Poetul I. L. Caragiale şi avatarurile criticii genetice
I. L. Caragiale, the poet, and the avatars of the genetic critique

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this paper is, as we can notice, I.L.Caragiale’s poetry, while he is mainly known and appreciated for his dramatic and prose writings. Our intention is not to account for the literary worth of his lyricism, but rather to elucidate a specific reading mechanism. The issue is not that Caragiale wrote poems (after all, who didn’t?), but the fact that we, as Caragiale’s readers, do actually find them appealing. Why should we consider such a marginal work and how should we perceive this new image of a well-known author? But mostly, how should we read this kind of work – and, most of all, how does it interact with the author’s main texts? These are some of the questions we intend to answer. In order to do so, we will interrogate some previous critical analyses, thus performing what is called the “criticism of critics”. The conclusion of each of these analyses leads us to a specific reading strategy which is usually used by genetic criticism. When seen in this light, Caragiale’s poetry seems to no longer belong to a literary category; it actually evolves into a kind of pre-textual construction (an avantext), which, if carefully considered, can certainly add to the meaning of his main work, but still doesn’t seem to be appreciated as a real work of art.

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