Culture of Moldova - Literary Culture

Literary Culture

The first Moldovan books, religious texts, appeared in the mid-17th century. Prominent figures in Moldova's cultural development include mitropolitans Varlaam and Dosoftei, Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, mitropolitan of Kiev Petru Movilă, scholars Nicolae Milescu-Spãtaru, Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723), and Ion Neculce, Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni, Alexandru Hîjdău, Alexandru Donici, Constantin Stamati, Costache Negruzzi, historian and philologist Bogdan P. Hasdeu (1836–1907), author Ion Creangă (1837–1889), and poet Mihai Eminescu (1850–1889).

Varlaam published the first books. Dosoftei founded numerous schools and published a lot. Cantemir wrote the first thorough geographical, ethnographical, and economic description of the country in Descriptio Moldaviae (Berlin, c. 1714).

Modern writers include Vladimir Beşleagă, Pavel Boţu, Aureliu Busuioc, Nicolae Dabija, Ion Druţă, Victor Teleucă, and Grigore Vieru. In 1991, a total of 520 books were published in Moldova, of which 402 were in Romanian, 108 in Russian, eight in Gagauz, and two in Bulgarian.

In the early 1990s, Moldova had twelve professional theaters. All performed in Romanian, except the A.P. Chekhov Russian Drama Theater in Chişinău, and the Russian Drama and Comedy Theater in Tiraspol, both of which performed solely in Russian, and the Licurici Republic Puppet Theater, in Chişinău, which performed in both Romanian and Russian. Although, among those controlled tendencies by Soviets, real artists in music formed real art-bands, such as "Ciocîrlia", led by Serghei Lunchevici and "Lăutarii" of Nicolae Botgros. Members of ethnic minorities manage a number of folklore groups and amateur theaters throughout the country.