Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu (; also known under his pen name Tradem or, occasionally, as Traian Demetrescu-Tradem; December 5, 1866 – April 17, 1896) was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature. Influenced by French writers such as François Coppée and the Decadent Maurice Rollinat, as well as by the local poet Mihai Eminescu, he was made popular by his poems, many of which served as the basis of popular romanzas. Receptive to impressionism and naturalism, he wrote a number of psychological novels and several short stories, some of which are remembered for their melancholic and occasionally macabre themes.
Also noted for his socialist convictions and his contributions as a journalist, Demetrescu advocated an original view of literature, which, despite placing emphasis on progressivism, was distinct from the Marxist views of his contemporaries Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea and Constantin Mille. A friend and associate of the influential poet Alexandru Macedonski, he played a minor part in a lengthy polemic with the conservative literary society Junimea, and authored a series of essays and memoirs documenting the Romanian intellectual environment.
Tradem was affected by the infectious disease, tuberculosis, which his contemporaries said was to be found in the depressive or exuberant tones in his writings. His original take on poetry served to inspire the Romanian symbolist groups. He is seen as a predecessor to Ştefan Petică, N. Davidescu and George Bacovia, while his prose was an influence on Caton Theodorian.
Biography Born in Craiova, Traian Demetrescu was the son of a pub owner known by the name of Gherbea; he had a sister, Victoria, and two brothers.Călinescu, p.561 One of them, Radu Demetrescu, graduated from the Theatrical Conservatory in Bucharest, where he befriended actor and future avant-garde dramatist George Ciprian, together with whom he was later employed by the National Theater Craiova.George Ciprian, Măscărici şi mîzgălici, Editura de stat pentru literatură şi artă, Bucharest, 1958, p.101
Tradem kept memories of the house where he grew up, and especially of the fact that it was situated "among trees". After attending the Carol I High School in his native city, he was withdrawn by his parents, and sent to work in a shop—he was nonetheless able to complete his studies after taking private lessons in 1884. Later in life, he admitted being upset over having been forced to quit school, and indicated that he had to surmount "a lot of obstacles" in order to improve his situation.
It was during the same period that he debuted as a poet, having one of his pieces, titled Ploaie din senin ("Sudden Rain") published by the local magazine Vocea Oltului. His contributions attracted Alexandru Macedonski's attention, who praised his abilities and re-published some of his lyrics in his Bucharest-based journal Literatorul. In autumn 1884, on their way to Paris, Macedonski and his wife Anna stopped in Craiova to meet with Tradem.Vianu, Vol. II, p.361 Four years later, the latter recalled being gripped by "tremors of emotion" upon receiving his mentor's visit.
The two writers grew closer after Macedonski returned from his trip, and frequently engaged in discussions on scientific and philosophical topics.Vianu, Vol. II, p.377, 389-390 Tradem recalled having spent an entire summer in Macedonski's Bucharest house.Vianu, Vol. II, p.389-390 However, they came to disagree and eventually grew estranged—answering to claims that Macedonski was a vain and vindicative man, Tudor Vianu, his friend and biographer, indicated that this and other splits occurred "without coldness and the heart's versatility".Vianu, Vol. II, p.391
In March 1888, together with the lawyer G. D. Pencioiu, Tradem founded Revista Olteană, a magazine dedicated to literary and social criticism. Alexandru Melian, Polemici implicite. II. Cercetări şi fişe de istorie literară în registru minor: "Revista Olteană" (1888-1890, 1892) at the University of Bucharest; retrieved October 16, 2007 In one of his articles, Demetrescu justified the new enterprise, arguing that Craiova displayed "a kind of snoozing, a sickly indifference in respect to intellectual life." He and Pencioiu were soon joined by other journalists, among them Nicolae Basilescu, Eduard Hübsch, Ralian Samitca, Moses Schwarzfeld, and Henric Streitman.
Revista Olteană was loosely based on the socialist magazine Contemporanul, although their respective ideologies were rather different. Tradem's leftist viewpoints did not set the tone for the publication, and was contrasted by Pencioiu (the latter, although he respected Karl Marx's views, remained a supporter of liberalism). The publication met with financial difficulties and ceased to be issued after March 1890, but was revived by its original founder and the poet Carol Scrob in November 1891 (when it became a supplement for the local newspaper Economistul). Demetrescu probably had a disagreement with Scrob, and left soon after—the magazine survived his departure, but suddenly ceased print just months after. In summer 1892, he withdrew to the locality of Cilieni, where he completed Intim ("Intimate"), his most influential poetry volume.
