Emil Isac | |
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 Isac in 1912 | |
| Born | May 27, 1886 Kolozsvár, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | March 25, 1954 (aged 67) Cluj, Romanian People's Republic |
| Pen name | Emisac |
| Occupation | poet, critic, dramatist, journalist, translator, academic, politician, diplomat, civil servant |
| Nationality | Austro-Hungarian, Romanian |
| Alma mater | Franz Joseph University |
| Period | 1902–1954 |
| Genre | free verse, lyric poetry, memoir, parody, prose poem, satire, sketch story, verse drama |
| Literary movement | Symbolism, modernism, Neo-romanticism, Social Realism, Gândirea, Socialist Realism |
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Emil Isac (Romanian pronunciation: [eˈmil iˈsak]; May 27, 1886 – March 25, 1954) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian poet, dramatist, short story writer and critic. Noted as one of the pioneers of Symbolism and modernist literature in his native region of Transylvania, he was in tandem one of the leading young voices of the Symbolist movement in the neighboring Kingdom of Romania. Moving from prose poems with cosmopolitan traits, fusing Neo-romantic subjects with modernist free verse, he later created a lyrical discourse in the line of Social Realism. Isac was likewise known for criticizing traditionalist and nationalist trends in local literature, but, by the end of World War I, opened his own poetry to various traditionalist influences.
Isac was a participant in civic or political causes, defending the rights of ethnic Romanians in Austria-Hungary from a socialist position, and, during the 1918 union with Romania, served as a community representative. He was however interested in preserving good relations between his ethnic group and the Hungarians. An occasional contributor to Hungarian-language reviews, he reached out over political divides, maintaining close contacts with Hungarian intellectuals such as Endre Ady, Oszkár Jászi, János Thorma, and Aladár Kuncz.
During the final part of his career, which was spent in Communist Romania, Emil Isac was affiliated with Steaua magazine and enjoyed political endorsement. In this context, he took the controversial decision of adapting his style to Socialist Realism, producing a number of political poems which doubled as agitprop.