As a theorist, Perpessicius merged the tenets of Symbolism with the pragmatic conservative principles of the 19th century Junimea society, but was much-criticized over perceptions that, in the name of aesthetic relativism, he tolerated literary failure.
Also known as an anthologist, biographer, museologist, folklorist and book publisher, he was, together with George Călinescu, one of his generation's best-known researchers to have focused on the work of Junimist author and since-acknowledged national poet Mihai Eminescu.
A veteran of World War I, where he lost use of his right arm, Perpessicius debuted in poetry while recovering in hospital, publishing the critically acclaimed volume Scut și targă ("Shield and Stretcher").
[3] Born in the Danube port city of Brăila, in the Bărăgan Plain areas, Perpessicius was the son of middle-class parents Ștefan Panaiot (or Panaitescu) and Ecaterina (née Daraban), who owned a house on Cetății Street.
[17] Just before it went bankrupt in early 1923, it was planning a "spoken anthology", during which notes compiled on several authors were supposed to be read for the public: Fondane's own comments on Arghezi, together with those of Perpessicius and Ion Călugăru on traditionalist poets—respectively, Alexandru Vlahuță and George Coșbuc.
[3] Perpessicius was one of the moderate figures to sign contributions for the cosmopolitan avant-garde magazine Contimporanul, published by his friends Vinea and Janco, part of a small group which also included, at the time, Minulescu, Pillat, Camil Baltazar, Claudia Millian, Alexandru Al. Philippide, Ion Sân-Giorgiu and some others.
[29] Working under the direction of Adrian Maniu, a modernist writer and radio broadcaster, Perpessicus devoted special shows to recently deceased authors: the Symbolist-modernist Mateiu Caragiale and the former Poporanist doyen Garabet Ibrăileanu.
You all know the heresy: one claims that native inhabitants are separated into good and bad, into plagued and pleasant-smelling, less so for their intentions or actions, but rather for the point of view adopted by the esteemed censors of our public and national life.
"[34] Literary historian Z. Ornea, who likens this "lucid-democratic" text with one issued a year earlier by Viața Românească magazine, notes that both appeals failed to prevent the "totalitarian debauchery" of the subsequent decade, when the Iron Guard emerged as a force.
[44] Legionary government broke apart in early 1941, when the Iron Guard's Bucharest Rebellion caused Antonescu to reclaim all power, and later to join Romania into the Nazi German-led invasion of the Soviet Union.
[48] In 1949, again on Galaction's proposal, he was considered for full membership the academy (at the same time as Stancu, Alexandru Al. Philippide and poet Mihai Beniuc), serving as head of section at its Institute of Literary History and Folklore until 1954.
[57] A relaxation of political pressures on the literary environment followed in the late 1950s, when communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej embarked on the path of controlled De-Stalinization, but totalitarianism still had direct consequences on the critic's life and career.
Panaitescu had been found guilty of sedition, for having joined Mihai Stere Dedena and others in organizing a dissident Marxist circle, which sympathized with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and stood behind the Bucharest student protest.
[46] Z. Ornea notes how the analogy with Junimea only has limited application, given that the interwar critics all espoused historicistic beliefs to varying degrees, and contextualized literary movements in a manner rejected by Maiorescu.
[32] As a complement to his stated preference for lyricism in prose, Perpessicius also believed that the modern novel and novella were interfering with each other to the point where distinction became "absolute gratuitousness" (a vision discussed in his Mențiuni critice).
[73] This tendency toward aesthetic relativism owed inspiration to the theories of French Symbolist Remy de Gourmont, and brought Perpessicius into conflict with Lovinescu, whose more rigid version of Impressionism was based on the views of Émile Faguet.
The work was received with reserve by Perpessicius, who, in his chronicle at Cuvântul, objected to his senior's belief in the inferiority of lyricism over both narratives and epic poetry, and also to his dismissive treatment of avant-garde writers and of paraliterature.
