Kir Ianulea
Encyclopedia
Kir Ianulea or Kyr Ianulea (kir jaˈnule̯a) is a fantasy
and historical fiction
novella
or short story
, published by Romania
n author Ion Luca Caragiale
in 1909
. Borrowing the elements of a fairy tale
, satire
and frame story
, it has become recognized as one of Caragiale's leading contributions to short prose, and is often described as one of the seminal works written by him during the last decade of his life. While its narrative structure is largely based on Belfagor arcidiavolo
, a story by 16th century writer and political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli
, Kir Ianulea employs additional elements such as anecdote
s to evolve into a social fresco of late 18th-century Wallachia
and the Ottoman
-ruled Balkans
as a whole. Caragiale primarily adapts Machiavelli's theme, which is a fable
about the innate unreliability of women, to the realities of the Phanariote
epoch, focusing his attention on the interactions between Greeks
and Romanians
while offering additional insight into the process of acculturation
.
Structured around its protagonist and named after his main alias, Kir Ianulea recounts how one of the lesser devils is assigned the mission of assessing the evil and negativity of women. In order to accomplish this task, he must live the life of a mortal, and chooses Bucharest
as his city of residence. The main part of the story recounts his unhappy marriage to the tyrannical and dishonest Acriviţa, his realization that his future among humans was compromised, and his narrow escape from his creditors. The third part shows the devil possessing
aristocratic young women as part of a scheme to reward his one human benefactor, the peasant Negoiţă. The narrative ends with a fall-out between Negoiţă and Ianulea, and the latter's hasty return to Hell upon being threatened by a potential reunion with Acriviţa.
Caragiale's tale has been the target of critical interest since its publication, being discussed for its relation to Machiavelli's original story, its particular Neoromantic
aesthetics and picturesque
elements, its ambivalent take on feminism
, as well as the various allusions to concrete social realities. Among the latter are its original insight into the urban culture of Romania in the pre-Westernization
period, the recovery of Greek
or Turkish
influences on the Romanian lexis
, and the possible intention on Caragiale's part to depict Ianulea as his alter ego
. The story has had its own sizable impact on local literature
and the culture of Romania
, notably serving to inspire writers such as Radu Cosaşu and Radu Macrinici, and being turned into a 1939 operetta
by composer Sabin Drăgoi
.
, the latter confesses being intrigued by the large number of human victims who claim to have sinned only because of women, and indicates that he considers a method for verifying the truth in this claim. Dardarot decides to send "the little one", Aghiuţă ("Hell's Bells" or "Dickens"), into an extended investigation on Earth. Although received with displays of fatherly affection by Dardarot, the boy is reluctant to perform such tasks, since, as the narrator informs, he is not on his first mission among humans: previously, he had served an old woman, and forced by her to expend his energy on the futile task of straightening a curly hair. Unimpressed, Dardarot provides him with 100,000 gold coins (the bounty confiscated from a stingy mortal), with the indication that he is to marry and live with his human wife for ten years. Transformed into a handsome young mortal and evicted from Hell by his moody overlord, Aghiuţă decides to head for Bucharest, a city with "room for parties" and many business opportunities. He arrives in the Wallachian capital and books a room at Manuc's Inn, before renting a cluster of townhouses and gardens in Negustori area (the merchants' district, close to Colţea Hospital).
The new guest intrigues Aghiuţă's new landlord, who sends the old and cunning housekeeper Marghioala to engage him in conversation and find out his story. Recommending himself as Ianulea "of Arvanite
stock", the young man explains that he is from near Mount Athos
(Sfântagora), in Ottoman Greece
, the son of olive tree
planters. He provides an elaborate story about his early years, claiming that both his parents died at sea, while taking him on pilgrimage
to the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem—victims of bowel obstruction
caused by eating beans after radishes. He recounts having been kept on as a servant and boy seaman
by the brutal captain of the ship, and having survived a number of near shipwreck
s, and then purchasing his own vessel. After further such adventures, Aghiuţă-Ianulea claims, he had been able to amass a fortune and settle in a peaceful country. He also boasts knowledge of several languages without access to formal studies, and claims that his knowledge of Romanian
will put Wallachian locals to shame. In the end, Ianulea threatens Marghioala not to share his secret with anyone else, aware that such a warning will only entice her to spread the story around the neighborhood.
Rumor spreads of Ianulea's fortune and the young man, referred to as a kir ("sir", from the Greek
κύρ), becomes the center of interest in high society, being invited to events organized by boyar
s and merchants alike. The details of his account become well-known, his deeds magnified by popular imagination, and, as a consequence, the entire neighborhood is convinced that beans should never be eaten after radishes. Meanwhile, Ianulea begins courting Acriviţa, the daughter of unsuccessful trader Hagi Cănuţă, who is beautiful and well-proportioned, but has mild esotropia
. Although she can offer him no dowry
, he decides to marry her, and their wedding is an occasion for Ianulea to display his insatiable taste for luxury. The day after their union, Acriviţa (also referred to as Ianuloaia, "Ianulea's woman") undergoes a sudden change in character from "gentle and amendable" to "tougher and uppity", entitling herself master of the household and exercising control over her husband's affairs. She is also increasingly jealous, constantly spying on her husband and ordering her servants to do the same, but does not feel accountable for her own actions. She therefore hosts lavish parties and card game
sessions in her husband's house, and irritates him by defaming her own friends. During one such gathering, she informs her guests that a female acquaintance of hers has been fornicating with one of the Wallachian Prince's sons, with a consul
of the Russian Empire
, and even, after being banished to Căldăruşani Monastery, with an Orthodox
monk. Acriviţa also claims that the unnamed friend plots to "break" her household by committing adultery with Ianulea. This enrages Ianulea, and the couple begin shouting abuse at each other, while their stunned guests look on.
The Ianuleas eventually reconcile and the kir is placated, addressing his wife as parigboria tu kosmu (παρηγοριά του κόσμου, "consolation of the world"). Unbeknown to him, Acriviţa has by then begun selling various objects of value in his property to feed her gambling habit. Tricking Ianulea with displays of her affection, she also persuades him to provide a dowry for her two unmarried sisters, as well as capital for her two brothers' respective businesses. Ianulea proceeds to service this and other whims ("had she asked for the Colţea Belfry
on a silver platter, kir Ianulea would have brought it to her on a silver platter"). As a result, Ianule's fortune is steadily depleted, and he comes to rely on expected proceeds from his investment in the business of his brothers-in-law, while steadily falling into debt. While his credit rating
crumbles, Acriviţa's itinerant siblings return with bad news: one has lost his ship in front of İzmir
, the other has been robbed at the Leipzig Trade Fair
.
Ianulea's only option is to flee Bucharest in a haste and escape his creditors. As he rides past Cuţitul de Argint Church, he notices that he is being pursued by armed guards, sent by the Bucharest Aga to lock him into a debtors' prison. He abandons his horse and runs up a hill and into a vineyard, pleading with the keeper to provide him with shelter. The latter, who presents himself as Negoiţă, reluctantly accepts to do so when Ianulea assures him that his pursuers are not boyars. In exchange for his help, Ianulea lets him on his secret identity, and promises to reward him. He explains: "Whenever you hear that the devil's got into a woman, a wife, or a girl, whatever, no matter the place where they live and no matter what station in life they have, you should know it's about me that they're talking. You go right away to the respective house for I won't leave the woman until you chase me out... Naturally that seeing you cure their precious jewel they will offer you a reward".
The devil leaves the vineyard, and the focus moves on Negoiţă. Catching rumor of a demonic possession
in Colentina
neighborhood, where a rich girl has come to speak in tongues
, shouting and divulging all sorts of embarrassing secrets. The vineyard keeper promises to relieve her suffering in exchange for 100 gold coins, and Ianulea subsequently fulfills his promise. He scolds Negoiţă for accepting such a small amount, and informs that he should make his way for Craiova
, where they are going to repeat their act with the daughter of a local administrator, the kaymakam
. This happens exactly as predicted by the devil, who, upon exiting the girl's body, informs the peasant that he no longer considers himself indebted.
