CUM SCĂPĂM DE RĂZBOI ?! IONEL TEODOREANU VS LIVIU REBREANU / IONEL TEODOREANU VS CEZAR PETRESCU

HOW DO WE ESCAPE WAR?! IONEL TEODOREANU VS LIVIU REBREANU / IONEL TEODOREANU VS CEZAR PETRESCU

Abstract

Ionel Teodoreanu’s great merit is to have demonstrated that the
Romanian novel of the inter-war period has overcome the age of trials. If Rebreanu
is the one who paved the way with Ion, the first modern Romanian novel, Ionel
Teodoreanu is a writer who has a major contribution to the diversification of the literary species. In Rebreanu's novels, the theme of rurality is present in novels that
have become symbols of the species. The conflicts, generated by the attitude
according to which man is considered valuable if he is a wealthy person, whether
internal (psychological) or external (social), are, in Rebreanu's view, real tragedies.
With Ionel Teodoreanu, there is no question of the characters escaping control over
any of the situations in which they are placed, especially since the author does not
flirt with such existential problems as Rebreanu's heroes do. From this
consideration, we can say that he is totally different from Rebreanu. Ionel
Teodoreanu's heroes quiver at the slightest delight of nature's vision, at the
slightest gesture. Cezar Petrescu places himself in the objective narrative and
writes chronicle-type novels, to which he often returns in theory, because Petrescu
theorizes his novels, explains them in order to be well understood by his audience.
He follows the model established in the West by HonorÈ de Balzac, Victor Hugo
and Zola, producing novels that are well structured from an epic point of view,
with a rigorous structure, wishing to impress the segment of Romanian readers
who are epic lovers.