LLP Comenius Multilateral Partnership 2013-2015

Material prepared by:Robert Sentiveanu – 11th Grade Student

coordinated by:Anca Patrichi (Teacher of English)Daniela Livadaru (Teacher of Religion)

Project Meeting in Slough, United Kingdom- the 9th – the 14th of January 2015 -

the most famous and influential Romanian poet;

creator of a school of poetry that strongly influenced Romanian writers and poets in the late 19th

and early 20th centuries;

widely regarded as Romania’s finest romantic writer, he anticipated and defined modern poetry.

Born on the 15th of January, in 1850, in Ipoteşti - Botoşani, Mihai was the 7th

child of the Eminovici family.

He spent his early childhood in his parents’ family home;

Mihai was schooled at the German-language gymnasium in Chernivtsi(1858-1866), being a prominent student. He continued his studies in Vienna (1869-1872) and Berlin (1872-1874), attending courses at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law as an “extraordinary auditor”.

Statue of Mihai Eminescu in Chernivtsi, nowadays in Ukraine

His first poem, an ode to a dead teacher, was published in 1866, followed shortly by a series of others.

Arrived in Bucharest in 1867, he took a job as a clerk and copyist at the National Theatre and supplanted his income by translating German novels into Romanian.

On 1 April 1869, he co-founded the Orient literary circle, aiming to gather Romanian folklore and documents relating to Romanian literary history.

Photo showing Eminescu in his 20’s

From 1874 to 1877 he worked as director of the Central Library in Iași, substitute teacher, school inspector for the counties of Iași and Vaslui, and editor of the newspaper The Courier of Iaşi, all thanks to his friendship with Titu Maiorescu, the leader of Junimea Society and rector of the University of Iași.

As contributor to Literary Discussions, he published many of his works.

Between 1877 and 1883 he took up the post of journalist, then editor in chief of the conservative newspaper The Time.

Mihai Eminescu photographed by Franz Duschek in 1878

His literary activity came to an end in 1883, when he suffered the onset of a mental disorder that led to his death in an asylum.

Hospitalized in inappropriate places and treated by incompetent physicians, he died from mercury poisoning, an inadequate treatment administered to him.

He suffered not only physical, but moral, distress and died prematurely“ at the age of only 39, on the 15th of June, 1889.Last photo of Eminescu taken by Jean

Bieling in 1887–1888

The evolution of Romanian national poetry is concentrated in his work.

The poetry of his early years (1866-1873)was overwhelmingly influenced by Shakespeare and Byron.

The subtle influence of Romanian folklore, his close contact with German philosophy and romanticism and the evolution of his own creative powers shifted his poetical universe towards a magic world, offering ideal and possible grounds for a dreamy yet transfiguring love. His lyrics became increasingly inward, simplified, and sweetened, displaying rare strength and beauty.Photograph taken by Jan Tomas in

Prague, 1869

From 1876 to 1883, the sphere of Eminescu's inner experience deepened. The poetry of his maturity reached all human dimensions, from the sensitive, emotional ones to the intellectual, spiritual ones. It is an uninterrupted meditation on the human condition.

His masterpiece is The Evening Star(1883), a version of the Hyperion myth. Ideas and meaning, expressed in symbols, are manifold, profoundly ambiguous, and discernible in an esthetic achievement of supreme simplicity and expressiveness.Photograph of Eminescu taken by

Nestor Heck, Iaşi, 1884

Mihai Eminescu is well known for using in his poetry themes like:

Time, seen like an over-theme in all his poetry, correlated with cosmic theme;

Cosmos, with all his elements: sky, sun, moon, stars, chaos, genesis;

National history and identity;

Social philosophy;

Idealisation of peasantry;

Love, angelic or demonic, hieratic or erotic.

Although known for his accomplished career in poetry, Eminescu was also an author of fictional works, his most praised prose pursuits are the duo of The Wretched Dionysus and Caesara, and The Barren Genius, a posthumously published novel, in which he added some demiurgic features to his romantic hero.

Prince Charming, the Tear-begotten, his only children's story, is the tale of the Prince searching for true love, adventure and honour.

Even though he left various texts, poetry volumes ,manuscripts, and countless letters after his death, Eminescu would only see the publication of one full collection of poetry in his lifetime, 1884’s Poems (written and published with the help of his mentor Maiorescu).

Eminescu’s poetry has a distinctive simplicity of language, a masterly handling of rhyme and verse form, a profundity of thought, and a plasticity of expression which affected nearly every Romanian writer of his own period and after. His poems have been translated into several languages, being recognized as one of the world's geniuses of lyric poetry.The volume of poems published in 1884

Mihai Eminescu was and it is a huge inspiration for all Romanians. He is unanimously rendered as the greatest and most representative Romanian poet.

His statues are everywhere, his face is on banknotes, his linden tree in Copou Park in Iaşi is one of the country's most famous natural landmarks.

