Dumitru Caracostea

Dumitru Caracostea (March 10, 1879–June 2, 1964) was a Romanian folklorist, literary historian and critic.

He was born in Slatina to Nicolae Caracostea, a magistrate of Aromanian descent, and his wife Eufrosina (née Bichan), a French teacher. He attended primary school and one year of high school in his native town, completing his secondary education at Saint Sava High School in Bucharest in 1900. That year, he enrolled in the literature and philosophy faculty of the University of Bucharest, which he attended intermittently:^[1] in 1902, he was working as a clerk at the court of auditors, abandoning his studies for a time; in 1905, he married Lucia Walter of Iași, which likely further detained him from educational pursuits. Only in 1906 did he return, and graduated first in his class in 1908.^[2] His professors included Titu Maiorescu, Ion Bianu and Ovid Densusianu; their influence on his intellectual development was decisive. In 1909, he obtained a scholarship for Vienna University, where he studied under the direct supervision of Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke. He successfully defended two doctoral theses in 1913: one on philosophy, the other on Romance philology. He returned home upon the outbreak of World War I. From 1914 to 1925, he was a high school teacher. In 1920, he began offering courses at Bucharest University, first as associate professor in Bianu's department and, from 1930, as full professor at the department of modern Romanian literature and folklore. Thanks to his efforts, the Institute of Literary History and Folklore was founded in 1933; among other publications, a series of "literary confessions" by contemporary Romanian writers appeared under its aegis.^[1]

Caracostea was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy in 1938,^[3] and presided over the forum's literary section for a time.^[1] In the autumn of 1940, the new National Legionary State regime appointed him head of Revista Fundațiilor Regale; as such, he suspended contributions from critics whom he deemed sympathetic toward Jewish literature.^[4] He remained in the position until the King Michael Coup of 1944.^[1] In 1948, the new communist regime stripped him of Academy membership.^[5] Initially tried and sentenced together with other officials who served until 1944, he was arrested in 1950 and held at Sighet prison until 1955, this time without trial.^[1]

Magazines that published his work include Adevărul literar și artistic, Convorbiri Literare, Drum drept, Flacăra, Gândirea, Langue et littérature, Mitteilungen des Rumänische Instituts und der Universität (Vienna), Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Vieața nouă and Viața Românească. His literary and scientific activity had two main directions: studies of folklore (Miorița în Moldova, Muntenia și Oltenia, 1924) and exegeses of Mihai Eminescu's work (Arta cuvântului la Eminescu, 1938; Creativitatea eminesciană, 1943). His writings on folk ballads (Balada poporană română, 1932-1933) laid the groundwork for geographic-based folklore studies, then a new concept. His commentary on Eminescu was marked by a binary perspective: dynamic (the poems' genesis) and static (the poet's artistic use of language).^[1]

Notes

1. Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, vol. I, p. 262-63. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. ISBN 973-697-758-7
2. Dumitru Caracostea, Mircea Anghelescu (ed.), Scrieri alese, p. ix. Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1986.
3. (Romanian) Membrii Academiei Române din 1866 până în prezent at the Romanian Academy site
4. (Romanian) Nicoleta Sălcudeanu, "Generație prin lustrație", in Viața Românească, Nr. 12/2008
5. (Romanian) Păun Otiman, "1948–Anul imensei jertfe a Academiei Române", in Academica, Nr. 4 (31), December 2013, p. 123