Gheorghe Asachi a Writer between Cultural Epochs (II)

Gheorghe Asachi seems like a forgotten writer today. His place in the history of literature should not be minimized. He imposed rigor on poetry, bringing prosodic patterns untried by anyone before him. It is the most important literary contribution. He took on the themes of the era, but in a classicizing manner. He founded culture magazines, built the first forms of the public education system in Romanian, fought important philological battles. Because he placed himself wrongly, against the trend of the times, being an opponent of the revolution of 1848 and the Union of 1859, he was marginalized by the 1848 Generation and for decades his name was covered in oblivion. After Lovinescu and Călinescu, however, literary histories give it its due importance, even if without enthusiasm. Gheorghe Asachi is a founder, a pioneer, a man of the beginnings of the road. He did not create masterpieces, but he initiated several poetic genres and wrote plays, short stories and articles that fixed a profile that cannot be passed over. But above all, he created a literary mythology that made its way, sometimes ridding itself of the name of its author.