Fragmente critice. Vol. 4: Cioran Noica Eliade Mircea Vulcanescu

Eugen Simion studies Cioran, Noica, Eliade and Mircea Vulcanescu. This is his fourth book of essays on literature. He looks at a shift among Romanian thinkers after 1990. They turned back to writers from between the wars. He traces the ties they renewed and the choices they made. The book is for readers drawn to Romanian writing. It also looks at its place in cultural life.

Simion weighs the craft and worth of these essayists’ work. He leaves room to reject as well as accept. He does not praise them without bounds. Their worth as writers is central to his view. For him, the worth of such work serves another role. It helps keep Romanian culture whole.

The book builds on work by critics of his generation. In the 1960s, they helped restore major writers’ standing. These writers came from the years between the wars. After proletcultism, the critics helped bring them back into the canon. This is the body of works seen as key literature. Simion later led work on a general dictionary of Romanian literature. He also backed editions made with scholarly care.

Simion studied literature in Bucharest. He earned his doctorate in 1969. For decades, he wrote reviews of books. He taught in Bucharest and at the Sorbonne. He later led the Romanian Academy. He also headed the G. Calinescu Institute. His work included editions of Romanian classics. It also included exact copies of Eminescu’s handwritten texts. He wrote more than 30 books of literary criticism and history.