1. 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 -

2.  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.

3.  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

4.  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

5.  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

6.  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

7.  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

8.  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

9. 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.

10.  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.

11.  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

12.  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.

13.  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.

14. 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

15. Evening Star (*fragment from ending)
“Come down, good Lucifer and kind,
O lord of my aspire.
And fill the forest and my mind
With your sweetest fire!”
And Lucifer, alone in space,
Her tender summons heard,
A planet o'er the ocean's face
That 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 reign
Immutable and cold.”
English version by Corneliu M. Popescu

16.  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.

17.  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

18.  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

19.  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 Cioran
and Mircea Eliade, and the three writers
became lifelong friends.

20.  In 1936 Ionescu married Rodica
Burileanu, 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

21.  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

22.  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 Massin
for his “anti-play”, 1964

23.  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’s
manifest 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

24.  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

25.  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.

26.  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.

27.  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

28.  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 Nemira
Publishing House prize for 1997, were
printed in various venues during the
late 1990s.LIBER 2011: Romanian Voices in Spanish

29.  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

30.  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

31.  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!

32.  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 Dalkey
Archive Press.
Book launch of I’m a
Communist Biddy!, Oslo, 2014

33.  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.