Communism and Socialist Realism After his short affiliation to
Surrealism, a style which is almost entirely absent from his published work, Baconsky embraced a style which reflected his
communist sympathies, and which is most often seen as the source of some of his poorest work.
Cornel Ungureanu describes the early 1950s Baconsky as "an exponent of socialist realism" and a "passionate supporter of the communist
utopia"; (a word also used by Călinescu), Likened by Matei Călinescu to the debut writings of the younger communist author
Dan Deşliu, He also cites fellow critic
Alexandru Piru, who defines Baconsky's early productions as bearing "the strong imprint of journalism". Other portions of his work were dedicated to
industrialization policies, around subjects related to
Brad factories. Discussing his projects for 1952 in an interview with
Contemporanul, Baconsky explained: "I am especially interested in the matter of engineers who rose from the ranks of young workers. I want to follow [their] transformation on all levels and create the figure of a young engineer in one of my poems." Simion, who recorded his impression of Baconsky, spoke of his "romantic beauty", "sartorial elegance", and a form of "
melancholy" which, he argued, recalled that displayed by 19th century author
Gérard de Nerval. Criticism was expressed early on by poet
Veronica Porumbacu, who reproached him having published too little "when the people is asking us to participate with all forces in the struggle." Also in 1953,
Paul Georgescu, literary columnist at
Scînteia, the main Communist Party organ, reacted against the
Steaua leadership, and argued that Baconsky personally had developed "a high-flown style, designed to hide his unfamiliarity with life and lack of ideas." Georgescu also claimed that Baconsky's travel accounts had failed to show "how [Bulgarian] people live, how this country looks today [...]", and that his poems displayed various ideological mistakes. Writing for
Viaţa Românească, critic
Eugen Campus endorsed earlier pronouncements and added that, although Baconsky was a "talented poet", he found his contributions showed "a tendency to repeat oneself—for all the originality it covets". Literary historian
Ana Selejan notes that, upon the end of the debates, the poet found himself was "blacklisted" by the official critics. In parallel, Baconsky criticized other writers on similar grounds. He aimed such remarks at his fellow poet
Eugen Frunză, which brought him additional criticism from Georgescu and
Mircea Gafiţa. Several of Baconsky's poems, in particular the 1953
Rutină ("Routine"),
satirize authors who did not seek to make their poems interesting to the general public. The latter, Selejan proposes, may be a covert reference to and ironic
pastiche of
Mihai Beniuc, one of the Socialist Realist poets most trusted by the regime. One of the stanzas reads: Selejan also notes that
Rutină, like the war poem
Manifest ("Manifesto"), constitute a "dissonant note" when compared with other poems of the day, including those of Beniuc.
Manifest, which may have been written in honor of the Romanian-hosted
World Festival of Youth and Students (1953), and which Selejan believes may display irony toward "poetic militantism in the present tense", compares the fate of
World War II soldiers with that of post-1945 youth, in meditative lyrics such as: Progressively after the late 1950s, Baconsky entirely lost his confidence in communism—an attitude which culminated in his 1972 protest. His disappointment was especially known to his intimate circle. Based on this, Cernat defines the writer as an "informal
anti-communist", In the climate of relative
liberalization coinciding with
Nicolae Ceauşescu's early years in office, his anthologies and essays helped reinstate works of literature who had been previously
censored. This group, defined by Dimisianu as "the older allies of my generation", also includes Paraschivescu,
Geo Bogza,
Ovid Crohmălniceanu,
Geo Dumitrescu,
Eugen Jebeleanu,
Marin Preda,
Zaharia Stancu, as well as Baconsky's former rival Paul Georgescu. The new direction, heralded during his time at
Steaua, Baconsky resisted such criticism, and, in one of his articles, openly stated that poets needed to return to a lyrical approach: "Ignoring the rich array of intimate feelings means mutilating the protagonist's personality, depicting him unilaterally, belittling the actual dimensions of his soul." Matei Călinescu argues that such a commitment to artistic purity was a sign of "what we could call the 'aesthetic resistance' to communism." Eugen Simion emphasized as the common trait of such poems: "a voluptuousness in things fading away, in the weariness provoked by the whispers of rain." In his definition, Baconsky had become "an aesthete of melancholy." Also according to Mircea Braga, "the
manifesto of [Baconsky's]
onthologic unease" is his
Imn către nelinişte ("Hymn to Disquiet"): It was also at this stage that the poet began introducing references to remote or exotic locations in his works. His poems began to speak of mysterious
Baltic and
Northern European landscapes, of ancient roads,
medieval settings and the desolation of history, as well as of Romania's natural sights (the
Danube Delta and the
Carpathian Mountains) and scenes from
Romanian history (involving the
Dacians, the
Scythes and the
Thracians, or the
Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great). The pieces show his enduring fascination with water environments, references to which, according to Braga, he used to illustrate the "all-encompassing dynamic."
