Elena Niculiță-Voronca, Zaharia Voronca și nu doar ei, în câteva micronarațiuni labirintice (II)

Abstract

The second part of the study (the first part appeared in the previous issue of the “Annals of Bukovina”) aims to solve three major problems: to analyse and explain the paternity of the “Ruthenization of Bukovina”, to reconstruct the personality and ideas of Zaharia Voronca and to sketch a dialog between the ideas of Zaharia Voronca and those of Elena Niculiță-Voronca. Implicitly, some of the ideas of the time regarding peasants’ situation, American mirage, anti-Semitism or impact of modern civilization are exposed. Regarding the “Ruthenization of Bukovina”, the study shows without any question that these are two different works, published in the same year, 1904. The first is a booklet written by Zaharia Voronca, edited in Mihalcea. The second is a large volume edited by „Minerva” Publishing House in Bucharest, signed “by a Bukovinian”, the author being Isidor Ieșanu. We found it was a good opportunity to present some of Isidor Ieșanu’s ideas from his books. As for the personality of Zaharia Voronca, we tried at first to define data of his personality, manifested in the trial of the “Arboroasa Society”. Subsequently, his most significant ideas are systematized and reconstituted, having as support the texts from the volume Rememorări [Remembrances] (1901), most of them originally published in “Timpul”, and Mihalcea, the monograph from 1912. As a man of his time, Zaharia Voronca discusses topics such as the ruthenization of Bukovina, the salaries of priests or the precarious life of the peasants, takes attitude toward certain decisions that are debated in the Parliament of Bukovina, intervenes in matters of legislation that concern everyday life etc. Open to modernity, he notes, in fact, the difficulties faced by the inhabitants of Bukovina, especially the Romanians. All this is also an occasion for the reconstruction of some particular aspects of life in Bukovina at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. According to the spirit of the place, there are also some ideas that Elena Niculiță-Voronca supports, along with Zaharia Voronca, such as the risk of the disappearance of the house industry. The text ends with the reconstruction in effigy of some of Elena Niculiță-Voronca’s feminist ideas.