S. Damian (2006)
Sami Damian (sometimes referred to as S. Damian or Samy Damian (born Samuel Druckmann, 18 July 1930, Alba Iulia, Romania - 1 August 2012) was a Romanian-born Jewish literary critic and essayist.
Sami Damian (sometimes referred to as S. Damian or Samy Damian (born Samuel Druckmann, 18 July 1930, Alba Iulia, Romania - 1 August 2012) was a Romanian-born Jewish literary critic and essayist.
S. Damian studied at the Jewish "Cultura Max Aziel" middle school in Bucharest, then at the "Mihai Eminescu" Literature and Literary Criticism School in Bucharest (1950-1955), and at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest (diploma received in 1972).
S. Damian made his debut around 1955/1956 with literary criticism written in the spirit of that age's dogmatism. [1]
He worked for a while as a copy editor for Contemporanul, Gazeta literară, România literară and Luceafărul.
Marginalised for a period of time, he was sent to West Germany in the mid-1970s to teach Romanian language and literature at the University of Heidelberg, after which he defected. [2] He would continue to teach there until 1995. [3]
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, he published several books of literary criticism, essays, etc.
He married Simona Timaru-Druckmann in 1996.
In 1998 Ion Negoițescu's book Dialoguri după tăcere. Scrisori către S. Damian ("Dialogues after silence. Letters to S. Damian") was published.
He had a twin brother, Marcel. [4]
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the most important Romanian literary critics of all time, alongside Titu Maiorescu and Eugen Lovinescu, and is one of the outstanding figures of Romanian literature in the 20th century.
Leon Levițchi was a Romanian philologist and translator who specialised in the study of the English language and literature.
Matei Alexe Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic and professor of comparative literature at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana.
Theodor Cazaban was a Romanian anti-communist writer.
Șerban Cioculescu was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as membership of the Romanian Academy and chairmanship of its Library. Often described as one of the most representative Romanian critics of the interwar period, he took part in the cultural debates of the age, and, as a left-wing sympathizer who supported secularism, was involved in extended polemics with the traditionalist, far right and nationalist press venues. From early on in his career, Cioculescu was also noted for his selective approach to literary modernism and the avant-garde, preferring to place his cultural references with Neoclassicism.
Alexandru Robot was a Romanian, Moldovan and Soviet poet, also known as a novelist and journalist. First noted as a member of Romanian literary clubs, and committed to modernism and the avant-garde, he developed a poetic style based on borrowings from Symbolist and Expressionist literature. Also deemed a "Hermeticist" for the lexical obscurity in some of his poems, as well as for the similarity between his style and that of Ion Barbu, Robot was in particular noted for his pastorals, where he fused modernist elements into a traditionalist convention.
Sergiu Dan was a Romanian novelist, journalist, Holocaust survivor and political prisoner of the communist regime. Dan, the friend and collaborator of Romulus Dianu, was noted during the interwar period as a contributor to Romania's avant-garde and modernist scene, collaborating with poet Ion Vinea on Contimporanul review and Facla newspaper. He was also affiliated with the rival literary club, Sburătorul, and noted for criticizing the communist sympathies of other avant-garde writers. His main works of the 1930s include contributions to the psychological novel, thriller and political novel genres, received with critical acclaim.
George Ivașcu was a Romanian journalist, literary critic, and communist militant. From beginnings as a University of Iași philologist and librarian, he was drawn into left-wing antifascist politics, while earning accolades as a newspaper editor and foreign-affairs journalist. As editor of Manifest magazine, he openly confronted the Iron Guard and fascism in general. In the mid 1930s, he became a member of the Romanian Communist Party (PCdR), though he maintained private doubts about its embrace of Stalinism. Despite enjoying protection from the more senior scholar George Călinescu, Ivașcu was persecuted, and went into hiding, during the first two years of World War II. He reemerged as a pseudonymous correspondent, then editorial secretary, of the magazine Vremea, slowly turning it away from fascism. In parallel, he also contributed to the clandestine left-wing press, preparing for an Allied victory.
Gelu Vlașin is a Romanian poet and essayist.
George or Gheorghe Ranetti, born George Ranete, was a Romanian poet, journalist and playwright, known as the founder and editor of Furnica magazine. A professional journalist from the late 1890s, he alternated between political dailies and literary reviews, being sympathetic to Romanian nationalism and traditionalism, and working under Ion Luca Caragiale at Moftul Român. By 1904–1906, he was active on the margin of left-wing traditionalism, or Poporanism, showing himself sympathetic to republican or generically anti-elitist ideologies. Such views and influences seeped into his activity at Furnica, which was for decades a prominent institution in Romanian humor.