As thanks for his service, Negoiţă is granted an Oltenia
n estate and assigned a boyar's title
. His blissful relaxation is interrupted abruptly when the kaymakam orders him on mission to Bucharest, where the Phanariote
prince's daughter is also being tormented by a demon. Although much troubled, the healer follows princely envoys, and is warmly greeted by the prince (who casually addresses him in Greek, unaware that Negoiţă is in reality a local peasant). Nevertheless, the princess strongly rejects the healer's presence, and asks instead for "my old man", a certain Captain Manoli Ghaiduri. The soldier is immediately sent for, and reveals himself to be the girl's secret love interest, a "splendid" Greek from the princely guard. While the princess persistently asks Manoli to mangle the intruding healer, the latter thinks of a ruse: suggesting that the girl's illness needs specialized help, he asks permission to consult with Acriviţa Ianulea, "the widow of the wretch", whom he recommends as a better doctor than he. His demand has an instant effect on the princess: instead of shrieking and shouting, she begins cluttering her teeth. Within three days, she is spontaneously relieved of her symptoms.
Negoiţă does however proceed to Negustori, learning that Acriviţa was chased out of her home by the creditors and moved back in with her father. Once there, he claims to be a debtor of Ianulea's, presenting her with 100 gold coins and a deed to the Cuţitul de Argint vineyard. He manages to intrigue her by suggesting that, should she ever hear of a demon possessing a woman or girl, she is to walk up to the victim, call out parigboria tu kosmu, and recount her longing for Ianulea. She promises to follow his advice, and Negoiţă returns to court, before deciding to head out of the city for good. He receives yet more presents from the princely family, as well as emotional thanks from Manoli Ghaiduri. As Negoiţă rides out on his way to Oltenia, the devil takes control of another young lady, the daughter of Wallachia's Orthodox Metropolitan. This is Acriviţa's opportunity to follow Negoiţă's advice, and, as soon as she enters the room, the demon flees in panic. The story ends on Aghiuţă's return to Hell, where he requests from Dardarot not to ever accept either Negoiţă and Acriviţa into Hell, and assign them instead to Heaven: "let Saint Peter
make up with them as best he can." He also demands and obtains a period of rest to last three centuries, as "those little affairs down on earth left me dog-tired."
Kir Ianulea belongs to the final period in Caragiale's career, during which he was mainly focusing on writing fantasy
, moving away from stricter Realism
and displaying more interest in the techniques of classical storytelling. The retired playwright, who lived in voluntary exile to the German Empire
between 1905 and his 1912 death, dedicated his final literary contributions to short prose (from novella
s to sketch stories
), and, according to literary critic Şerban Cioculescu
, produced with Kir Ianulea "his most significant literary production of that period". Caragiale is thought by comparatist
Mariana Cap-Bun to have grown aware of his own international recognition by 1900-1910: this revelation, Cap-Bun argues, is what prompted him to diversify his approach and seek to contribute works with a universal appeal, primarily by reworking old narrative themes. In his 1941 synthesis of literary history, influential critic George Călinescu
also identified Caragiale's maturity with a growing interest in the Balkans
and the Levant
in general, and in particular with producing "artistic Balkanism" on the basis of picturesque
motifs. According to researcher Tatiana-Ana Fluieraru, the change also constituted a radical break with the modern themes of Caragiale's consecrated works, since, as opposed to his traditionalist counterparts, "nothing seemed to recommend Ion Luca Caragiale for the rendition of popular stories and anecdotes." She also notes that, in respect to his thematic choices, the writer remained "quite cosmopolitan
", Kir Inaulea being among eight of his last thirty-two stories to choose Levantine subjects over Romanian folkloric
sources. Caragiale himself was very pleased with the results of his activity, and called the resulting tales his best works ever.
According to literary historian Tudor Vianu
, the interval was primarily marked by a Neoromantic
and Neoclassical
interest in Renaissance
and Elizabethan
writings, making Caragiale a direct descendant of frame story
authors and a disciple of William Shakespeare
. In his assessment, Kir Ianulea shares such traits with other Schiţe noi tales, primarily Pastramă trufanda and Calul dracului (the latter of which he believes to be "one of the most perfect stories written in the Romanian language
"). Such writings drew critical attention for subtly merging the supernatural elements into a realistic whole. Calling attention to this special trait, Călinescu likened Kir Ianulea to Stan Păţitul, a prose piece by his contemporary Ion Creangă
, which similarly recounts how the Devil finds refuge in a modern, albeit rural, setting. Another literary historian, George Bădărău, argued that Kir Ianulea stands alongside two other Schiţe noi sections (Calul dracului and the Arabian Nights-inspired Abu-Hasan), and together with Ion Minulescu
's 1930 volume Cetiţi-le noaptea ("Read Them at Night"), as a sample of Romanian literature
where "the fantasy realm enters human reality [...], being less exploited as a vision, and more as an oddity." Writing in 2002, researcher Gabriela Chiciudean proposed that Kir Ianulea inaugurated "a new territory" in Caragiale's work, where the fantasy element was being "reduced to the dimensions of the human." According to novelist and theater critic Mircea Ghiţulescu, it joins other samples of Caragiale's short prose (Pastramă trufanda, but also La hanul lui Mânjoală and O făclie de Paşte
) in anticipating the "magic realism
" introduced in the 1960s by the Latin American Boom
.
Reportedly drafted in three days, the tale is believed to have taken some three weeks to perfect. On January 12, 1909, Caragiale wrote to his friend and biographer Paul Zarifopol that Kir Ianulea was completed, jokingly adding: "With God's help, I have finally finished off the devil!" The story was soon after published in the Iaşi
-based magazine Viaţa Românească
. In 1910, it was ultimately included in Caragiale's last anthumous prose collection, Schiţe noi ("New Sketches").
The central theme in Caragiale's story is directly borrowed from Western Europe
an Renaissance stories which have the devilish creature Belphegor
as their protagonist. A better known Italian-language
incarnation of the theme is Niccolò Machiavelli
's Belfagor arcidiavolo
, published in his 1549 collected works. Machiavelli's text was however preceded by a shorter version, signed Giovanni Brevio and first printed 1545 as Novella di Belfagorx (in the 19th century, Scottish
academic John Colin Dunlop
claimed that these writings were all based on a since-lost Medieval Latin
version). A separate French-language
version was published before in the 17th century, as part of Jean de La Fontaine
's Contes. Although the story had already been circulating in a Romanian variant (printed in Moldavia
), Caragiale's version was primarily based on a French translation from Machiavelli: Nouvelle très plaisante de l'archidiable Belphégor ("A Very Enjoyable Novella about the Archdevil Belphegor"). However, he also checked other variants, and informed himself about a German-language
translation.
The Romanian writer was by then an outspoken admirer of the Renaissance thinker, and his various records mention Machiavelli with words of high praise. According to literary historian Constantin Trandafir, the only other person for whom "Caragiale reserved as many superlatives" is Mihai Eminescu
, Romania's national poet and his personal friend. Like with several other of his Schiţe noi, Caragiale mentioned and credited his predecessor, first in his correspondence about the unfinished text, and ultimately within the footnotes of the published version. In one of his messages to Zarifopol, he invited his younger friend to review both texts and see "if I have been doing [Machiavelli] justice with the story of my Kir Ianulea." However, he also made a point of claiming that the Belfagor story no longer belonged to its creator: "since always, the stories belong to everybody, but the manner of recounting them belongs, no matter what the age, to the raconteur".