Cadavre în vid and Corabia lui Sebastian With the somber collection
Cadavre în vid, Baconsky entered what Braga calls a "forth artistic phase" (after
Surrealism, Socialist Realism and the first change in orientation). Braga also believes that, in his depictions of melancholy and disease, Baconsky again focuses on unease and "the denial of the irreplaceable" (while letting the reader know that such a denial is "useless and inefficient"). In a 1985 essay, poet and critic
Dinu Flămând discusses
Cadavre în vid as "a book of suffering, unique in our literature, a tragic perception of the disinherited, a nightmare of
teratologic dreams in the new 'electronic season' ". Mircea Braga writes that this and other late volumes, showing "a world born out of nightmares", are the product of several influences: alongside
George Bacovia's melancholic poems, they host echoes from both
Expressionism and
Postmodern literature. Flămând ranks the posthumous
Corabia lui Sebastian among "the best works written in this second half of the [20th] century", and compares its "
cynicism" to the
existential philosophy of
Emil Cioran. By that stage, Baconsky also became noted for theorizing the rejection of "
consumerism", advocating instead a return to established cultural values. Diana Câmpan noted the poems'
dystopian imagery: "The
Abendland is [...] an eerie
Leviathan-like corpus, with attributes defining for humanity's decrepitude, a surrogate, anti-utopian citadel, handled in accordance with the laws of decline which grind the elites as well as the masses, the things as well their reflection". A part of the eponymous poem reads: According to Mircea Braga, one of his last interviews shows that, while still criticized for "aestheticism", Baconsky merged his lyricism with an interest in social matters. The statement reads: "The writer is not a politician in the common and consecrated sense of the word. He does however have
the role of a spiritual ferment [italics in the original]. He must not allow people to acquire cerebral
obesity. He is always dissatisfied with something or other, his position is that of a permanent
antithesis with the surrounding reality." Baconsky thus depicts his journey as an "interior adventure". In Tomuţa's view, the depiction of
Vienna, with a focus on "the glorious vestiges of the past", takes the reader on a "voluptuous time travel." In the critic's definition, Baconsky's Vienna encloses a secondary reality, that is "ideal", "aestheticized", "fictional" and "bookish". Drace-Francis also notes that the climate of relative liberalization and
détente of the 1960s not only made such journeys possible, but actually allowed writers the freedom to go beyond stereotyped depictions of
capitalism (while it remained uncertain whether Communist Romania's dialog with the West would "dominate the construction of
epistemic value"). Overall, Cornel Ungureanu comments, Baconsky's accounts of his western travels are marked by "dark visions of the world." Ungureanu sees this as a sign of Baconsky's having "descended into Hell". Cernat, who extends his critique of Baconsky's anti-capitalist attitude to
Remember, also argues that the author's "absolute freedom" of travel under a repressive regime indicates that his work was not perceived as a threat by the communist system. Baconsky's prose fiction is closely linked to the themes and style of his poetry. In Braga's view, the
fantasy collection
Echinoxul nebunilor is a prosaic representative of its author's early commitment to aestheticism; according to Cernat, its tone is "
apocalyptic". A characteristic of Baconsky's prose fiction is its resemblance to his poetry works, to the point where they were described by Crina Bud as "hybrid forms". In Bogdan Creţu's view,
Biserica neagră, Baconsky's only novel, is written with "
alexandrine-like purity". Likewise, the
Corabia lui Sebastian poems were noted for moving into the realm of prose. This transgression of limits summoned objections from prominent literary critic
Nicolae Manolescu, who reportedly believed Baconsky's work to be largely without merit.
Biserica neagră is also read as his most subversive work, described by critics as a "counter-utopia". Ungureanu sees it as a "
Kafkaesque" work of
absurdist inspiration, and a further sign of the author "descending into Hell". Crina Bud links the anti-utopian quality to contemporary writings by, among others, Matei Călinescu (
Viaţa şi opiniile lui Zacharias Lichter, "The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter") and Baconsky's friend
Octavian Paler (
Viaţa pe un peron—"Life on a Platform";
Un om norocos—"A Lucky Man"). Written from the perspective of a sculptor, who is probably a transposition of Baconsky himself, it is a
parable of
totalitarian command, artistic submission, individual despair and withdrawal. The volume also offers a glimpse into the world of political imprisonment under communism. ==Legacy==