Poetic Tragedy as Existential Form: Radu Stanca and the Modern Rewriting of the Tragic
Rezumat
Abstract: This article reassesses Radu Stanca’s dramatic oeuvre as a sustained exploration of the tragic conceived not as a dramatic genre but as a fundamental existential experience. Drawing on textual analysis, archival materials, and reception history, the study situates Stanca’s theatre within the tradition of European poetic tragedy and Romanian modernism. Focusing primarily on The Hostage, it examines the interplay of mythic structures, poetic language, and ethical symbolism that defines Stanca’s dramaturgy. The article also addresses recent biographical and identitarian interpretations, arguing that such readings remain largely speculative and risk obscuring the poetic and symbolic logic of his theatre. Ultimately, the study highlights both the aesthetic coherence and the enduring performative challenges of Stanca’s tragic project.
Keywords: Radu Stanca, Literary Circle of Sibiu, tragedy, tragic form, poetic tragedy, theatrical reception
Citation suggestion: Varga, Dragoș. “Poetic Tragedy as Existential Form: Radu Stanca and the Modern Rewriting of the Tragic”. Transilvania, no. 12 (2025): 14-18.
https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2025.12.03.
Acknowledgement: This work was funded by the EU’s NextGenerationEU instrument throughthe National Recovery and Resilience Plan of Romania – Pillar III-C9-I8, managed by the Ministry ofResearch, Innovation and Digitalization, within the project entitled Measuring Tragedy: Geographical Diffusion, Comparative Morphology, and Computational Analysis of European Tragic Form (METRA),contract no. 760249/28.12.2023, code CF 163/31.07.2023.
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