A number of significant thematic and stylistic differences exist between the 1549 story and the 1909 Romanian version, which is almost four times as large as Machiavelli's; as noted early on by scholar Mihail Dragomirescu, Caragiale's text grew as a "symbolic novel". Describing Kir Ianulea and the various other portions of Schiţe noi as early samples of metafiction
, Cap-Bun noted: "the new filters were so efficient that one can hardly recognize the new grains growing from the sedimentary beds of the source culture to be responses to the primary texts." Machiavelli's original mixes characters in Ancient Greek myths
(the presence of Pluto
, Minos
and Rhadamanthus
) with Jewish
and Christian mythology
(the heresy of Peor
), making Belphegor's mission relate to the supposed evils of womanhood and the morals of medieval Florence
. In contrast to Belphegor, Caragiale's protagonist is feeble, shy, and, Şerban Cioculescu argues, a "sympathetic" figure. These differences were still deemed insufficient by Călinescu and by his contemporary, the influential modernist
reviewer Eugen Lovinescu
. The former judged Kir Ianulea a "larger version" of Machiavelli's account, while Lovinescu saw it as one of the pieces where Caragiale "brought only his storyteller's art, and nothing from his invention". Giovanni Rotiroti, an Italian
critic and psychoanalyst
, argues: "The Romanian novella does not move very far away from Machiavelli's, except in matters of lexical richness, as well as in scale and number of pages." Evidencing the thematic relationship and the tripartite structure of both stories, Rotiroti concludes: "The parallelism between the two novellas is perfect". He believes that Caragiale imagined a partial translation from Machiavelli, discarding those fragments he identified as weak, and turning the Florentine peculiarities into things that a modern Romanian audience could find alluring. Tatiana-Ana Fluieraru also proposes that Caragiale's story, unlike his other late pieces which reuse older themes, is an "actual reconstruction" of the source.
Caragial's localized adaptation takes place, according to Călinescu, during the rule of Prince Nicholas Mavrogenes
(1786–1789), or, in Cioculescu's account: "toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the next, in still-Phanariote
Bucharest, where one finds Manuc's Inn and the Negustori suburb". Italian literary historian and Romanist
Gino Lupi finds that the Phanariote references touch every aspect of Caragiale's retelling, producing a fresco of historical Bucharest
: "The episode, which is bare and concise in Belfagor, is shrouded here in particular details which serve to depict Phanariote Bucharest, with its roads, its means of transportation, its costumes. [...] Even if the good devil Kir Ianulea is the usual weak and enamored husband, Acriviţa, the greedy and overbearing woman, and Negoiţă, the shrewd peasant, are almost entirely for real." Tudor Vianu viewed Kir Ianulea as Caragiale's deepest exploration into his favorite object of derision: the Romanian middle class
. This middle-class prehistory, Vianu notes, completes his earlier contributions to Romanian drama and comediography, his satire
of social customs, and his ridicule of established political opinion. Vianu further noted that the story pinpoints the original middle-class acculturation
: "the epoch of Greek
penetration, when the bases for a large section of the local bourgeoisie
were being laid down, creating a political reservoir". Writing later, critic Mihai Zamfir also found Kir Ianulea to be one of the first and few works of fiction to make "an object of aesthetic contemplation" out of the Phanariote age (second only to Nicolae Filimon
's celebrated novel Upstarts Old and New).
The newer version is also noted for its characteristic offshoots into anecdote
, which contribute to the overall difference in size between the source and the replica version. The "pleasure of the anecdote" is identified by Cioculescu as the basis for Ianulea's detailed account about his origins, including the recipe for avoiding bowel obstruction
(described by the critic as "an innocent devilish prank"). Cioculescu also notes: "Caragiale is clearly superior to Machiavelli as a storyteller; the thing responsible for this comfortable handicap is the illustrative power of dialogue, which allows characters to gain contour." Gabriela Chiciudean tracked resemblances between Kir Ianulea and the classical frame narratives
of the Levant, working the pretext ("a subject fulfilling the orders of a king") into "labyrinthic paths".
A primary method used by Caragiale in rendering depth to his narrative is the recovery of antiquated Romanian lexis
, with Phanariote-era archaism
s of Turkish
or Hellenic
origin. In reference to these cultural references, Lupi wrote: "The language is rich in the Turkisms and Graecisms of the Phanariote age and greatly contributes in rendering local color to the narrative which [...] is true to historical reality." George Călinescu focused on the presence of such words throughout Kir Ianulea, proposing that they were used by the author as both a means of adding "color" and a method for illustrating "spiritual nuances", concluding: "The narrative revolves around hysterical
episodes." Among the dated "violently southern" terms mentioned by Călinescu are capsoman ("stubborn man"), daraveră ("business"), ipochimen ("guy"), isnaf ("corporation"), levent ("gentlemanly"), proclet ("accursed"), matuf ("senile man"), mufluz ("bankrupt man"), selemet ("bankruptcy"), techer-mecher ("hurriedly"), zuliară ("jealous woman") and zumaricale ("sweets"). In order to add to the authenticity of his novella, Caragiale also contemplated inserting into it several fragments of poems by the late 18th-century author Costache Conachi.
Language and its uses plays a relevant part in the plot, providing additional clues and supporting elements. In Călinescu's opinion, Kir Ianulea differs from Caragiale's early works, where specialized or erroneous language is used for comedic effect; in this case, he argues, the Romanian author attempted not to ridicule his characters, but to reflect their background and origin. Kir Ianulea therefore records the origin of speech patterns which are natural for 18th-century boyar
s and traders, and which only become ridiculous at the other end of the Westernization
process, where Caragiale's main plays reside: "This natural style [of speech] has later fallen through obsolescence into the immediately inferior class
, as things will usually happen when the folk dress
is concerned." This perspective prompted Călinescu to conclude that "Caragiale's genius" was in exposing and "rehabilitating" the earliest stage of a degenerative process, by reflecting the language of the mahala
(a suburb or ghetto
, commonly stereotype
d as an uncivilized and unregulated community). However, he also criticized Caragiale's own belief that texts such as Kir Ianulea were stylistically accomplished because their Romanian was harmonious, believing that "spontaneity" and "naturalism
" towered over "melody" throughout the narrative, reaching the point of "anti-art
istic" literature.
The importance of various other linguistic elements within the narrative has also been highlighted by other researchers of Caragiale's work. An early observation made by Zarifopol, and cited by Cioculescu in agreement with his own arguments, has it that the author introduced references to himself and his Greek-Romanian
origins in his portrayal of Aghiuţă-Ianulea. This is thought to be the case for the character's stated pride that, despite being a foreigner (an Albanian
, in Cioculescu's interpretation), he is both versed in Romanian culture
and a polyglot
. The notion that Ianulea is in effect Caragiale's alter ego
has subsequently become commonplace among investigators of his work. According to Cioculescu: "This is, after all, the only place where the author reveals his entirely justified philological pride." Rotiroti theorizes the importance of words in defining the fairy tale's two "semantic
fields". The original and concrete one is Hell, where "semantics are organized in pyramid fashion, and ordered [...] as signified of signifiers
." He adds: "Even if the comedic effect [...] springs from an estranging, corporal, obscene, quasi-sexual effect, provided by the strange 'fatherly love'-based relationship between the little devil and his emperor, the body, or better said the various allusions to its components ('ear', 'tail') play a part that undermines with irony the structures attributable to this reality." Also according to Rotiroti, the hierarchy of significance is modified by the earthly episodes within the plot, particularly since Aghiuţă's new identity is that of an outsider who holds a succession of roles, and since his foreign name is itself meant to suggest the strangeness of Phanariote times. The latter attribute, he believes, is illustrated and enhanced by the use of terms directly borrowed from other languages and regularly surfacing throughout the text.
(collected by Ovidiu Bârlea in Hunedoara County
). In Şerb's assessment, the main difference between such prose and Caragiale's text was the latter's "progressive
tendency" and move toward "rehabilitating women". This perspective was received with reserve by Cioculescu: "kir Ianulea's wife, far from suggesting an intent for rehabilitation on Caragiale's part, illustrates the unbearable, exasperating character of a woman who is almost literally infernal. Only the fact that she does not resort to murder imposes the reserve of this 'almost'." In addition to her many psychological defects, Cioculescu argues, Caragiale hinted to Acriviţa's innate negativity by mentioning her esotropia
, exploiting the Romanian tradition according to which distinct marks on one's face are bad omen
s. Cioculescu wrote: "Actually, Caragiale builds his theme without misogynistic
hatred, with the euphoria of the storyteller and the playwright who knows how to stage a situation for his characters [...]. But the lack of misogyny does not at all imply that the author, who so well depicts the circumstances of kir Ianulea's exasperation, is an advocate of women. [...] That Acriviţa is 'fundamentally evil' is instantly apparent to any reader; that she is not a typical representative of all women is also very correctly assessed."
