Il realismo descrittivo nella rappresentazione spaziale della Romania rurale e marginale: il ciclo di Adrien Zograffi di Panaït Istrati

Abstract

The Romanian novelist and newspaper journalist Panaït Istrati decided to write his literary works in French, even though he had found a lot of difficulties in learning the new language as a self-taught person, during a stay in the French-speaking Switzerland in 1916. Nevertheless his love and admiration for France were enormous: the French culture evocated in his mind a world based on the values of freedom, justice and fraternity between men.
In the narrations of Adrien Zograffi (Les récits d’Adrien Zograffi, La Jeunesse d’Adrien Zograffi, Vie d’Adrien Zograffi), a novelistic cycle constituting his main literary achievement, Istrati describes, with realistic and sometimes naturalistic tones, the hard lives of peasants and marginal people of his country, with particular reference to the difficult human-nature interaction. Moreover, he is a great storyteller who borrows from the old resource of folk tradition in order to bring back to life the haidoucs mythical figures. Istrati narrates their fight for life on the fringes of society, in the mountains or in the depth of woods. He illustrates also the ethic of generosity of these legendary heroes, their values of kindness towards persecuted people, of independence and social justice.