the ‘classic’ conflict of Romanian historical drama between a lord and nobles. The snowstorm is a romantic historical drama, composed of four chapters with the main character of this work being the lord of the Principality of Moldova. The main feature of Romanian historical drama, the constant tension between the lord and the nobles, is centered this time around the figure of Luca Arbore. Even though Mihail Sorbul, died at the age of 80 in 1966 he created a total of 20 dramas, but only three among them are considered successful literary works: The chronicles (Letopiseţi), Red Passion (Patima roşe) and The deserters (Dezertorul) Sorbul's representative work, The chronicles, is a historical drama and it's made up a total of five chapters. In this work, we can also see the ‘classic’ conflict of Romanian historical drama between a lord and nobles.