During that period, Tradem was especially close to the socialist circles, and, in turn, their members held him in high esteem.Călinescu, p.561; Kiriţescu, p.14-15; Popescu, 5.1.1 In 1890–1892, he was also a collaborator for Constantin Mille's leftist newspaper Adevărul, Florentina Tone, "Scriitorii de la Adevĕrul" , in Adevărul, December 30, 2008 one of his notable contributions being a study on the works of poet Théodore de Banville. Dan Grigorescu, "Cultura cotidiană" , in Curierul Naţional, March 13, 2004 During spring 1893, he became a member of the short-lived Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, and helped organize it at a grassroots level, together with, among others, Alexandru Radovici and George Diamandy (Demetrescu ran the Craiova base, Radovici was active in Galaţi, and Diamandy represented the Romanian diaspora).Kiriţescu, p.14-15 Traian Demetrescu defended Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea in his polemic with Junimist leader Titu Maiorescu, and, after 1893, was among a group of younger socialists to mount a press campaign against Junimea (other people in the group included Dimitrie Anghel, Anton Bacalbaşa, Emil Fagure, Garabet Ibrăileanu, Raicu Ionescu-Rion, Sofia Nădejde, Henri Sanielevici, Constantin Stere, and Avram Steuerman-Rodion).Z. Ornea, Junimea şi junimismul, Vol. II, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1998, p.357-358. ; Popescu, 5.1.1 One other socialist writer with whom Demetrescu came to associate at the time was the future Orthodox priest Gala Galaction.Vianu, Vol. III, p.285-286
Over the early 1890s, Demetrescu's condition worsened, and he sought treatment for tuberculosis in the Alpine climate regions of German Empire and in Austria-Hungary. In 1894, he was in Munich and later at the Rheyer Villa in Bad Reichenhall. He subsequently traveled to Vienna, where he visited the Cathedral of Saint Stephen. The following year, he was present in the Bukovinian town of Solca, where he attempted to cure his illness by living in the close proximity of firs and breathing in the scented air. Tradem's efforts were fruitless, and he died one year later, at the age of 29, after a particularly severe episode of hemoptysis.
Works
Style
Literary historian George Călinescu described Traian Demetrescu as "one of the first [Romanian] poets with «fits of nerves» and «thrills»". He commented at length on Demetrescu's character and in particular his eccentricities, attributing them to the problems posed by tuberculosis.Călinescu, p.561, 563 According to Călinescu, Tradem was "alternatively exuberant and silent", with "unhealthy dumbnesses", and described by his acquaintances as having "a monstrous mixture of virginal purity and horrifying mental ruin". Rumors collected by Călinescu had it that the poet was made emotional by even "the rustling of dresses", and that he could become seriously upset if his friends did not have "good perfumes" in their houses. This was connected to what Călinescu deemed "sensory sharpness" and attributed to his disease: in one instance, Demetrescu was reportedly moved "to the brink of fainting" by the sensory images of a rose garden.Călinescu, p.563
George Călinescu indicated that Demetrescu was a read man, who was well-acquainted with works by some major figures of Medieval literature (François Villon), Renaissance literature and Humanism (Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Torquato Tasso), the Age of Enlightenment (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Antoine François Prévost), and Romanticism (Giacomo Leopardi, Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred de Vigny, William Wordsworth). Tradem was especially interested in the literature of his day, and read realist authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Dumas fils, Henrik Ibsen, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and Jules Vallès. He was also familiar with the contributions of naturalists, impressionists, and symbolists,—among them Émile Faguet, Edmond Haraucourt, José María de Heredia, Jules Lemaître, Pierre Loti, Guy de Maupassant, Sully Prudhomme, Jean Rameau, and August Strindberg—, as well as with members of the Groupe des Vivants—Raoul Ponchon and Jean Richepin. A noted influence on his choice of subjects was François Coppée, while Tradem's imagery was many times inspired by the Decadent author Maurice Rollinat.Călinescu, p.562, 563
Early in its existence, Revista Olteană published many critical studies by Demetrescu and others, in which they discussed the literary works of the 19th century. Among the figures analyzed by him were Coppée, Louise-Victorine Ackermann, Paul Bourget, Alfred de Musset, as well as the Romanian Romantics Vasile Alecsandri, Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Mihai Eminescu, Veronica Micle, Nicolae Nicoleanu, and Mihail Zamphirescu. Alongside these pieces were theater chronicles he signed, showing that he closely followed developments on the local scene. He also translated several foreign dramatic pieces into Romanian.
Despite taking an interest in Symbolism, Demetrescu is known to have declared himself perplexed by their "bizarre originality". Instead, he looked up to Realism and Naturalism, and called on young writers to study the works of Dostoevsky, Maupassant, Georg Brandes, Alphonse Daudet, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert and Émile Zola.Popescu, 5.1.3 Tradem defined his style of literary criticism as "Impressionist", taking for his model Anatole France—in this assessment of France's style, he focused on one of the latter's statements ("The good critic is one who recounts his soul's adventures among the masterpieces").
Nevertheless, he was an immediate precursor to the Romanian Symbolist school, or a representative of its "proletarian" side.Cernat, p.16 Discussing this latter aspect, literary critic Paul Cernat notes that Demetrescu stood alongside Mihail Cruceanu, Alexandru Toma and Andrei Naum, all of whom merged a socialist discourse into their poetic vision, thus contrasting with Macedonski's post-Parnassian school, as well as with the balladesque literature produced by Ștefan Octavian Iosif. According to Călinescu, Demetrescu's commitment to Symbolism was especially obvious in his attitudes, which he argued were linked to "spleen" (a humoralistic term used by Charles Baudelaire to define melancholy). In Călinescu's opinion, the Symbolist elements in Demetrescu's writings served to explain his close relationship with Macedonski, which contrasted with their backgrounds and political opinions.Călinescu, p.683 Researcher Lidia Bote proposed that Macedonski and Demetrescu were both eclectic figures representing a period when Symbolism was one of the many competing influences, and argued that a "pure" Symbolism only imposed itself in Romania after 1902, when Ştefan Petică published his earliest poems.Cernat, p.15