Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Bra ov • Vol. 5 (54). No.1 - 2012 Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies

THE CRITICAL IDENTITY FROM THE 1960s THROUGH THE 1980s. A CASE STUDY: THE SECOLUL 20 MAGAZINE

Irina GEORGESCU 1

Abstract: Translations and the intelligentsia’s endeavour to regain the critical discourse marked the representation of literature and the evolution of Romanian literary criticism starting the 1960s. Starting 1961 through the 1980s, covering therefore more than two decades, the Secolul 20 monthly was published bearing the subtitle “A magazine of world literature“ and featuring articles and case studies which made most of the vulnerability of the notion of realism. In this paper, our goal is, therefore, to see to what extent literary critics adopted or, on the contrary, rejected the discursive metamorphoses of the moment .

Key words: 20th century, critical identity, essay, feuilleton, literary event.

1. Introduction fundamentally changed its profile in the 70s, becoming a publication of synthesis in The Secolul 20 publication was founded which the critical, exegetical coordinate as a magazine of world literature edited by prevailed. Its archaeology came from the the Writers’ Union of . It came apprehension of a new type of relation to out monthly, starting January 1961, in a literature, based on an ongoing effort to book format. Its first chief editor was synchronize with literary formulas and Marcel Bresla u, between 1961 and 1963, species. Translations, synthesis papers, followed for almost three decades (1963- thematic clusters and any reactions stirred 1990) by Dan H ăulic ă. Starting with its whenever a certain author or another was first issue in 2001, the Secolul 20 magazine published were instrumental to the survival changed its name into the Secolul 21 of this magazine and honoured its initial magazine, “a periodical of synthesis, goal, namely to be a publication of “world human sciences and the dialogue of literature”. At that time, fierce cultures”. Along the years, the Secolul 20 programmatic battles were waged between proved to be a publication which made the two hostile sides represented, on one possible the articulation of a critical hand, by the Săpt ămâna magazine (Eugen consciousness connected to European Barbu, Vadim Tudor and others) and, on theories on art and literature. The the other, by the Secolul 20 magazine (Dan magazine navigated as a ship among the Hăulic ă, tefan Aug. Doina etc.), cliffs of communist ideology, permanently România literar ă weekly and some endeavouring to keep up its aesthetic provincial magazines ( Echinox ). autonomy and its calibre. The magazine

1University of , Romania and the Institute of History and Literary Theory “G. C ălinescu”, Bucharest, Romania. 90 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Bra ov • Vol. 5 (54) – No.1 - 2012 • Series IV