[76] He commented with irony on Lovinescu's primarily historicist perspective, arguing that it closely resembled what he also criticized in the didacticism of Mihail Dragomirescu and Henric Sanielevici, and that his rival's Sburătorul society aggravated "the dependence on literary schools".
[78] With Antologia poeților de azi, Perpessicius and Pillat effected what Cernat calls "the critical assimilation of autochthonous Symbolism and modernism", and, citing Șerban Cioculescu, an expansion outside "the traditional realm of Romanian poetry, which had penetrated public consciousness through its cultural and didactic elements.
[85] His essays included ample comments on Urmuz's following, discussing his influence on diverse authors, avant-garde as well as mainstream: Arghezi, Geo Bogza, Jacques G. Costin, Adrian Maniu, Tudor Mușatescu, Sașa Pană, Stephan Roll and Ion Vinea.
[86] Other avant-garde affiliates favorably reviewed by Perpessicius include: Ion Călugăru, whose fantasy writings and folk story parodies he considered suited for "the heaven of dreams"; Benjamin Fondane, a "reputable essayist" in whose poetic work, which reinterpreted the rural landscape, "patriarchy suffered and made itself seem outraged"; and the post-Symbolist Ion Minulescu, whose 1930 volume Strofe pentru toată lumea ("Stanzas for All") he deemed "fantasy poetry [...] transfiguring the every day and the trend [...], raising jokes to the level of poetic principle and conversing with God in a simpler, more citizen-like [...], more democratic [...] than [Minulescu] was conversing with himself some twenty years ago".
This attitude surfaced in his reviews of Ilarie Voronca's poetry, when, although not averse to the subconscious explorations of Dadaism and Surrealism, Perpessicius voiced his concern that the resulting imagery was chaotic, and therefore hard to merge into the lyrical tradition.
[93] He also enjoyed Ion Vinea's lyrical and marginally-Surrealist novel Paradisul suspinelor ("The Paradise of Sighs"), which he described as "a picturesque theater of reflexive puppets" emerging from the combined "virtuosity" of "poet, psychoanalyst and Surrealist aesthete".
"[97] By compiling his own edition, Perpessicius also sought to point out perceived flaws in previous selections, including that of his Junimist model Maiorescu—an approach revered by his political adversary, the post-Junimist historian and critic Nicolae Iorga.
"[54] Reproaches on this perspective were notably voiced by his colleague and rival Lovinescu, who, in his Istoria literaturii..., argued that critics were supposed to resemble the folk legend hero Meșterul Manole, who sacrificed his wife in the name of art, and claimed that, contrary to this ideal, Perpessicius had not waived "affective connections", particularly when discussing Arghezi.
[32] Writing in 2002, literary historian Florin Mihăilescu argued that "directional criticism" as exemplified by Maiorescu, Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Garabet Ibrăileanu and Lovinescu, "will always be superior to the eternally well-disposed and always equable reviewer's office, à la Perpessicius".
George Călinescu includes him in this category around non-Symbolist poets such as Emanoil Bucuța, Alexandru Claudian and Gavril Rotică, noting that what separates him from the group is having "multiple layers, owed to his richer background.
Că s-a sfârșit calvarul și pot să intru-n clasă C-o față mai senină, cu zâmbetul amabil Al omului ce are un domiciliu stabil...[121] I thank you, o!
According to Călinescu himself, while the type of "intimism" had roots reaching as far back as medieval poet Alain Chartier, Perpessicius' other tendency was a form of Neoclassicism which directly referenced the major figures of Latin literature: Catullus, Horace, Ovid and Sextus Propertius.
[123] According to literary historian Ioana Pârvulescu, who suspects that Amor academic was Perpessicius' intended homage to Yvoria Secoșanu, the author portrayed himself under the fictional names Mototolea (from mototol, "wuss") and Pentapolin (the shepherd king in Don Quixote).