Grigore Vieru and the Romanian Sixties Literary Generation of Poets

Abstract

There is an identity function of poetry, of literature, that shapes the symbolic consistency of a collective spirit, a map of emblematic landmarks of a national community. Goga and Cotruș are representative for Transylvania, Vieru and Păunescu are emblematic for Moldavians, whereas Eminescu is emblematic for the Romanians of all the historic provinces. For those living in Basarabia, Vieru represents a prophet of their Nation, an apostle of the Romanian Nation standing against the historic oppression, in the form of the Russian camps. To the elitists and relativists from Romania, Vieru is regarded as a representative of the traditionalist literary currents, frozen into an obsolete aesthetic manner and a heroic dimension out of phase. The article portrays Vieru’s relations with the Romanian 60’s generation of poets and their lyrical formulas assumed by Modernism.