Many schools, public institutions or trusts are named after him,while the anniversaries of his birth and death are celebrated each year in most of the Romanian cities.

Their friendship became love sometime around 1875, when they started dedicating poems to each other.

After Eminescu’s death she retired to Văratec Monastery, where she put together a volume called Love and Poetry.Mihai Eminescu and Veronica Micle

In March 1872, in Vienna, she met Eminescu, beginning a relationship that would last for the rest of their lives.

Eminescu many times recognized his relationship with Veronica, and the influence that Veronica had on him.

And if...

And if the branches tap my pane And the poplars whisper nightly, It is to make me dream again I hold you to me tightly.

And if the stars shine on the pond And light its sombre shoal, It is to quench my mind's despond And flood with peace my soul.

And if the clouds their tresses part And does the moon outblaze, It is but to remind my heart I long for you always.

English version by Corneliu M. Popescu

Evening Star (*fragment from ending)

“Come down, good Lucifer and kind,O lord of my aspire.And fill the forest and my mindWith your sweetest fire!”

And Lucifer, alone in space,Her tender summons heard,A planet o'er the ocean's faceThat trembled at her word,

But did not plunge as in former day,And in his heart did cry:"O, what care you, fair face of clay,If it be he or I?

Still earth shall only earth remain,Let luck its course unfold,And I in my own kingdom reignImmutable and cold.”

English version by Corneliu M. Popescu

a Romanian playwright who wrote mostly in French as he lived most of his life in France;

one of the foremost figures of the French Avant-garde theatre;

His plays depict the solitude and insignificance of human existence in a tangible way.

Born on the 26th of November, in 1909, in Slatina – Olt county, Eugen was the son of Eugen Ionescu, a Romanian lawyer, and Thérèse Ipcar, daughter of a French engineer.

Shortly after Eugen's birth, the family moved to Paris, where his father continued his studies and eventually became a doctor of the Faculty of Law in Paris.

At the age of four, he was already a great fan of puppet shows.Photo taken by Norbert Perrau in 1964

His father went back to Bucharest in 1916, just when Romania entered the First World War, but his wife and the two young children remained in Paris.

Eugen's health being fragile, his mother sent him to live with a family in the countryside (Mayenne), where he stayed from 1917 to 1919 with his younger sister, Marilina. He depicts this period as the most peaceful and harmonious period of his life.

Photo dated in 1974

Eugen returned to Romania in May 1922 together with his sister. He perfected his Romanian and attended the National College of Saint Sava in Bucharest and graduated the baccalaureate at the secondary school in Craiova in 1928.

After that, he studied French Literature at the University of Bucharest from 1928 to 1933 and qualified as a teacher of French. While there he met Emil Cioranand Mircea Eliade, and the three writers became lifelong friends.

In 1936 Ionescu married RodicaBurileanu, having one daughter for whom he wrote a number of unconventional children's stories.

He and his family returned to France in 1938 for him to complete his doctoral thesis. Caught by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he returned to Romania, but soon changed his mind and, with the help of friends, obtained travel documents. He went to France in 1942.

Eugen Ionescu died on the 28th of March 1994 and is buried in the Cemetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

Photo taken in 1993

In 1928 he debuted as a poet in Parrot-notes (a daily paper in tiny format).

He started writing poetry and criticism, publishing in several Romanian journals. Two early writings are No, a book criticizing many writers, and Hugoliade or The grotesque and tragic life of Victor Hugo. The latter contains prototypes for many of Ionescu's later themes: the ridiculous authoritarian character, the false worship of language.

From 1945 to 1949, he translated the works of Urmoz (1883-1923), a Romanian poet, who was a forerunner of surrealism, the literature of the absurd and the anti-prose.

Photo by Ida Kar, 1960

Ionescu wrote his first play in 1948 (La Cantatrice Chauve), first performed in 1950 with the English title The Bald Soprano), having as starting point his experience of learning English in his 40’s.

It was followed by other innovative works, all one-act nonsense plays or extended sketches. These absurdist sketches, which he described as "anti-plays“, expressed feelings of alienation and the impossibility and uselessness of communication with surreal comic force, parodying the conformism of the bourgeoisie and conventional theatrical forms. He depicted a dehumanized world with mechanical, puppet-like characters.

Presenting the graphic by Massinfor his “anti-play”, 1964

With his full-length plays, he began to explore more sustained dramatic situations featuring more humanized characters.

His character Bérenger is a semi-autobiographical figure expressing Ionescu's wonderment and anguish at the strangeness of reality.

In Rhinocéros he watches his friends turning into rhinoceroses one by one until he alone stands unchanged against this mass movement. It is Ionescu’smanifest against the totalitarianism and ideological conformism, being inspired by the rise of the fascist Iron Guard in Romania in the 1930s.