Mariana Cap-Bun ranks Acriviţa's portrayal as "much more evil than the devil" alongside several "strong female characters" in Caragiale's stories and drama, arguing that this motif ultimately owed its inspiration to Shakespeare (and especially to Shakespearean tragedy
, which is known to have been treasured by the Romanian author). She also finds that, as Caragiale's career drew to a close, this focus too modified to include the "excessively cruel and weird"—the unassailable meanness characterizing Ianuloaia being complemented by the murderous thoughts of Anca in the play Năpasta (1890) and by the violent bouts of hysteria displayed by Ileana, the incest
uous protagonist of Păcat (1892).
and beyond. In 1932, Aromanian
writer and cultural activist Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
contributed an essay tracking down and assessing the Levantine narrative motifs retold by Kir Ianulea. The narrative's recovery of the foreign-influenced and often vilified past was viewed with reserve by 1930s nationalists
such as philosopher and fantasy author Mircea Eliade
, who found the story the most objectionable one among Caragiale's writings. In 1939, composer Sabin Drăgoi
completed an operetta
version of the story, which premiered at the Romanian Opera
in Cluj
(it was one of the last Romanian shows to be performed in the city before the Second Vienna Award
granted Northern Transylvania
to Hungary
).
Kir Ianulea in particular has served to inspire a number of Caragiale's followers among modernist
and postmodernist
Romanian authors, with new elements being added after the 1989 Revolution
. Declaring himself a disciple of Caragiale, writer and humorist Radu Cosaşu referred to Kir Ianulea as "our father's most accomplished masterpiece". Also according to Cosaşu, Kir Ianulea and Cănuţă om sucit are two of Caragiale's most valuable stories in danger of being forgotten by readers, whereas his plays are being turned into "giant, intimidating clichés." In 2002, dramatist Radu Macrinici adapted Kir Ianulea into a new play. Titled Un prieten de când lumea? ("A Friend as Old as Time?"), the text merged an intertextual
structure borrowed directly from the novella with elements from comedies by Caragiale's uncle Iorgu, as well as with Craii de Curtea-Veche
, a celebrated novel by Caragiale's estranged son Mateiu
. According to theater critic Gabriela Riegler, Macrinici used this mix to produce an artistic statement about modern depersonalization
and "Romanian mediocrity". Un prieten de când lumea? was notably staged in 2002 by Sfântu Gheorghe
's Andrei Mureşanu Theater, with Florin Vidamski as Ianulea.
Fantasy literature
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and historical fiction
Historical fiction
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novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
or short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, published by Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n author Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
in 1909
1909 in literature
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. Borrowing the elements of a fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
, satire
Satire
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and frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
, it has become recognized as one of Caragiale's leading contributions to short prose, and is often described as one of the seminal works written by him during the last decade of his life. While its narrative structure is largely based on Belfagor arcidiavolo
Belfagor arcidiavolo
Belfagor arcidiavolo is a novella by Niccolò Machiavelli. It was written between 1518 and 1527 and published with Machiavelli's collected works in 1549. It is also known under the titles La favola di Belfagor Arcidiavolo or Il demonio che prese moglie.An abbreviated version of Machiavelli's...
, a story by 16th century writer and political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He is one of the main founders of modern political science. He was a diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic...
, Kir Ianulea employs additional elements such as anecdote
Anecdote
An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
s to evolve into a social fresco of late 18th-century Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
-ruled Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
as a whole. Caragiale primarily adapts Machiavelli's theme, which is a fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
about the innate unreliability of women, to the realities of the Phanariote
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...
epoch, focusing his attention on the interactions between Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
and Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
while offering additional insight into the process of acculturation
Acculturation
Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and...
.
Structured around its protagonist and named after his main alias, Kir Ianulea recounts how one of the lesser devils is assigned the mission of assessing the evil and negativity of women. In order to accomplish this task, he must live the life of a mortal, and chooses Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
as his city of residence. The main part of the story recounts his unhappy marriage to the tyrannical and dishonest Acriviţa, his realization that his future among humans was compromised, and his narrow escape from his creditors. The third part shows the devil possessing
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
aristocratic young women as part of a scheme to reward his one human benefactor, the peasant Negoiţă. The narrative ends with a fall-out between Negoiţă and Ianulea, and the latter's hasty return to Hell upon being threatened by a potential reunion with Acriviţa.
Caragiale's tale has been the target of critical interest since its publication, being discussed for its relation to Machiavelli's original story, its particular Neoromantic
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
aesthetics and picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
elements, its ambivalent take on feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, as well as the various allusions to concrete social realities. Among the latter are its original insight into the urban culture of Romania in the pre-Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
period, the recovery of Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
or Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
influences on the Romanian lexis
Romanian lexis
The lexis of the Romanian language , a Romance language, has changed over the centuries as the language evolved from Vulgar Latin, to Proto-Romanian, to medieval, modern and contemporary Romanian.-Medieval Romanian:...
, and the possible intention on Caragiale's part to depict Ianulea as his alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
. The story has had its own sizable impact on local literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
and the culture of Romania
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
, notably serving to inspire writers such as Radu Cosaşu and Radu Macrinici, and being turned into a 1939 operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
by composer Sabin Drăgoi
Sabin Dragoi
Sabin Drăgoi was a Romanian composer and specialist on folk music. His wide output included orchestral and chamber works, film music and operas.-Major works:*Constantin Brâncoveanu*Kir Ianulea*Horia*The Misfortune...
.
Introductory episodes
The narrative opens with the rally of all devils, as ordered by "the Overlord of Hell" Dardarot. Probably a replica version of AstarothAstaroth
Astaroth , in demonology, is a Crowned Prince of Hell. He is a male figure named after the Canaanite goddess Ashtoreth.-Background:...
, the latter confesses being intrigued by the large number of human victims who claim to have sinned only because of women, and indicates that he considers a method for verifying the truth in this claim. Dardarot decides to send "the little one", Aghiuţă ("Hell's Bells" or "Dickens"), into an extended investigation on Earth. Although received with displays of fatherly affection by Dardarot, the boy is reluctant to perform such tasks, since, as the narrator informs, he is not on his first mission among humans: previously, he had served an old woman, and forced by her to expend his energy on the futile task of straightening a curly hair. Unimpressed, Dardarot provides him with 100,000 gold coins (the bounty confiscated from a stingy mortal), with the indication that he is to marry and live with his human wife for ten years. Transformed into a handsome young mortal and evicted from Hell by his moody overlord, Aghiuţă decides to head for Bucharest, a city with "room for parties" and many business opportunities. He arrives in the Wallachian capital and books a room at Manuc's Inn, before renting a cluster of townhouses and gardens in Negustori area (the merchants' district, close to Colţea Hospital).
The new guest intrigues Aghiuţă's new landlord, who sends the old and cunning housekeeper Marghioala to engage him in conversation and find out his story. Recommending himself as Ianulea "of Arvanite
Arvanites
Arvanites are a population group in Greece who traditionally speak Arvanitika, a dialect of the Albanian language. They settled in Greece during the late Middle Ages and were the dominant population element of some regions of the Peloponnese and Attica until the 19th century...
stock", the young man explains that he is from near Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
(Sfântagora), in Ottoman Greece
Ottoman Greece
Most of Greece gradually became part of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th century until its declaration of independence in 1821, a historical period also known as Tourkokratia ....
, the son of olive tree
Olive Tree
The Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left Italian political coalitions from 1995 to 2007.The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former leftist Christian Democrat, who invented the name and the symbol of...
planters. He provides an elaborate story about his early years, claiming that both his parents died at sea, while taking him on pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to the Holy Sepulchre
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....
in Jerusalem—victims of bowel obstruction
Bowel obstruction
Bowel obstruction is a mechanical or functional obstruction of the intestines, preventing the normal transit of the products of digestion. It can occur at any level distal to the duodenum of the small intestine and is a medical emergency...
caused by eating beans after radishes. He recounts having been kept on as a servant and boy seaman
Boy Seaman
A boy seaman is a boy who serves as seaman and/or is trained for such service.-Royal Navy:In the British naval forces, where there was a need to recruit enough hands to man the vast fleet of the British Empire, extensive regulations existed concerning the selection and status of boys enlisted to...
by the brutal captain of the ship, and having survived a number of near shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
s, and then purchasing his own vessel. After further such adventures, Aghiuţă-Ianulea claims, he had been able to amass a fortune and settle in a peaceful country. He also boasts knowledge of several languages without access to formal studies, and claims that his knowledge of Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
will put Wallachian locals to shame. In the end, Ianulea threatens Marghioala not to share his secret with anyone else, aware that such a warning will only entice her to spread the story around the neighborhood.
