Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian far-right politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator. Octavian Goga was the first fascist Prime Minister of Romania.
Biography
Early life
Octavian Goga was born on 1 April 1881 in the village of Rășinari, on the northern slopes of the Southern Carpathians, in the house at 778 Ulița Popilor, the son of the Aromanian Orthodox priest Iosif Goga and Aurelia, a teacher. Between 1886 and 1890, Goga attended primary school in his native village, having Moise Frățilă, a patriotic intellectual and the possible character in the poem Dascălul, as his teacher. His sister Victoria, who died early, was the character in .Most of his holidays, as he recounts in various autobiographical texts, were spent in his father's native village, Crăciunelu de Sus, Alba County, on the Târnava Mică, now part of the commune of Cetatea de Baltă, where about 20% of the families in the village bear the name Goga. The poet said: "The life of the peasants on the delnițele Crăciunelului was my inspiration for Plugarii & Clăcașii.
In 1890 the poet enrolled at the state high school in Sibiu, which he attended until 1899, when he transferred to the Romanian high school in Brașov. After graduating from high school in 1900, he enrolled at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Budapest, continuing his studies in Berlin and completing them in 1904.
On 14 October 1906 he married Hortensia Cosma, the youngest daughter of the politician and banker Partenie Cosma, director of the Albina Bank in Sibiu, one of the wealthiest Romanians in Transylvania. The ceremony took place at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Sibiu, with Alexandrina and Alexandru Vlahuță as godparents. The marriage broke up after 14 years, when Goga fell in love with the singer Veturia Triteanu, born Mureșan, whom he married in January 1921.
Goga was a member of the in Paris.
Debut in journalism
In the issue of 12–24 December the newspaper Tribuna published his first poem, ', signed "Tavi". Ion Pop-Reteganul from the Revista Ilustrată wrote to him at the editorial office: "You have talent, young friend, cultivate it with diligence, for you can become great. The good day in the morning shows itself. Don't neglect your student duties." After this encouragement, the poem ' was published on half a page. Goga, a student at the Hungarian-language high school in Sibiu, had not yet turned seventeen.The following poems he published in Iosif Vulcan's Revista Familia and in the newspapers Tribuna and Luceafărul were signed, above all, also "Octavian" and then "Nic. Otavă". It was not until 15 September 1903 that he signed his first poem in Luceafărul under the name "Octavian Goga".
On July 1, 1902, Luceafărul, a publication for national culture and political unity of the Romanians in Transylvania, appeared in Budapest, where Goga published most of his poems. The founding of the magazine was due to the Romanian students who were active in Budapest within the "Petru Maior" Society: Alexandru Ciura, the author of the article "In lieu de programme" in the first issue, and Goga, who said in 1933 that the title of the magazine "was related to the state of mind and literary consciousness of those times". Most of Goga's works included in the volume Poezii appeared in the magazine Luceafărul, in whose pages the poet established himself as a genuine literary talent.
In 1904 the well-known poem appeared in Luceafărul, then in no. 7, April 10, p. 151, the poem ', signed "Nic. Otavă", and in 1905, the poems ', ', ', ', and '.
Critical remarks on the editorial debut
Goga entered literary publishing with recommendations from Ilarie Chendi, Sextil Pușcariu, Nicolae Iorga, Ion Gorun, Vasile Goldiș, and Eugen Lovinescu.In 1905, the volume Poezii appeared in Budapest, reprinted by the publishing house "Minerva" in Bucharest in 1907 and in Sibiu in 1910. After this editorial debut, which became a true literary event, the poet became increasingly in the public consciousness. The literary critic Ion Dodu Bălan considered that Goga's volume "signifies the beginning of a new epoch for our Romanian soul", because "no one has surpassed the vigour, purity and music of our language, the richness of colours, the originality of ideas, the serenity of concepts, the candour of expressions and the healthy national background, which is concentrated in these poems". The poems in this volume are considered "brilliant creations" and the most valuable critics "understand the social, national and aesthetic significance of this appearance in the history of Romanian lyric".
After the review in Revista Familia, Iosif Vulcan returns, on the occasion of the publication of the poem Așa a fost să fie, with the appreciation that Goga is "an original talent, inspired only by the soul of the people", and the poem, "a literary event". The volume Poems was enthusiastically received by critics and writers.
