Hélène Vacaresco pour les siens. Une histoire d’héritage, dette et culpabilité

Abstract

The text proposes an analysis of the destiny and activity of Elena Văcărescu, the last descendant of the “family of poets” considered to be the founder of Romanian culture – as an exemplary illustration of how a creative life can be affected, in its entirety, by accepting a legacy. From the first moment when, still a teenager, she begins to write verses in French and sees herself sanctioned, through an anathema, by Eminescu, as an unworthy heir – and until the end of her career as a poet in France (distinguished twice with the Award of the French Academy), Elena will only deepen, always reformulating, the consciousness of guilt towards her family, and, through it, towards Romania. This guilt makes her never be able to project herself in relation to her native country, other than in the modest positions of “messenger” and cultural “mediator”, while her adopted country enshrines her as a “poet”.