Ianulea's marriage
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
κύρ), becomes the center of interest in high society, being invited to events organized by boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s and merchants alike. The details of his account become well-known, his deeds magnified by popular imagination, and, as a consequence, the entire neighborhood is convinced that beans should never be eaten after radishes. Meanwhile, Ianulea begins courting Acriviţa, the daughter of unsuccessful trader Hagi Cănuţă, who is beautiful and well-proportioned, but has mild esotropia
Esotropia
Esotropia is a form of strabismus, or "squint", in which one or both eyes turns inward. The condition can be constantly present, or occur intermittently, and can give the affected individual a "cross-eyed" appearance...
. Although she can offer him no dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
, he decides to marry her, and their wedding is an occasion for Ianulea to display his insatiable taste for luxury. The day after their union, Acriviţa (also referred to as Ianuloaia, "Ianulea's woman") undergoes a sudden change in character from "gentle and amendable" to "tougher and uppity", entitling herself master of the household and exercising control over her husband's affairs. She is also increasingly jealous, constantly spying on her husband and ordering her servants to do the same, but does not feel accountable for her own actions. She therefore hosts lavish parties and card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
sessions in her husband's house, and irritates him by defaming her own friends. During one such gathering, she informs her guests that a female acquaintance of hers has been fornicating with one of the Wallachian Prince's sons, with a consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, and even, after being banished to Căldăruşani Monastery, with an Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
monk. Acriviţa also claims that the unnamed friend plots to "break" her household by committing adultery with Ianulea. This enrages Ianulea, and the couple begin shouting abuse at each other, while their stunned guests look on.
The Ianuleas eventually reconcile and the kir is placated, addressing his wife as parigboria tu kosmu (παρηγοριά του κόσμου, "consolation of the world"). Unbeknown to him, Acriviţa has by then begun selling various objects of value in his property to feed her gambling habit. Tricking Ianulea with displays of her affection, she also persuades him to provide a dowry for her two unmarried sisters, as well as capital for her two brothers' respective businesses. Ianulea proceeds to service this and other whims ("had she asked for the Colţea Belfry
Turnul Coltei
Turnul Colţei was a tower located in Bucharest, Wallachia, now in Romania. Having a height of 50 metres, it was the highest building in the city for more than a century. Its initial purpose was to be used as a bell tower — its 1,700 kg bell, was moved to the Sinaia Monastery after the tower...
on a silver platter, kir Ianulea would have brought it to her on a silver platter"). As a result, Ianule's fortune is steadily depleted, and he comes to rely on expected proceeds from his investment in the business of his brothers-in-law, while steadily falling into debt. While his credit rating
Credit rating
A credit rating evaluates the credit worthiness of an issuer of specific types of debt, specifically, debt issued by a business enterprise such as a corporation or a government. It is an evaluation made by a credit rating agency of the debt issuers likelihood of default. Credit ratings are...
crumbles, Acriviţa's itinerant siblings return with bad news: one has lost his ship in front of İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
, the other has been robbed at the Leipzig Trade Fair
Leipzig Trade Fair
The Leipzig Trade Fair was a major fair for trade across Central Europe for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, its location happened to lie within the borders of East Germany, whereupon it became one of the most important trade fairs of Comecon and was traditionally a meeting place...
.
Ianulea's only option is to flee Bucharest in a haste and escape his creditors. As he rides past Cuţitul de Argint Church, he notices that he is being pursued by armed guards, sent by the Bucharest Aga to lock him into a debtors' prison. He abandons his horse and runs up a hill and into a vineyard, pleading with the keeper to provide him with shelter. The latter, who presents himself as Negoiţă, reluctantly accepts to do so when Ianulea assures him that his pursuers are not boyars. In exchange for his help, Ianulea lets him on his secret identity, and promises to reward him. He explains: "Whenever you hear that the devil's got into a woman, a wife, or a girl, whatever, no matter the place where they live and no matter what station in life they have, you should know it's about me that they're talking. You go right away to the respective house for I won't leave the woman until you chase me out... Naturally that seeing you cure their precious jewel they will offer you a reward".
Negoiţă's fortune
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
in Colentina
Colentina, Bucharest
Colentina is one of the main neighborhoods in Bucharest's 2nd district located on the north-east of the city. A local folk etymology says that the name is derived from "colea-n-tină" , this being the answer given by a spătar to Matei Basarab, who asked the former where he had defeated the Ottoman...
neighborhood, where a rich girl has come to speak in tongues
Glossolalia
Glossolalia or speaking in tongues is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables, often as part of religious practice. The significance of glossolalia has varied with time and place, with some considering it a part of a sacred language...
, shouting and divulging all sorts of embarrassing secrets. The vineyard keeper promises to relieve her suffering in exchange for 100 gold coins, and Ianulea subsequently fulfills his promise. He scolds Negoiţă for accepting such a small amount, and informs that he should make his way for Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
, where they are going to repeat their act with the daughter of a local administrator, the kaymakam
Kaymakam
Qaim Maqam or Qaimaqam or Kaymakam is the title used for the governor of a provincial district in the Republic of Turkey, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and in Lebanon; additionally, it was a title used for roughly the same official position in the Ottoman...
. This happens exactly as predicted by the devil, who, upon exiting the girl's body, informs the peasant that he no longer considers himself indebted.
As thanks for his service, Negoiţă is granted an Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
n estate and assigned a boyar's title
Historical Romanian ranks and titles
This is a glossary of historical Romanian ranks and titles used in the principalities of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania, and later in Romania. Many of these titles are of Slavic etymology, with some of Greek, Byzantine, Latin, and Turkish etymology; several are original...
. His blissful relaxation is interrupted abruptly when the kaymakam orders him on mission to Bucharest, where the Phanariote
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...
prince's daughter is also being tormented by a demon. Although much troubled, the healer follows princely envoys, and is warmly greeted by the prince (who casually addresses him in Greek, unaware that Negoiţă is in reality a local peasant). Nevertheless, the princess strongly rejects the healer's presence, and asks instead for "my old man", a certain Captain Manoli Ghaiduri. The soldier is immediately sent for, and reveals himself to be the girl's secret love interest, a "splendid" Greek from the princely guard. While the princess persistently asks Manoli to mangle the intruding healer, the latter thinks of a ruse: suggesting that the girl's illness needs specialized help, he asks permission to consult with Acriviţa Ianulea, "the widow of the wretch", whom he recommends as a better doctor than he. His demand has an instant effect on the princess: instead of shrieking and shouting, she begins cluttering her teeth. Within three days, she is spontaneously relieved of her symptoms.
Negoiţă does however proceed to Negustori, learning that Acriviţa was chased out of her home by the creditors and moved back in with her father. Once there, he claims to be a debtor of Ianulea's, presenting her with 100 gold coins and a deed to the Cuţitul de Argint vineyard. He manages to intrigue her by suggesting that, should she ever hear of a demon possessing a woman or girl, she is to walk up to the victim, call out parigboria tu kosmu, and recount her longing for Ianulea. She promises to follow his advice, and Negoiţă returns to court, before deciding to head out of the city for good. He receives yet more presents from the princely family, as well as emotional thanks from Manoli Ghaiduri. As Negoiţă rides out on his way to Oltenia, the devil takes control of another young lady, the daughter of Wallachia's Orthodox Metropolitan. This is Acriviţa's opportunity to follow Negoiţă's advice, and, as soon as she enters the room, the demon flees in panic. The story ends on Aghiuţă's return to Hell, where he requests from Dardarot not to ever accept either Negoiţă and Acriviţa into Hell, and assign them instead to Heaven: "let Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
make up with them as best he can." He also demands and obtains a period of rest to last three centuries, as "those little affairs down on earth left me dog-tired."
