Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion provides an overview of the book and demonstrates how political allegiances arose within the Criterion space and contributed to its demise. Bejan returns to Benda’s 1927 warning and reasserts that this book has attempted an objective analysis of the figures involved. The question of the value of the Criterionists’ literary or scholarly works is raised with a consideration of Norman Manea’s approach to the issue. The conclusion asserts the value of the Criterion conferences that they organized, the importance of the group’s youth and the significance of their attempt to revolutionize culture in Romania. The book concludes that the rise of fascism aided in the destruction of one of Romania’s most important intellectual and cultural experiments.