Fragmente critice. Vol. 1: Scriitura taciturna si scriitura publica

Eugen Simion asks how a critic responds to public life. His articles, essays and own thoughts form a critic’s diary. He brings private thoughts into public debate. He writes about a split in the world of culture. Can critics stay free from outside demands? Can they serve works of literature on those works’ own terms?

This first volume is for readers drawn to literature and cultural debate. It looks at the critic’s task and beliefs. Bogdan Cretu sees a link across Simion’s work before and after 1990. Simion kept his methods, themes and style. Others left the field to pursue other work.

Simion was born in Chiojdeanca, Prahova, on 25 May 1933. He went to school in Ploiesti. He then studied literature at Bucharest University. Tudor Vianu was one of his teachers. Others included Alexandru Rosetti and Iorgu Iordan. In 1969, he earned a doctorate under Serban Cioculescu. He wrote his thesis on Eugen Lovinescu.

He taught, wrote reviews and edited texts for study. From 1956 to 1962, he worked with the Romanian Academy’s Eminescu team. He began to write for the literary press in 1960. For decades, he wrote reviews for Gazeta literara and Romania literara. He taught at Bucharest University. He became a professor there in 1990. From 1970 to 1973, he also gave lectures at Paris IV, Sorbonne.

Simion joined the Romanian Academy in 1991. He became its vice-president in 1994. He served as its president from 1998 to 2006. In 1999, he founded the National Foundation for Science and Art. He also led it. There, he launched a series of Romanian literary classics. He issued exact copies of Eminescu’s handwritten texts, too. These filled 38 volumes, issued between 2002 and 2009.

He led the G. Calinescu Institute. There, he oversaw a dictionary of Romanian literature in seven volumes. He wrote more than 30 volumes on literary criticism and history. Universities at home and abroad gave him honorary doctorates. He also belonged to academies in France, Denmark, Greece and Serbia.