Context
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
, moving away from stricter Realism
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
and displaying more interest in the techniques of classical storytelling. The retired playwright, who lived in voluntary exile to the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
between 1905 and his 1912 death, dedicated his final literary contributions to short prose (from novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
s to sketch stories
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
), and, according to literary critic Şerban Cioculescu
Şerban Cioculescu
Şerban Cioculescu was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, as well as membership of the Romanian Academy and chairmanship of its Library...
, produced with Kir Ianulea "his most significant literary production of that period". Caragiale is thought by comparatist
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
Mariana Cap-Bun to have grown aware of his own international recognition by 1900-1910: this revelation, Cap-Bun argues, is what prompted him to diversify his approach and seek to contribute works with a universal appeal, primarily by reworking old narrative themes. In his 1941 synthesis of literary history, influential critic George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
also identified Caragiale's maturity with a growing interest in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
in general, and in particular with producing "artistic Balkanism" on the basis of picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
motifs. According to researcher Tatiana-Ana Fluieraru, the change also constituted a radical break with the modern themes of Caragiale's consecrated works, since, as opposed to his traditionalist counterparts, "nothing seemed to recommend Ion Luca Caragiale for the rendition of popular stories and anecdotes." She also notes that, in respect to his thematic choices, the writer remained "quite cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
", Kir Inaulea being among eight of his last thirty-two stories to choose Levantine subjects over Romanian folkloric
Folklore of Romania
A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations were the main literary genre...
sources. Caragiale himself was very pleased with the results of his activity, and called the resulting tales his best works ever.
According to literary historian Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
, the interval was primarily marked by a Neoromantic
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
and Neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
interest in Renaissance
Renaissance literature
Renaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature that began in Italy during the 14th century and spread around Europe through the 17th century...
and Elizabethan
Elizabethan literature
The term Elizabethan literature refers to the English literature produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I .The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama...
writings, making Caragiale a direct descendant of frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
authors and a disciple of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. In his assessment, Kir Ianulea shares such traits with other Schiţe noi tales, primarily Pastramă trufanda and Calul dracului (the latter of which he believes to be "one of the most perfect stories written in the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
"). Such writings drew critical attention for subtly merging the supernatural elements into a realistic whole. Calling attention to this special trait, Călinescu likened Kir Ianulea to Stan Păţitul, a prose piece by his contemporary Ion Creangă
Ion Creanga
Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...
, which similarly recounts how the Devil finds refuge in a modern, albeit rural, setting. Another literary historian, George Bădărău, argued that Kir Ianulea stands alongside two other Schiţe noi sections (Calul dracului and the Arabian Nights-inspired Abu-Hasan), and together with Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor , he journeyed to Paris, where he was heavily influenced by the growing Symbolist movement and...
's 1930 volume Cetiţi-le noaptea ("Read Them at Night"), as a sample of Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
where "the fantasy realm enters human reality [...], being less exploited as a vision, and more as an oddity." Writing in 2002, researcher Gabriela Chiciudean proposed that Kir Ianulea inaugurated "a new territory" in Caragiale's work, where the fantasy element was being "reduced to the dimensions of the human." According to novelist and theater critic Mircea Ghiţulescu, it joins other samples of Caragiale's short prose (Pastramă trufanda, but also La hanul lui Mânjoală and O făclie de Paşte
O faclie de Paste
O făclie de Paşte or O făclie de Paşti is a naturalistic short story written by Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale. It was first published in 1899....
) in anticipating the "magic realism
Magic realism
Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...
" introduced in the 1960s by the Latin American Boom
Latin American Boom
The Latin American Boom was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world...
.
Reportedly drafted in three days, the tale is believed to have taken some three weeks to perfect. On January 12, 1909, Caragiale wrote to his friend and biographer Paul Zarifopol that Kir Ianulea was completed, jokingly adding: "With God's help, I have finally finished off the devil!" The story was soon after published in the Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
-based magazine Viaţa Românească
Viata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...
. In 1910, it was ultimately included in Caragiale's last anthumous prose collection, Schiţe noi ("New Sketches").
Kir Ianulea and Belfagor arcidiavolo
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
an Renaissance stories which have the devilish creature Belphegor
Belphegor
In demonology, Belphegor is a demon, and one of the seven princes of Hell, who helps people to make discoveries. He seduces people by suggesting to them ingenious inventions that will make them rich. According to some 16th century demonologists, his power is stronger in April...
as their protagonist. A better known Italian-language
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
incarnation of the theme is Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He is one of the main founders of modern political science. He was a diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic...
's Belfagor arcidiavolo
Belfagor arcidiavolo
Belfagor arcidiavolo is a novella by Niccolò Machiavelli. It was written between 1518 and 1527 and published with Machiavelli's collected works in 1549. It is also known under the titles La favola di Belfagor Arcidiavolo or Il demonio che prese moglie.An abbreviated version of Machiavelli's...
, published in his 1549 collected works. Machiavelli's text was however preceded by a shorter version, signed Giovanni Brevio and first printed 1545 as Novella di Belfagorx (in the 19th century, Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
academic John Colin Dunlop
John Colin Dunlop
John Colin Dunlop , historian, son of a Lord Provost of Glasgow, Scotland, where and at Edinburgh he was educated, was elected to the Faculty of Advocates in 1807, and became Sheriff of Renfrewshire. He wrote a History of Fiction , a History of Roman Literature to the Augustan Age , and Memoirs of...
claimed that these writings were all based on a since-lost Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
version). A separate French-language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
version was published before in the 17th century, as part of Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
's Contes. Although the story had already been circulating in a Romanian variant (printed in Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
), Caragiale's version was primarily based on a French translation from Machiavelli: Nouvelle très plaisante de l'archidiable Belphégor ("A Very Enjoyable Novella about the Archdevil Belphegor"). However, he also checked other variants, and informed himself about a German-language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
translation.
The Romanian writer was by then an outspoken admirer of the Renaissance thinker, and his various records mention Machiavelli with words of high praise. According to literary historian Constantin Trandafir, the only other person for whom "Caragiale reserved as many superlatives" is Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
, Romania's national poet and his personal friend. Like with several other of his Schiţe noi, Caragiale mentioned and credited his predecessor, first in his correspondence about the unfinished text, and ultimately within the footnotes of the published version. In one of his messages to Zarifopol, he invited his younger friend to review both texts and see "if I have been doing [Machiavelli] justice with the story of my Kir Ianulea." However, he also made a point of claiming that the Belfagor story no longer belonged to its creator: "since always, the stories belong to everybody, but the manner of recounting them belongs, no matter what the age, to the raconteur".
A number of significant thematic and stylistic differences exist between the 1549 story and the 1909 Romanian version, which is almost four times as large as Machiavelli's; as noted early on by scholar Mihail Dragomirescu, Caragiale's text grew as a "symbolic novel". Describing Kir Ianulea and the various other portions of Schiţe noi as early samples of metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
, Cap-Bun noted: "the new filters were so efficient that one can hardly recognize the new grains growing from the sedimentary beds of the source culture to be responses to the primary texts." Machiavelli's original mixes characters in Ancient Greek myths
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
(the presence of Pluto
Pluto (mythology)
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Pluto was a name for the ruler of the underworld; the god was also known as Hades, a name for the underworld itself...
, Minos
Minos
In Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every year he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by The Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. The Minoan civilization of Crete...
and Rhadamanthus
Rhadamanthus
In Greek mythology, Rhadamanthus was a wise king, the son of Zeus and Europa. Later accounts even make him out to be one of the judges of the dead. His brothers were Sarpedon and Minos . Rhadamanthus was raised by Asterion. He had two sons, Gortys and Erythrus. Other sources In Greek mythology,...
) with Jewish
Jewish mythology
Jewish mythology is generally the sacred and traditional narratives that help explain and symbolize the Jewish religion, whereas Jewish folklore consists of the folk tales and legends that existed in the general Jewish culture. There is very little early folklore distinct from the aggadah literature...
and Christian mythology
Christian mythology
Christian mythology is the body of myths associated with Christianity. In the study of mythology, the term "myth" refers to a traditional story, often one which is regarded as sacred and which explains how the world and its inhabitants came to have their present form.Classicist G.S. Kirk defines a...
