The cultural expeditions of memory in Constantin Negruzzi's letters

Abstract

The pioneer in Romanian literature, a forty-eight writer, Costache Negruzzi, structured his work in several cycles, and the last section was entitled „Black on white. Letters to a friend.” Negruzzi integrates into the existing cultural process, managing to contribute to the improvement of other literary species such as memory, literary letter, short story. We discover in Letters studies of history, philological notes, sketches of morals, travel notes, some letters having an accentuated journalistic character. The documentary value of the Letters is marked by the memorialistic side of the writer, an aspect highlighted by Paul Cornea: „the memorialistic inclination prevails” in evoking interesting figures, in picturesque descriptions, in the repertoire of anecdotes. Addressing the Letters to an Imaginary Friend agrees with the writer's artistic temperament, character and concerns, as a direct participant in the social and cultural edifice that Romanian society went through in the middle of the 19th century. The writer, being a fine observer of the people who animated the world of Moldovan cities and villages, "captures" the human atmosphere of the time, thus discovering a picturesque sui generis world, consisting of "old" and "new" people in search of cultural identity and morale.