Anton Costache Bacalbașa was a Romanian political journalist, humorist and politician, chiefly remembered for his antimilitaristic series Moș Teacă. Together with his brothers Ioan and Constantin, he entered public life as a republican and socialist militant. For a while, his career was intertwined with that of Marxist doyen Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, who inspired in him the idea of a socialist art addressed to the masses. He was himself a popularizer of Marxist ideas, and one of the first Marxist intellectuals in Romanian political history.
Ovid S. Crohmălniceanu was a Romanian literary critic and science fiction writer.
Al. T. Stamatiad was a Romanian Symbolist poet, short story writer, and dramatist. A late arrival on the local Symbolist scene, he was primarily active as a literary promoter and, in 1918, editor of Literatorul review. Discovered and praised by Alexandru Macedonski and Ion Minulescu, he combined his presence in radical Symbolist circles with stints on more culturally conservative ones, crossing between the extremes of Romanian literature. By 1911, he had established himself in cultural and social circles as an exotic and vocal, sometimes violent, cultural debater.
Adolf Edmund George de Herz, commonly shortened to A. de Herz, also rendered as Hertz and Herț, was a Romanian playwright and literary journalist, also active as a poet, short story author, and stage actor. He was the scion of an upper-class assimilated Jewish family, with its roots in Austria-Hungary. His grandfather, Adolf Sr, was a controversial banker and venture capitalist, while his father, Edgar von Herz, was noted as a translator of Romanian literature. Adolf had a privileged childhood and debuted as a poet while still in high school, producing the lyrics to a hit romance. In his early work for the stage, Herz was a traditionalist inspired by Alexandru Davila and the Sămănătorul school, but later veered toward neoclassical literature and aestheticism. His "salon comedies", staged by the National Theater Bucharest, borrowed from various authors, including Roberto Bracco, Henri Lavedan, and Haralamb Lecca, peaking in popularity in 1913, with Păianjenul. By the start of World War I, Herz was also a writer of revues.
Mircea Constantin Demetriade was a Romanian poet, playwright and actor, one of the earliest animators of the local Symbolist movement. Born in Oltenia to a theatrical family, he largely gave up on a similar career to become a bohemian writer. He associated with, and was inspired by, Alexandru Macedonski, building on early romantic influences at Literatorul magazine. Later, he incorporated borrowings from Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, two of the authors Demetriade would translate into Romanian.
Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga was a Romanian comparatist and essayist. A native of the national capital Bucharest, she was educated at its main university, going on to become a professor there. Together with a focus on interdisciplinary studies, she was noted for devoting several studies to Mihail Eminescu. Meanwhile, Dumitrescu was a dignitary of the Romanian Communist Party. Following the Romanian Revolution, after several years spent in Rome, she retired to a monastery.
Radu D. Rosetti or Rossetti was a Romanian poet, playwright, and short story writer, also distinguished as an attorney and activist. The son of playwright-aristocrat Dimitrie Rosetti-Max and nephew of Titu Maiorescu, he had a troubled and rebellious youth, but kept company with senior literary figures such as Ion Luca Caragiale. Graduating from the University of Bucharest at age 26, he was already a successful poet of neoromantic sensibilities, a published translator of plays and novels, and also famous for his unhappy marriage to the literary critic Elena Bacaloglu. He then switched to writing social-themed plays and stories of his professional life, earning a high profile as a defender of left-wing causes. From ca. 1913, Rosetti was also the public face of cremation activism, engaged in public polemics with the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Alexandru Piru was a Romanian literary critic and historian.
La Medeleni is a trio of novels written by Ionel Teodoreanu. The books were set in the village of Medeleni, in Iași County, Romania. The trilogy includes: The Fickle Border published in 1925, Roads published in 1926, and Between the Winds published in 1927. Teodoreanu’s inspiration for the novels came from a mansion on the bank of the river Prut where friends from the literary world would gather. On May 21 2016, the mansion became a museum in memoriam of Ionel Teodoreanu.
Andrei-Nicolae Pippidi is a Romanian historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Bucharest, specialised in South-Eastern European history of the 15th–19th century, in Romanian history of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, and in the relationship between South-Eastern Europe and the Occident.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