(the heresy of Peor
Heresy of Peor
The heresy of Peor is an event related in the Torah at Numbers 25:1-15. Back references to the event occur in Numbers 25:18 and 31:16, Deuteronomy 4:3, Joshua 22:17, Hosea 9:10; Psalm 106:28...
), making Belphegor's mission relate to the supposed evils of womanhood and the morals of medieval Florence
Republic of Florence
The Republic of Florence , or the Florentine Republic, was a city-state that was centered on the city of Florence, located in modern Tuscany, Italy. The republic was founded in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon Margravine Matilda's death. The...
. In contrast to Belphegor, Caragiale's protagonist is feeble, shy, and, Şerban Cioculescu argues, a "sympathetic" figure. These differences were still deemed insufficient by Călinescu and by his contemporary, the influential modernist
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
reviewer Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the Sburătorul literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the uncle of Horia Lovinescu, Vasile Lovinescu, and Anton Holban...
. The former judged Kir Ianulea a "larger version" of Machiavelli's account, while Lovinescu saw it as one of the pieces where Caragiale "brought only his storyteller's art, and nothing from his invention". Giovanni Rotiroti, an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
critic and psychoanalyst
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, argues: "The Romanian novella does not move very far away from Machiavelli's, except in matters of lexical richness, as well as in scale and number of pages." Evidencing the thematic relationship and the tripartite structure of both stories, Rotiroti concludes: "The parallelism between the two novellas is perfect". He believes that Caragiale imagined a partial translation from Machiavelli, discarding those fragments he identified as weak, and turning the Florentine peculiarities into things that a modern Romanian audience could find alluring. Tatiana-Ana Fluieraru also proposes that Caragiale's story, unlike his other late pieces which reuse older themes, is an "actual reconstruction" of the source.
Caragial's localized adaptation takes place, according to Călinescu, during the rule of Prince Nicholas Mavrogenes
Nicholas Mavrogenes
Nicholas Mavrogenes was a Phanariote Prince of Wallachia . He was the great-uncle of Manto Mavrogenous, a heroine of the Greek War of Independence.-Early life and election:...
(1786–1789), or, in Cioculescu's account: "toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the next, in still-Phanariote
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...
Bucharest, where one finds Manuc's Inn and the Negustori suburb". Italian literary historian and Romanist
Romance studies
Romance studies is an umbrella academic discipline that covers the study of the languages, literatures, and cultures of areas that speak a Romance language. Romance studies departments usually include the study of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese...
Gino Lupi finds that the Phanariote references touch every aspect of Caragiale's retelling, producing a fresco of historical Bucharest
History of Bucharest
The history of Bucharest covers the time from the early settlements on the locality's territory until its modern existence as a city, capital of Wallachia, and present-day capital of Romania.-Ancient times:...
: "The episode, which is bare and concise in Belfagor, is shrouded here in particular details which serve to depict Phanariote Bucharest, with its roads, its means of transportation, its costumes. [...] Even if the good devil Kir Ianulea is the usual weak and enamored husband, Acriviţa, the greedy and overbearing woman, and Negoiţă, the shrewd peasant, are almost entirely for real." Tudor Vianu viewed Kir Ianulea as Caragiale's deepest exploration into his favorite object of derision: the Romanian middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
. This middle-class prehistory, Vianu notes, completes his earlier contributions to Romanian drama and comediography, his satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of social customs, and his ridicule of established political opinion. Vianu further noted that the story pinpoints the original middle-class acculturation
Acculturation
Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and...
: "the epoch of Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
penetration, when the bases for a large section of the local bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
were being laid down, creating a political reservoir". Writing later, critic Mihai Zamfir also found Kir Ianulea to be one of the first and few works of fiction to make "an object of aesthetic contemplation" out of the Phanariote age (second only to Nicolae Filimon
Nicolae Filimon
Nicolae Filimon was a Wallachian Romanian novelist and short-story writer, remembered as the author of the very first Realist novel in Romanian literature, Ciocoii vechi şi noi , which was centered on the self-seeking figure of Dinu Păturică...
's celebrated novel Upstarts Old and New).
Characteristic anecdotes and vocabulary
Anecdote
An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
, which contribute to the overall difference in size between the source and the replica version. The "pleasure of the anecdote" is identified by Cioculescu as the basis for Ianulea's detailed account about his origins, including the recipe for avoiding bowel obstruction
Bowel obstruction
Bowel obstruction is a mechanical or functional obstruction of the intestines, preventing the normal transit of the products of digestion. It can occur at any level distal to the duodenum of the small intestine and is a medical emergency...
(described by the critic as "an innocent devilish prank"). Cioculescu also notes: "Caragiale is clearly superior to Machiavelli as a storyteller; the thing responsible for this comfortable handicap is the illustrative power of dialogue, which allows characters to gain contour." Gabriela Chiciudean tracked resemblances between Kir Ianulea and the classical frame narratives
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
of the Levant, working the pretext ("a subject fulfilling the orders of a king") into "labyrinthic paths".
A primary method used by Caragiale in rendering depth to his narrative is the recovery of antiquated Romanian lexis
Romanian lexis
The lexis of the Romanian language , a Romance language, has changed over the centuries as the language evolved from Vulgar Latin, to Proto-Romanian, to medieval, modern and contemporary Romanian.-Medieval Romanian:...
, with Phanariote-era archaism
Archaism
In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...
s of Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
or Hellenic
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
origin. In reference to these cultural references, Lupi wrote: "The language is rich in the Turkisms and Graecisms of the Phanariote age and greatly contributes in rendering local color to the narrative which [...] is true to historical reality." George Călinescu focused on the presence of such words throughout Kir Ianulea, proposing that they were used by the author as both a means of adding "color" and a method for illustrating "spiritual nuances", concluding: "The narrative revolves around hysterical
Hysteria
Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...
episodes." Among the dated "violently southern" terms mentioned by Călinescu are capsoman ("stubborn man"), daraveră ("business"), ipochimen ("guy"), isnaf ("corporation"), levent ("gentlemanly"), proclet ("accursed"), matuf ("senile man"), mufluz ("bankrupt man"), selemet ("bankruptcy"), techer-mecher ("hurriedly"), zuliară ("jealous woman") and zumaricale ("sweets"). In order to add to the authenticity of his novella, Caragiale also contemplated inserting into it several fragments of poems by the late 18th-century author Costache Conachi.
Language and its uses plays a relevant part in the plot, providing additional clues and supporting elements. In Călinescu's opinion, Kir Ianulea differs from Caragiale's early works, where specialized or erroneous language is used for comedic effect; in this case, he argues, the Romanian author attempted not to ridicule his characters, but to reflect their background and origin. Kir Ianulea therefore records the origin of speech patterns which are natural for 18th-century boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s and traders, and which only become ridiculous at the other end of the Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
process, where Caragiale's main plays reside: "This natural style [of speech] has later fallen through obsolescence into the immediately inferior class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, as things will usually happen when the folk dress
Romanian dress
Romanian dress refers to the traditional clothing worn by Romanians, who live primarily in Romania and Moldova, with smaller communities in Ukraine and Serbia. Today, a strong majority of Romanians wear Western-style dress on most occasions, and the garments described here largely fell out of use...
is concerned." This perspective prompted Călinescu to conclude that "Caragiale's genius" was in exposing and "rehabilitating" the earliest stage of a degenerative process, by reflecting the language of the mahala
Mahala
Mahala is a Balkan word for "neighbourhood" or "quarter", a section of a rural or urban settlement, dating to the times of the Ottoman Empire. It was brought to the area through Ottoman Turkish mahalle, but it originates in Arabic mähallä, from the root meaning "to settle", "to occupy"...
(a suburb or ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
, commonly stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
d as an uncivilized and unregulated community). However, he also criticized Caragiale's own belief that texts such as Kir Ianulea were stylistically accomplished because their Romanian was harmonious, believing that "spontaneity" and "naturalism
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
" towered over "melody" throughout the narrative, reaching the point of "anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
istic" literature.