Photo taken by Sorin Radu in 1978

Ionescu wrote his only novel, The Hermit, during his later period. It was first published in 1975, and a libretto for the opera Maximilien Kolbe (music by Dominique Probst) which has been performed in five countries and filmed for television.

He also contributed to the theatre with his theoretical writings, in attempts to correct critics whom he felt misunderstood his work and therefore wrongly influenced his audience. Notes and Counter Notes is a collection of Ionescu's writings, including musings on why he chose to write for the theatre.Eugen Ionescu, Emil Cioran and Mircea

Eliade, Paris, 1986

Ionescu is often considered a writer of the Theatre of the Absurd, due to the fact that he captured the meaninglessness of existence. He is placed alongside such contemporary writers as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Arthur Adamov.

During his life, he has won several major international awards including Prix Italia (1963), Society of Authors Theatre Prize (1966), Grand Prix National for Theatre, Monaco Grand Prix (1969), Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1970).

He was elected a member of the French Academy in 1970, and, post-mortem, of the Romanian Academy, in 2009.

a Romanian novelist, short story writer, poet and dramatist, also known as a literary theorist and sociologist;

one of the most successful authors to have emerged in post-1990 Romanian literature;

His literary universe bridges a form of Neorealism with Postmodernism.

Born in Botoşani on the 15th of September, 1969, Dan Lungu completed his education in Iaşi, at the Philosophy Faculty, Sociology-Political Studies Section, graduating in 1995.

He displays great interest in track and field, as well as Go.

Having received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 2001 with a thesis on identity formation, he later pursued postdoctoral studies at the University of Paris (2005-2006).

At present, he is Lecturer in the Sociology Department of “Al. I. Cuza” University of Iaşi, editor for “Au Sud de l’Est” magazine (Paris) and manager of the Museum of Romanian Literature in Iaşi.

Festival of Literature and Translation (FILIT), Iaşi, 2014

Lungu developed a passion for writing from a young age, but debuted in literature only in the early 1990s.

In 1996, he and several other Iaşi-based authors founded the literary society Club 8, and he consequently came to be seen as its main theorist.

His first volume, a poetry collection entitled Edges saw print in 1996.

His stories, including The Bulldozer Operator, winner of the NemiraPublishing House prize for 1997, were printed in various venues during the late 1990s.LIBER 2011: Romanian Voices in Spanish

Lungu also debuted as a dramatist, his work being included in two anthologies of young Romanian theatre and performed by Bucharest's Green Hours fringe theatre.

Having made his editorial debut in short story with a collection in 1999, he started to regularly publish new works of fiction and cultural analysis over the following years.

Between 2001 and 2002, he took over as editor in chief of The Time (cultural magazine).

In 2003, Lungu published three books of essays on literary theory and microsociology.

Guest at the Festival of Literature, Gavoi - Sardegna, 2012

In 2003 he published a second work in drama, Wedding on the Ground Floor, and reprinted his collection of short stories, Retail Prose, a dossier of critical commentary from all sides of the literary scene and an account of his trip to Transnistria.

In 2004 there followed the novel, Hens’ Heaven, and a second volume of short stories, Good Lads, saw print in 2005.

Along with Radu Gheo he authored a study of social history and microsociology and published in 2008 Female Fellow Travelers. Female Experience under Communism.

Lungu returned to fiction with the 2009 novel How to Forget a Woman.

Guest at the Festival of Literature, Mantova – Italy, 2013

Dan Lungu is best known to the Romanian public as author of the short novel I’m a Communist Biddy!, 2007, a humorous rendition of a country girl’s rags to riches story against the Romanian Communist background. The novel was adapted for cinema.

As of 2009, Lungu's work had been translated into ten languages, including a critically acclaimed French-language version of Hens’ Paradise (Le paradis des poules, Éditions Jacqueline Chambon, 2005.

At the performance of the movie I’m a Communist Biddy!

In its Spanish translation, published in 2009, I’m a Communist Biddy! was included by El País daily in a "best of" chart for humorous literature.

In 2012 he was awarded the Arts and Letters Knighthood by the French state for his contributions to the enrichment of the French cultural heritage.

His short story – 7 pm Wife – has been selected for the Best European Fiction 2013 collection published by DalkeyArchive Press.

Book launch of I’m a Communist Biddy!, Oslo, 2014

Dan Lungu continues his work as a prolific writer.

His latest published books are: Revolution Street no. 89 (2009), But that’s another story (2010), In Hell all the Light Bulbs have burned out (2011),The Girl who played God (2014).

He is often invited to festivals of literature and has received different nominations to international awards for his writings.

Inexhaustible, Dan Lungu founded in Iaşi, at the end of October 2013, FILIT, the first annual festival of literature and translation in Romania, benefiting from the support of many national and international cultural institutions.

FILIT is an annually-based project run by the Iași County Council and the Museum of

Romanian Literature, Iași.