Titu Maiorescu revised his aesthetic theory of 1866. In the notion of politics, the mentor of Junimii included patriotism an element of political action, eventually acknowledging that has become one of the sources of Goga's poetry and inspires him in the most natural way. The proof lies in the bringing in and describing of ordinary figures in the life of the people, who, however, suddenly gain — in addition to their normal value and purpose — a significance, one might say, an extraordinary illumination and brilliance, which can only be explained by the ardour of the struggle to defend the national heritage".
Other appreciations of esteem were formulated by Sextil Pușcariu, Ion Luca Caragiale, George Coșbuc, Alexandru Vlahuță, Eugen Lovinescu, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, and George Panu. Considered a poet of the nation on both sides of the Carpathians, the poet enjoyed remarkable literary prestige by the age of 25.
Death
Retired alone at Ciucea Castle - his wife preferred to stay in Bucharest - Goga suffered a stroke with hemiplegia in the park of the manor house on 5 May 1938 and fell into a coma. He died two days later, on 7 May 1938 at 2.15 pm, aged 57. King Carol II ordered a national funeral for him which, due to the 10th May holiday, was to begin on 11 May. For two days, on Sunday 8 May and Monday 9 May, the pilgrimage continued in front of the catafalque in Ciucea. On Tuesday 10 May, the funeral train left for Bucharest. The coffin was placed on Wednesday 11 May in the rotunda of the Athenaeum, where it remained until Saturday 14 May, when the national funeral took place. In accordance with his will, no words were spoken and a Nazi swastika was placed on the body.Goga was buried in Bucharest, at Bellu Cemetery. Later the poet's body was reburied at his mansion in Ciucea, according to his wishes.
Activity
Journalistic activity
The poet's journalistic beginnings were linked to the magazine Luceafărul, founded on his initiative on July 1, 1902, in Budapest, together with Alexandru Ciura and Octavian Tăslăuanu. Goga remained successively as editor-in-chief or director until 1912. The appearance of the magazine Luceafărul was, to a large extent, confused with the concerns and sorrows of young students, animated by the same dreams:These young people from Budapest knew that they had a duty to defend the ideals of an entire community.
Luceafărul appeared in Budapest on July 1, 1902, on the initiative and with the material support of A.P. Bănuț, supported by a group of patriotic Romanian students. "There was also a lack for Transylvania," said Goga, "of a literary magazine in whose pages the local character, with all its differences from other parts of our nation, was imprinted". Octavian Goga's contribution to the rise of Luceafăr was immense: "Octavian Goga," wrote Ion Chinezu, "wrote for other magazines, even founded some; his name is linked to Luceafărul".
With his activity in the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and Culture of the Romanian People, his publicity concerns intensified with the passing of time, revealing yet another side of his literary talent. Under his direction, the journal Țara ''noastră appeared on 1 January 1907, temporarily replacing the journal Transilvania. Goga, who effectively directed this weekly, appeared first as editor and then as owner-editor. In the first issue he published the editorial entitled "To our scholars", in which he stated that he aimed to write: "A good gazette. A gazette that bridges the gap between the souls of the scholars and the peasants who kneel to read it on Sundays. All scholars who feel in their hearts the resonance of a duty that demands fulfilment will have their say in this paper, the profits of which will benefit our cultural establishment." The magazine Țara noastră appeared weekly in Sibiu until 5 December 1909. It then reappeared in Cluj, with Octavian Goga as director, and then in Bucharest. The issue of 29 May 1938 was dedicated to the memory of its founder, who died on 7 May.
Until the outbreak of World War I, Goga established himself as a brilliant journalist through his articles published in Țara noastră magazine, Epoca newspaper, Adevărul, Flacăra magazine and România magazine, his journalistic prose being stylistically and thematically comparable to Eminescu. His articles approached the value of the work of a vocational prose writer. The prose writings were either speeches given at Academy meetings, anniversary addresses, or simply tributes to personalities or friends of the writer. Considered anthological pieces in a possible history of portraiture, Tudor Vianu dedicated a significant chapter to it in The Art of Romanian Short Stories.
Goga focused his publicity on the problems of "Romanianism". Through the magazine Luceafărul he managed to strengthen his cultural ties with Romania, towards the political union of later. The magazine Țara Noastra'', which focused on Goga's ideology, also strengthened its ties with the people in the villages, advising them but also helping them with their spiritual and material needs.