Romanian literature in its development

The geographical, ethnological and historical coordinates of the Romanian people are, of course, known. The end result of the Romanization of the local Thracian-Dacian-Moesian element and of the later assimilation of the Slavs in the last centuries of the first millennium of our era, in the lands of the European Southeast, north of the Danube, as well as on both slopes of the Carpathians, the Romanian people has developed under special conditions, between East and West, between North and South, on the crossroads of famous nations and destinies, almost always antagonistic. The firm guidelines of culture and literature reflect in turn, as is natural, all these coordinates. Creating its own national structure, which was in constant evolution, the culture and literature of the Romanian people have maintained at the same time numerous and lively links with the cultural manifestations of the Slavic world, as well as with those of Byzantine culture, and also with the culture and literature of the Romance and Germanic peoples of the West. Before moving on to the subject of the present report, which aims to present the development of Romanian literature, starting from the end of the 18th century, we consider it necessary to make a brief introduction, designed to recall the phases preceding the modern era, which has adopted - as we will see - certain positions towards the literature of the feudal past.