THE SIGNS OF THE AESTHETIC IDENTITY OF ION CARAION'S POETRY

Ion Caraion is one of the most interesting lyrical voices of postwar Romanian literature. He begins under the sign of apostasy, as one of the leading representatives of the "war generation", advocates the detachment from the literary tradition, the renewal of poetry, in mission, vision and poetic language. Through his poetry and attitude towards the totalitarian regime, he falls victim to the political system and goes through the inferno of the communist gulag. His life is marked by the memory of suffering, torn out by compromises and by the option without return for the exile. It is reflected in his "black" poetry, which develops a bleak, violent vision upon the existence, of an inexpiable tragism. Biographically, Caraion is a tragic case of the East. In his poetry, he assimilates the influences of the major literary movements and experiences in Romanian and universal poetry. He creates a poetic universe of great complexity, in which the lyrical modes of expression, covering an extensive range of aesthetic metamorphoses and versatility, contribute to the affirmation of a new poetic formula, proper to the poet. The literary identity of this poetry is constructed of a series of aesthetic signs. By its twofold determination, aesthetic and existential, this intense lyrical experience is rooted in the great poetry and in the fertile in suffering territory of a tragic existence. Caraion's poetry remains an aesthetic challenge for contemporary literature.