The year 1961 marked, on the literary Thematic clusters were meant to bring level, a moment of political recuperation, together, besides the “direction” already as it opened up to world literatures, in the established, papers voicing personal wake of the Innostranaia literatura opinions, sometimes quite daring, which magazine. Several satellite countries generously unveiled potential research allowed the publication of magazines that vistas. To this end, worth mentioning is the followed the model of the afore-mentioned concern for large-scale epic species, as one; nonetheless, the Secolul 20 always early as its first issue: Mihnea Gheorghiu, fought to keep up its autonomy and not to “What Is Going on with the American become a literary review. At its 100th issue Novel?” (1961), Elena Vianu and Savin the anniversary, Dan H ăulic ă insisted on Bratu, “«The New Wave» in the French the original character of this publication, novel”, Tatiana Nicolescu, “Perspectives in put in relation with the activity of the Soviet Novel”. Other issues dealt with translation and critical synthesis: “each the metamorphoses of poetry, either the [issue], exuberant or more austere, and all “«Adventures» of French poetry” or the together composing themselves like a vital relation between translation and growth scheme. One hundred issues, which innovation, or the way literature itself published tens of novels and stories, tens relates to the event. Another course of of plays and numberless poems, pages of research is the study of poetry: either in the translations and explanatory comments, critics’ and theoreticians’ studies or in the pages of critical synthesis, over 19,000 translators’ interventions, poetry stands out pages in all” (H ăulic ă, 1969, 3). Not only as a niche to bring to the fore aesthetic the books – habent sua fata libelli – but attributes. The diversity of species, the also the magazines have their fate, “which rehabilitation of reality and the variety of store up together a collective endeavour, topics define a new poetic direction. If, in an ambition toward culture, speaking up the case of Romanian poetry, the tendency for the spirit of the entire community” is to legitimize a new lyrical discourse, as (Hăulic ă, 1969, 5). This magazine’s role regards the translations, what matters is was displayed, on one hand, in the variety that the texts should be accessible or, at of initiatives to be synchronous with the least, be commentated upon by a thorough literature of that time (translations, critical and subtle audience. studies, thematic issues etc.) and, on the other, in the dissolution of ideology at the 2. The Essay and the Feuilleton level of the articles “on the line”. The editorial team (Dan H ăulic ă, tefan Aug. Most of the critical papers fell under the Doina , Geta Br ătescu et. al .) were always incidence of the essay and the feuilleton. supportive of the exegetic characters of the The search for “synchronization” was articles, the frequency of translations and manifest, reaching out sufficiently to critical studies. The editorial board was define, in the midst of conceptual made up, along the years, by Mihai deliberations, a new relation between Beniuc, Maria Banu , Savin Bratu, Marcel literary criticism and history, mainly Bresla u, , Mihnea between “interpretative and value- Gheorghiu, , Mihai oriented criticism”, through a shift in Novicov, . They were critical cannon and the vision on joined in time by Ion Brad, Ov. S. literature. Therefore, a species well- Crohm ălniceanu, Georgeta Horodinc ă, represented from 1960s through 1980s, Tatiana Nicolescu, Florian Potra et alii . the critical essay allowed, besides a I.Georgescu : The Critical Identity from the 1960s through the 1980s 91 subjective presentation of the theme under Moreover, the import of new concepts discussion, the opening up toward an from Western literature (American or arborescent representation, the display of Anglo-Saxon), triggered a kind of exotic, a “reading system” likely to maintain the enticing yet dangerous “cultural shock”, appetite for novelty and value. At that since the attempt at synchronization time, the polemics engendered the brings about the rapprochement to edulcoration of the notion of realism, the innovating tendencies and directions: inclusion of the notion of proto-chronism worth mentioning are the papers by Horia in cultural debates, in tandem with the Bratu, “What «the beat generation» is” idea of Europeism and, later on, with that (1961) and by Mihnea Gheorghiu, “An of synchronization (after 1977). What American Balance-Sheet” (1961), starting matters most is that, along with the from writers interested in society, war, concept of “realism” (derived from various dramas (William J. Lederer and socialist realism), a new, somewhat Eugene Burdick, Vance Packard, F. L. “evasionist” approach cropped up, which Nusser, Julius Horwitz, Ira Henry did not pursue any ideological Freeman, Jack Kerouac, Richard orientations but rather aesthetic Matheson), followed by some literary approaches to literature; furthermore, the profiles from Soviet writer Konstantin debates around the problematic of Fedin (described by Dinu S ăraru) and the modernism, the idea of “literary history” Chinese one, Lu Sin (presented by Ion (Cahiers roumains d’études littéraires , Vitner), to Roger Martin du Gard 1976 ) and “history of literature”, (outlined