Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent

Last updated
Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent
Mircea-eliade-romanul-adolescentului-miop-minerva-1989.JPG
Cover of the first edition
Author Mircea Eliade
Original titleRomanul adolescentului miop
TranslatorChristopher Moncrieff
CountryRomania
LanguageRomanian
Publisher Editura Minerva
Publication date
1989
Published in English
12 April 2016
Pages476
ISBN 9789732100196

Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent (Romanian : Romanul adolescentului miop) is a novel by the Romanian writer Mircea Eliade. It is based on Eliade's time in high-school and tells the story of a precocious teenager with literary ambitions. The book was written in the 1920s when Eliade was still a teenager. It was discovered after the author's death and published in 1989 in Romania. An English translation was published in 2016 in the UK.

Contents

It was followed by Gaudeamus , written in 1928, which is based on Eliade's university time. Gaudeamus was published in English for the first time in April 2018 by Istros Books, translated by Christopher Bartholomew . [1]

Composition

Eliade began to write the novel in 1921 under the title Jurnalul unui om sucit. In 1923 it had taken the name Romanul unui om sucit, until the final version was written in 1925 as Romanul adolescentului miop. [2] While he wrote the book, Eliade thought it was the first time a novel about adolescence was written by an actual adolescent. [3]

Publication

The book was discovered after Eliade's death and was published in 1989 in Romanian. [4] An English translation by Christopher Moncrieff was published in 2016 by Istros Books, a publisher in the UK. [5]

Reception

Nicholas Lezard of The Guardian wrote in 2016: "Eliade may be describing the life of a student in a Romanian lycée of almost a century ago, but anyone who has ever been at school, full of ideals but also too shy to speak to the opposite sex, or incapable of revising for an exam until the very last minute, will relate to this. As will anyone who has ever committed their private thoughts to paper, as the true record of their soul and a rebuke to posterity." [6]

Sorin Alexandrescu wrote in Guernica (2016): "This ambition towards self-knowledge is what distinguishes Mircea Eliade’s novel from many others about adolescents. While the authors of such novels usually narrate events that reveal the hero’s uncertainty with respect to himself, they do not depict the permanent self-questioning and the analysis of the mystery of identity as Mircea Eliade does." [7]

Bryan Rennie wrote in the LA Review of Books (2016): "The novel has much to say about the development of Eliade’s views — on writing, on politics, and on religion. Just as literary and artistic representation can help us better understand the experience of the doctor and the patient, so too Eliade’s creative writing helps us better understand the experience of a religious seeker and scholar. [...] Moncrieff’s translation, which adopts the idiom of the old English grammar school system, lends a vaguely unreal, Harry Potter–like air to the novel, enlivening the intellectual content." [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mircea Eliade</span> Romanian historian of religion, writer and philosopher

Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential. One of his most instrumental contributions to religious studies was his theory of eternal return, which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but, at least in the minds of the religious, actually participate in them.

<i>The Forbidden Forest</i>

The Forbidden Forest is a 1955 novel by the Romanian writer Mircea Eliade. The story takes place between 1936 and 1948 in Bucharest and several other European cities, and follows a Romanian man who is on a spiritual quest while being torn between two women. The book was written between the years 1949 and 1954. It contains several elements and themes which also appear in the author's scholarly work, such as initiation rites and the division between sacred and profane time.

Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language or by any authors native to Romania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mihail Sebastian</span> Romanian writer

Mihail Sebastian was a Romanian playwright, essayist, journalist and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolae Densușianu</span> Romanian ethnologist

Nicolae Densușianu was a Transylvanian, later Romanian ethnologist and collector of Romanian folklore. He was a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, with a specialty in history. His main work, for which he is chiefly remembered, was the posthumously printed Dacia Preistorică (1913), with a preface contributed by C. I. Istrati; a facsimile edition was published in 2002 by Editura Arhetip, Bucharest. In Dacia Preistorică Densușianu combined the studies of folklore and comparative religion with archaeology to construct a theory about the Prehistoric cultures of Dacia. The work has drawn criticism for unprofessionalism and evidence of nationalism, and for standing at the source of Dacianism. Mainstream scholars regarded his book as fanciful and unscientific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doina Ruști</span> Romanian Writer (born 1957)

Doina Ruști (Romanian pronunciation: [dojna ruʃti]; is a Romanian writer and novelist. Some of her novels are: Fantoma din moară, 2008, Zogru, 2006, and Lizoanca la 11 ani, 2009.

<i>Bengal Nights</i> 1933 Romanian novel by Mircea Eliade

La Nuit Bengali is a 1933 Romanian novel written by the author and philosopher Mircea Eliade.

