Învăţăturile dandy-ului Mateiu către fantele Boicescu
The Teachings of Mateiu the Dandy for Boicescu the Gallant
The study focuses on Mateiu Caragiale’s correspondence with his intimate friend, N.A. Boicescu. The main interest is both genetical and stylistical, meaning that the author aims at showing how the extremely décadente and sumptuous écriture of Mateiu Caragiale’s novel, Craii de Curtea Veche (The Old Court Gallants), as well as that of his novellas, is rooted in the inkhorn, half bookish half jocular, style of the letters. Thus, the author concludes that the traits of the future novel may be foreseen in the interest for language, which obviously surpasses the basical communicational needs usually required by the epistolary style. The only important stylistical difference is that, while the novel’s elaborated idiolect shows a bias for the rare archaic forms and structures, the style of the letters, though also ornate and baroque, is dominated by neologistical puns and conceits. Nevertheless, the conclusion proves that the euphuistic style of Mateiu Caragiale’s influential novel and novellas originates in his worldly letters sent to N.A. Boicescu.
Keywords: Romanian literature, literary correspondence, literary décadence, Mateiu Caragiale, N.A. Boicescu
- Mateiu I. Caragiale, Opere / Works, notes by Barbu
Cioculescu, pref. by Eugen Simion, Ed. Univers
Enciclopedic, Bucureşti, 2001.