The importance of various other linguistic elements within the narrative has also been highlighted by other researchers of Caragiale's work. An early observation made by Zarifopol, and cited by Cioculescu in agreement with his own arguments, has it that the author introduced references to himself and his Greek-Romanian
Greeks in Romania
There has been a Greek presence in Romania for at least 27 centuries. At times, as during the Phanariote era, this presence has amounted to hegemony; at other times , the Greeks have simply been one among the many ethnic minorities in Romania.-Ancient and Medieval Period:The Greek presence in what...
origins in his portrayal of Aghiuţă-Ianulea. This is thought to be the case for the character's stated pride that, despite being a foreigner (an Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
, in Cioculescu's interpretation), he is both versed in Romanian culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
and a polyglot
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
. The notion that Ianulea is in effect Caragiale's alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
has subsequently become commonplace among investigators of his work. According to Cioculescu: "This is, after all, the only place where the author reveals his entirely justified philological pride." Rotiroti theorizes the importance of words in defining the fairy tale's two "semantic
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
fields". The original and concrete one is Hell, where "semantics are organized in pyramid fashion, and ordered [...] as signified of signifiers
Meaning (semiotics)
In semiotics, the meaning of a sign is its place in a sign relation, in other words, the set of roles that it occupies within a given sign relation. This statement holds whether sign is taken to mean a sign type or a sign token...
." He adds: "Even if the comedic effect [...] springs from an estranging, corporal, obscene, quasi-sexual effect, provided by the strange 'fatherly love'-based relationship between the little devil and his emperor, the body, or better said the various allusions to its components ('ear', 'tail') play a part that undermines with irony the structures attributable to this reality." Also according to Rotiroti, the hierarchy of significance is modified by the earthly episodes within the plot, particularly since Aghiuţă's new identity is that of an outsider who holds a succession of roles, and since his foreign name is itself meant to suggest the strangeness of Phanariote times. The latter attribute, he believes, is illustrated and enhanced by the use of terms directly borrowed from other languages and regularly surfacing throughout the text.
Kir Ianulea and female empowerment
Poet and folklorist Ioan Şerb, who included Caragiale's text in his Antologia basmului cult ("The Anthology of Cultured Fairy Tales"), placed it in direct comparison not just to Machiavelli's text, but also to an episode in the One Thousand and One Nights and an anecdote in Romanian folkloreFolklore of Romania
A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations were the main literary genre...
(collected by Ovidiu Bârlea in Hunedoara County
Hunedoara County
Hunedoara is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with its capital city at Deva.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 485,712 and the population density was 69/km².*Romanians - 92%*Hungarians - 5%*Romas - 2%*Germans under 1%....
). In Şerb's assessment, the main difference between such prose and Caragiale's text was the latter's "progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
tendency" and move toward "rehabilitating women". This perspective was received with reserve by Cioculescu: "kir Ianulea's wife, far from suggesting an intent for rehabilitation on Caragiale's part, illustrates the unbearable, exasperating character of a woman who is almost literally infernal. Only the fact that she does not resort to murder imposes the reserve of this 'almost'." In addition to her many psychological defects, Cioculescu argues, Caragiale hinted to Acriviţa's innate negativity by mentioning her esotropia
Esotropia
Esotropia is a form of strabismus, or "squint", in which one or both eyes turns inward. The condition can be constantly present, or occur intermittently, and can give the affected individual a "cross-eyed" appearance...
, exploiting the Romanian tradition according to which distinct marks on one's face are bad omen
Omen
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change...
s. Cioculescu wrote: "Actually, Caragiale builds his theme without misogynistic
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
hatred, with the euphoria of the storyteller and the playwright who knows how to stage a situation for his characters [...]. But the lack of misogyny does not at all imply that the author, who so well depicts the circumstances of kir Ianulea's exasperation, is an advocate of women. [...] That Acriviţa is 'fundamentally evil' is instantly apparent to any reader; that she is not a typical representative of all women is also very correctly assessed."
Mariana Cap-Bun ranks Acriviţa's portrayal as "much more evil than the devil" alongside several "strong female characters" in Caragiale's stories and drama, arguing that this motif ultimately owed its inspiration to Shakespeare (and especially to Shakespearean tragedy
Shakespearean tragedy
Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career. One of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, which he followed a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608...
, which is known to have been treasured by the Romanian author). She also finds that, as Caragiale's career drew to a close, this focus too modified to include the "excessively cruel and weird"—the unassailable meanness characterizing Ianuloaia being complemented by the murderous thoughts of Anca in the play Năpasta (1890) and by the violent bouts of hysteria displayed by Ileana, the incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
uous protagonist of Păcat (1892).
Legacy
Interpretations of Caragiale's story continued to be present in cultural debates of the interwar periodInterwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
and beyond. In 1932, Aromanian
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
writer and cultural activist Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Besaria, Basarya or Bazaria , was a Macedonian-born Aromanian cultural activist, Ottoman statesman and Romanian writer...
contributed an essay tracking down and assessing the Levantine narrative motifs retold by Kir Ianulea. The narrative's recovery of the foreign-influenced and often vilified past was viewed with reserve by 1930s nationalists
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
such as philosopher and fantasy author Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
, who found the story the most objectionable one among Caragiale's writings. In 1939, composer Sabin Drăgoi
Sabin Dragoi
Sabin Drăgoi was a Romanian composer and specialist on folk music. His wide output included orchestral and chamber works, film music and operas.-Major works:*Constantin Brâncoveanu*Kir Ianulea*Horia*The Misfortune...
completed an operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
version of the story, which premiered at the Romanian Opera
Cluj-Napoca Romanian Opera
Cluj-Napoca Romanian National Opera is a public opera house and ballet company institution in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The Opera shares the same building with the National Theatre.-Building:...
in Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
(it was one of the last Romanian shows to be performed in the city before the Second Vienna Award
Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two Vienna Awards arbitrated by the Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Rendered on August 30, 1940, it re-assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.-Prelude and historical background :After the World War I, the multi-ethnic...
granted Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania is a region of Transylvania, situated within the territory of Romania. The population is largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians, and the region has been part of Romania since 1918 . During World War II, as a consequence of the territorial agreement known as...
to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
).
Kir Ianulea in particular has served to inspire a number of Caragiale's followers among modernist
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
and postmodernist
Postmodern literature
The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post–World War II literature and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact...
Romanian authors, with new elements being added after the 1989 Revolution
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
. Declaring himself a disciple of Caragiale, writer and humorist Radu Cosaşu referred to Kir Ianulea as "our father's most accomplished masterpiece". Also according to Cosaşu, Kir Ianulea and Cănuţă om sucit are two of Caragiale's most valuable stories in danger of being forgotten by readers, whereas his plays are being turned into "giant, intimidating clichés." In 2002, dramatist Radu Macrinici adapted Kir Ianulea into a new play. Titled Un prieten de când lumea? ("A Friend as Old as Time?"), the text merged an intertextual
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined...
structure borrowed directly from the novella with elements from comedies by Caragiale's uncle Iorgu, as well as with Craii de Curtea-Veche
Craii de Curtea-Veche
Craii de Curtea-Veche is a novel by the inter-war Romanian author Mateiu Caragiale...
, a celebrated novel by Caragiale's estranged son Mateiu
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Ion Caragiale was a Romanian poet and prose writer, best known for his novel Craii de Curtea-Veche, which portrays the milieu of boyar descendants before and after World War I. Caragiale's style, associated with Symbolism, the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle, and early modernism, was...
. According to theater critic Gabriela Riegler, Macrinici used this mix to produce an artistic statement about modern depersonalization
Depersonalization
Depersonalization is an anomaly of the mechanism by which an individual has self-awareness. It is a feeling of watching oneself act, while having no control over a situation. Sufferers feel they have changed, and the world has become less real, vague, dreamlike, or lacking in significance...
and "Romanian mediocrity". Un prieten de când lumea? was notably staged in 2002 by Sfântu Gheorghe
Sfântu Gheorghe
Sfântu Gheorghe is the capital city of Covasna County, Romania. Located in the central part of the country and in the historical region of Transylvania, it lies on the Olt River in a valley between the Baraolt Mountains and Bodoc Mountains...
's Andrei Mureşanu Theater, with Florin Vidamski as Ianulea.