Batzaria - Legacy

Legacy

The work of Nicolae Constantin Batzaria was the subject of critical reevaluation during the last decades of the communist regime, when Romania was ruled by Nicolae Ceauşescu. Writing at the time, Kemal H. Karpat argued: "Lately there seems to be a revived interest in children's stories." During the period, Romania's literary scene included several authors whose talents had been first noticed by Batzaria when, as children, they sent him their debut works. Such figures include Ştefan Cazimir, Barbu Cioculescu and Mioara Cremene.

Batzaria's various works for junior readers were published in several editions beginning in the late 1960s, and included reprints of Poveşti de aur with illustrations by Lívia Rusz. Writing the preface to one such reprint, Gica Iuteş defined Batzaria as "one of the eminent Aromanian scholars" and "a master of the clever word", while simply noting that he had "died in Bucharest in the year 1952." Similarly, the 1979 Dicţionarul cronologic al literaturii române ("Chronological Dictionary of Romanian Literature") discussed Batzaria, but gave no clue as to his death. In tandem with this official recovery, Batzaria's work became an inspiration for the dissident poet Mircea Dinescu, the author of a clandestinely circulated satire which compared Ceauşescu to Haplea and referred to both as figures of destruction.

Renewed interest in Batzaria's work followed the 1989 Revolution, which signified the communist regime's end. His work was integrated into new reviews produced by literary historians, and awarded a sizable entry in the 2004 Dicţionar General al Literaturii Române ("The General Dictionary of Romanian Literature"). The character of this inclusion produced some controversy: taking Batzaria's entry as a study case, critics argued that the book gave too much exposure to marginal authors, at the detriment of writers from the Optzecişti generation (whose respective articles were comparatively shorter). The period saw a number of reprints from his work, including the Haplea comics and a 2003 reissue of his Haplea la Bucureşti ("Haplea in Bucharest"), nominated for an annual prize in children's fiction. Fragments of his writings, alongside those of George Murnu, Hristu Candroveanu and Teohar Mihadaş, were included in the Romanian Academy's standard textbook for learning Aromanian (Manual de aromână-Carti trâ înviţari armâneaşti, edited by Matilda Caragiu-Marioţeanu and printed in 2006).

Batzaria was survived by a daughter, Rodica, who died ca. 1968. She had spent much of her life abroad, and was for a while married to painter Nicolae Dărăscu. Batzaria's great-granddaughter, Dana Schöbel-Roman, was a graphic artist and illustrator, who worked with children's author Grete Tartler on the magazine Ali Baba (printed in 1990).