Haig Acterian was a Romanian film and theater director, critic, dramatist, poet, journalist, and fascist political activist. Alongside Mihail Sebastian and Camil Petrescu, he is considered one of the major Romanian theater chroniclers in the interwar period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriela Adameșteanu</span> Romanian writer, journalist and translator

Gabriela Adameșteanu is a Romanian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, and translator. The author of the celebrated novels The Equal Way of Every Day (1975) and Wasted Morning (1983), she is also known as an activist in support of civil society and member of the Group for Social Dialogue (GDS), as well as editor of Revista 22.

This is a bibliography of works by Mircea Eliade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayfer Tunç</span>

Ayfer Tunç is a contemporary Turkish writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maitreyi Devi</span> Indian poet and novelist

Maitreyi Devi was an Indian poet and novelist. She is best known for her Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel, Na Hanyate.

<i>Na Hanyate</i> 1974 novel by Maitreyi Devi

Na Hanyate is a novel written in 1974 by Maitreyi Devi, an Indian poet and novelist who was the protégée of the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. The writer received Sahitya Akademi Award for this novel in 1976. She wrote the novel in response to Romanian philosopher Mircea Eliade's book La Nuit Bengali, which related a fictionalized account of their romance during Eliade's visit to India.

Ognjen Spahić, is a Montenegrin novelist. Spahić has published two collections of short stories: Sve to and Zimska potraga. His novel Hansenova djeca won him the 2005 Meša Selimović Prize for the best new novel from Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina. To date, Hansenova djeca has been published in French, Italian, Slovenian, Romanian, Hungarian, Macedonian and English by the UK publisher Istros Books

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goran Vojnović</span>

Goran Vojnović is a Slovenian writer, poet, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his 2008 novel Southern Scum Go Home which won him numerous awards as well as a lawsuit filed by the Slovenian Police that was withdrawn a day later after media attention and public outrage at police filing charges for a work of fiction brought embarrassment to the Slovenian Ministry of Interior.

<i>Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy</i>

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy is a historical study of the different forms of shamanism around the world written by the Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade. It was first published in France by Librarie Payot under the French title of Le Chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l'extase in 1951. The book was subsequently translated into English by Willard R. Trask and published by Princeton University Press in 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Arion</span> Romanian crime writer

George Arion is a Romanian crime writer. He is also a poet, essayist, librettist and journalist. He is the Chairman of the Flacăra Publications, Chairman of the "Flacăra Prizes" foundation and Chairman of the Romanian Crime Writers’ Club.

Faruk Šehić is a Bosnian poet, novelist and short story writer. He was born in Bihać and grew up in Bosanska Krupa. He studied veterinary medicine in Zagreb until the outbreak of the Bosnian war in which he was an active combatant. After the war, he turned to literature. His first book was a collection of poems Pjesme u nastajanju. His short story collection Pod pritiskom was published in 2004 and won the Zoro Verlag Prize. The English translation of Under Pressure was published in May 2019 by Istros Books. His debut novel Knjiga o Uni, was translated into English in 2016 by Istros Books and into Italian in 2017 by E. Mujčić for Mimesis, and also into Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Spanish, Macedonian, Arabic, Dutch, Polish, Slovenian and Hungarian language. Quiet Flows the Una won the Meša Selimović prize for the best novel published in the former Yugoslavia in 2011, and the EU Prize for Literature in 2013. His most recent poetry book is a collection of poetry entitled ‘My Rivers’ for whom he received Risto Ratković Award for the best poetry book in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia in 2014, and Annual award from Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also received XXXI Premio Letterario Camaiore Francesco Belluomini for selected poems "Ritorno alla natura" as a youngest laureate so far. In 2018, he published short stories collection "Clockwork Stories". Šehić lives in Sarajevo, where he works as a columnist and journalist. He is a member of the Writers’ Association and the PEN Centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His books have been translated into 15 languages and published in 19 countries. In 2017, Šehić has signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.

Gaudeamus is a novel written in 1928 by the Romanian writer Mircea Eliade, portraying him at college during the Interbellum. It was only published as a single volume in 1989. It is the sequel to Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent, which is based on Eliade's time in high school.

Istros books is a London-based independent publisher of writers from South-East Europe and the Balkans, in English translation. It was set up in 2011 by Susan Curtis.

References

  1. "Guadeamus". istrosbooks.com. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  2. Vrabie, Diana (2009). "Adolescentul în căutarea sinelui". Limba Română (in Romanian). 19 (5–6). Retrieved 2014-10-06.
  3. Ellwood, Robert (1999). The Politics of Myth: A Study of C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. p. 80. ISBN   0-7914-4305-1.
  4. Romanul adolescentului miop. WorldCat . OCLC   22402364.
  5. "Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent". istrosbooks.com. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  6. Lezard, Nicholas (2016-03-30). "Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent by Mircea Eliade review – Romania's Adrian Mole". The Guardian . Retrieved 2016-04-04.
  7. "An Uncommon Short-Sighted Adolescent". Guernica. 2016-08-05. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  8. "Mircea Eliade: Eponym of the Humanities? - Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2018-03-14.

Further reading