by Silvian Iosifescu) and synchronization, method, (scientism) and William Faulkner (through the eyes of impressionism became more and more John Howard Lawson). fervent. Also under discussion was the The “Synthesis and Profiles” columns relation between polemics and censorship, bring together articles featuring diffuse because “censorship is, besides the images of a puzzle that was restructured limitation of the right to information and along the years, undermining the role of the freedom of expression, the most ideology and maintaining an as tight efficient means to level up the track of brake as possible, to any intrusions to any propagandistic message. That is why, contaminate the literary space. Also the harshest moments in the application of recurrent are the studies on the censorship coincide the big importance of comparative literature, propagandistic actions” (Petcu 13). After together with an entire conceptual 1968, some articles “on the line” are inventory, trends, filiations and enough to have other (more daring) theoretical claims. In this sense, we can papers dedicated to literary topics (of mention Al. Dima’s contribution on “The course, on condition they do not Concept of World Literature” (1962), formulate ideas contrary to the regime). along with Julius Dolansky’s opinions, The relation between ideology and who in an homonymous article, focused literature is cast into comments and on the origin and current meanings of this reviews which, on one side, mirror notion, starting from Marxist-Leninist ideological tendencies and, on the other, representations, and N. I. Popa’s articles, paradoxically, have the effect to stifle the who noticed that “the discussions around ideology; to a great extent, ideology is this topic and the methods to study the consciously consumed, reined off by works deemed to be of world value called comments, reviews and columns. for the thorough research of historical 92 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Bra ov • Vol. 5 (54) – No.1 - 2012 • Series IV links among various literatures: the Textual engineering, the way space picks circulation of ideas, the literary influences up new semantics, the swinging between exceeding national borders and related to play and word, between experience and specific socio-political conditions or expectation , all these become landmarks simple parallelisms of ideological of a new fantastic “poetics”. Sometimes, attitudes and currents” (p. 109), the more fantastic literature has recourse to a so as the success of facile novels do not semiotics of non-sense, supported by the display the conditions of universality. reference paradoxes, by clues deprived of Quite often, the articles present in extenso pertinence and validity, by collages or a method to study any interferences and verbal clichés. At other times, the influences in the history of world alluvional discourse turns into logorhea or literature, but mainly they plead to study a simulacre of dialogue. comparative literature. The interest is also obvious in “The Police and Detective Literature”, which 3. The Fantastic Literature marks a hiatus between ideological premises of socialist realism and the In general, the variegated topics manage fidelity of auctorial representations. to capture the reader’s interest as they Therefore, the tendency toward the ludic, also present connected subjects; the issue the word play, and also the accessibility dedicated to scientific-fantastic literature of the language are the trademark of a falls under the sign of a sociological new literary “species”, honoured by infusion; the triumphalist attitude follows writers such as Jean Richepin, Max Jacob, a political tradition frozen into its project, Jean Genet, Dashiel Hammett or the which seems to endure and acquire ever glosses on detective novels, signed up by greater strength: in “The Century of Roger Caillois, Mircea Iv ănescu, Iordan ”, the eternal values of Chimet, Ov. S. Crohm ălniceanu and Dinu humanity – peace, freedom, equality, Pillat. collective well-being – are loaded with different meanings. Generally speaking, 4. The Literature and the Event the theme of the fantastic eludes the idea of realism and suggests new aesthetic Concepts-succedanea are revitalised – representations. To this end, we mention instead of the “memorialistic literature”, Zoe Dumitrescu-Bu ulenga’s contribution tabooed and deemed to be illicit, the on “Edgar Poe and the Exact Fantastic”, “literature of reminiscence” sygtagma is in which she noticed that “incessantly permanently put in relation with the swinging between dream and reality, present-day, with the social, lurking like a between free and strictly predator to sniff a possible thrust of the geometrical reasoning” (1964); the unpredictable – and are used to build a section dedicated to “The Natural bridge between inter-bella criticism, the Fantastic”, with essays by Roger Caillois, avant-garde literature and the then Ernst Jünger and Dan H ăulic ă; the theme criticism, which was “the trustee of an issue on “The Fantastic – between Theory altogether new” literature, a novelty and Expression” with texts by Roger confined, however, within already Caillois, Victor Ivanovici, Virgil T ănase accepted margins. Noteworthy is the and R ăzvan Teodorescu (1973). Such phenomenon of “mimetism”, which studies open up a new vista for the provided the editorial board with that interpretation of fantastic imaginary. gateway to publish texts unpublished I.Georgescu : The Critical Identity from the 1960s through the 1980s 93 before, to host reviews and discussions 5. Conclusions about versus world literature. In addition, tutorial Without any recourse to decorative personalities of Romanian and foreign whims, creativity and rigour became “the literature are revitalised, such as I. L. logo” of this publication, which constantly Caragiale, Ion Creang ă or writers less avowed „a laborious effort” to put before known to the common reader (the the reader “not a hybrid primer of Romanian writer of French expression problems, but rather a context of Panait Istrati or the Spaniard Pío Baroja), experiences and structured converging Among the Russian classics (Lermontov, information: a culture lived, in an active Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, Maxim and noble sense, in the affluence of Gorky etc.), are translated fragmentarily genuine confrontations, at the altitude of a or studies are dedicated to writers from given informational scruple and a will of various cultural epochs: French (from synthesis” (Dan H ăulic ă 8). Also joining Gustave Flaubert, Paul Valéry, to Marcel these ideas were Al. Philippide, Mihnea Proust and Pierre Emmanuel), German Gheorghiu, , Roger Caillois, (Günter Grass), Americans (from Wallace Michel Deguy, George Steiner, Ernst Stevens to Kurt Vonnegut), English (from Jünger et al. , who underpinned, in their Jonathan Swift to ), Czech turn, the pertinence of the studies, the writers (, before he quality of translations, the novelty and emigrated to France, in 1975, when he variety of topics. The early 60s orientation, became persona non grata to the regime). with the permanently necessary references At the same time, we can notice the to the Soviet literature was quite different vigilant watch of the ideological trustees, from that of the 70s. who insisted on “the phenomenon of the In view of the afore-mentioned continuously growing prestige of arguments, we can say that the Secolul 20 Romanian literature abroad, a literature publication is both a beacon for the studies which, through its lofty, inspired message and translations made at that time, during is reaching the orbit of world circulated those periods of censorship (and those of values” (Simion 80). The magazine is, ideological detente) and also a real moreover, interested in keeping a balance landmark recording the evolution of between “universal and national in Romanian literary criticism and its relation contemporary literature”. From 1971, we with ideology, marking during those can detect a higher tension between the decades the close relation between literary space and the context, as the texts criticism, theory and literary history. on the relation between history and event, Analytical symmetries, the attempt to find between reality and fiction grew in a point of balance and the endeavours “to number, in this way illustrating the major be synchronous” with world literature and concerns of literary critics and critical studies (be them structuralist, theoreticians. All these debates have a archetypal, the sociology of reading and common denominator: the issue of culture etc.) illustrate a consistent, lucid historicity, the rhythm and structures of a project, which rejected the “convenient variegated literature, permanently reflexes turning books into mere consumer chiselling its landmarks. goods, a kind of intellectual chewing-gum , chewed according to a mechanics without any horizon” (Dan H ăulic ă 5). The pleading for the fantastic, corroborated 94 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Bra ov • Vol. 5 (54) – No.1 - 2012 • Series IV with the strategies aimed to defeat 5. Horodinc ă, Georgeta. “‘Aventurile’ “duration”, to theorize the function of poeziei franceze”. Secolul 20 , 2 laughter, to blow away the narrator’s (1961): 108-115. omniscience, changed the very 6. Marino, Adrian. “Historical Avant- representation of literature, as well as the garde and the Question of Realism”. representation about literature, breaking up Cahiers roumains d’études littéraires , the realist socialist monolith. The conceptual 1 (1978): 72-79. balance and the diversity of themes, pushing 7. Martin, Mircea. “Aspecte ale the quests into area only furtively touched prezentului în poezie”. Secolul 20 , 5 upon, have always defended the dignity of (1972): 151-154. reading and the studies published in this 8. Munteanu, Romul: “Novelesque and magazine, which stood up the rigorousness Antinovelesque”. Cahiers roumains and the test of time. d’études littéraires , 4 (1979): 78-92. 9. Petcu, Marian. Cenzura în spa Ńiul References cultural românesc . 2005. Bucure ti: Editura Comunicare.ro. 1. Bresla u, Marcel. “Traducere i crea Ńie”. 10. Popa, N. I. “Conceptul de literatur ă Secolul 20, 2 (1961): 163-169. universal ă”. Secolul 20 , 1962 (11): 2. Gheorghiu, Mihnea. “Ce se întâmpl ă 106-113. cu romanul american?”. Secolul 20 . 1 11. Simion, Pop. “15 ani de rela Ńii literare (1961): 71-81. cu str ăin ătatea”. Secolul 20 , 3 (1964): 3. Hăulic ă, Dan. “Num ăr aniversar”. 80. Secolul 20 , 4 (1969): 3. 12. Tertulian, N. “Georg Lukacs i teoria 4. Hăulic ă, Dan. “10 ani de existen Ńă . romanului”. Cahiers roumains Dialectica universalit ăŃ ii”. Secolul 20 . d’études littéraires, 4 (1979): 60-70. 1-2-3 (1971): 8.