Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane (Fundoianu) Barbu Fundoianu Benjamin Wechsler (Wexler, Vecsler) | |
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Benjamin Fondane (French pronunciation:
Fondane began a second career in 1923, when he moved to Paris. Affiliated with Surrealism, but strongly opposed to its communist leanings, he moved on to become a figure in Jewish existentialism and a leading disciple of Lev Shestov. His critique of political dogma, rejection of rationalism, expectation of historical catastrophe and belief in the soteriological force of literature were outlined in his celebrated essays on Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, as well as in his final works of poetry. His literary and philosophical activities helped him build close relationships with other intellectuals: Shestov, Emil Cioran, David Gascoyne, Jacques Maritain, Victoria Ocampo, Ilarie Voronca etc. In parallel, Fondane also had a career in cinema: a film critic and a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures, he later worked on Rapt with Dimitri Kirsanoff, and directed the since-lost film Tararira in Argentina.
A
Biography
Early life
Fondane was born in
The young Benjamin was an avid reader, primarily interested in the Moldavian classics of
Benjamin divided his time between the city and his father's native region. The latter's rural landscape impressed him greatly, and, enduring in his memory, became the setting in several of his poems.
Although Fondane later claimed to have started writing poetry at age eight, his earliest known contributions to the genre date from 1912, including both pieces of his own and translations from such authors as
Debut years
Fondane's actual debut dates back to 1914, during the time when he became a student at the
During the first two years of
Around 1915, Fondane was discovered by the journalistic tandem of
Remaining close friends with Fondane, Galaction later made persistent efforts of introducing him to critic
His collaboration with the Bucharest-based
In besieged Moldavia and relocation to Bucharest
In 1917, after Romania joined the Entente side and was invaded by the Central Powers, Fondane was in Iași, where the Romanian authorities had retreated. It was in this context that he met and befriended the doyen of Romanian Symbolism, poet Ion Minulescu. Minulescu and his wife, author Claudia Millian, had left their home in occupied Bucharest, and, by spring 1917, hosted Fondane at their provisional domicile in Iași. Millian later recalled that her husband had been much impressed by the Moldavian teenager, describing him as "a rare bird" and "a poet of talent".[36] The same year, at age 52, Isac Wechsler fell ill with typhus and died in Iași's Sfântul Spiridon Hospital, leaving his family without financial support.[37]
At around that time, Fondane began work on the poetry cycle Priveliști ("Sights" or "Panoramas", finished in 1923).
In 1919, upon the war's end, Benjamin Fondane settled in Bucharest, where he stayed until 1923. During this interval, he frequently changed domicile: after a stay at his sister Lina's home in Obor area, he moved on Lahovari Street (near Piața Romană), then in Moșilor area, before relocating to Văcărești (a majority Jewish residential area, where he lived in two successive locations), and ultimately to a house a short distance away from Foișorul de Foc.[43] Between these changes of address, he established contacts with the Symbolist and avant-garde society of Bucharest: a personal friend of graphic artist Iosif Ross, he formed an informal avant-garde circle of his own, attended by writers F. Brunea-Fox, Ion Călugăru, Henri Gad, Sașa Pană, Claude Sernet-Cosma and Ilarie Voronca, as well as by artist-director Armand Pascal (who, in 1920, married Lina Fundoianu).[44] Pană would later note his dominant status within the group, describing him as the "stooping green-eyed youth from Iași, the standard-bearer of the iconoclasts and rebels of the new generation".[45]
The group was occasionally joined by other friends, among them Millian and painter Nicolae Tonitza.[46] In addition, Fondane and Călugăru frequented the artistic and literary club established by the controversial Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești, a cultural promoter and political militant whose influence spread over several Symbolist milieus.[47] In a 1922 piece for Rampa, he remembered Bogdan-Pitești in ambivalent terms: "he could not stand moral elevation. [...] He was made of the greatest of joys, in the most purulent of bodies. How many generations of ancient boyars had come to pass, like unworthy dung, for this singular earth to be generated?"[48]
Pressed on by his family and the prospects of financial security,
Sburătorul, Contimporanul, Insula
Over the following years, he restarted his career in the press, contributing to various nationally circulated newspapers: Adevărul, Adevărul Literar și Artistic, Cuvântul Liber, Mântuirea, etc.[52] The main topics of his interest were literary reviews, essays reviewing the contribution of Romanian and French authors, various art chronicles, and opinion pieces on social or cultural issues.[53] A special case was his collaboration with Mântuirea, a Zionist periodical founded by Zissu, where, between August and October 1919, he published his studies collection Iudaism și elenism ("Judaism and Hellenism").[5][15][54] These pieces, alternating with similar articles by Galaction, showed how the young man's views in cultural anthropology had been shaped by his relationship with Groper (with whom he nevertheless severed all contacts by 1920).[11][15]
Fondane also renewed his collaboration with Rampa. He and another contributor to the magazine, journalist
Around the time of his relocation to Bucharest, Fondane first met the moderate modernist critic Eugen Lovinescu, and afterward became both an affiliate of Lovinescu's circle and a contributor to his literary review Sburătorul.[56][57] Among his first contributions there was a retrospective coverage of the boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier, which comprised his reflections on the mythical power of sport and the clash of cultures.[58] Although a Sburătorist, he was still in contact with Galaction and the left-wing circles. In June 1921, Galaction paid homage to "the daring Benjamin" in an article for Adevărul Literar și Artistic, calling attention to Fondane's "overwhelming originality."[59]
A year later, Fondane was employed by Vinea's new venue, the prestigious modernist venue Contimporanul. Having debuted in its first issue with a comment on Romanian translation projects (Ferestre spre Occident, "Windows on the Occident"),[60] he was later assigned the theatrical column.[61] Fondane's work was again featured in Flacăra magazine (at the time under Minulescu's direction): the poem Ce simplu ("How Simple") and the essay Istoria Ideii ("The History of the Idea") were both published there in 1922.[62] The same year, with assistance from fellow novelist Felix Aderca, Fondane grouped his earlier essays on French literature as Imagini și cărți din Franța ("Images and Books from France"), published by Editura Socec company.[63] The book included what was probably the first Romanian study of Marcel Proust's contribution as a novelist.[64] The author announced that he was planning a similar volume, grouping essays about Romanian writers, both modernists (Minulescu, Bacovia, Arghezi, Maniu, Galaction) and classics (Alexandru Odobescu, Ion Creangă, Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Anton Pann), but this work was not published in his lifetime.[65]
Also in 1922, Fondane and Pascal set up the theatrical troupe Insula ("The Island"), which stated its commitment to
Although it stated its goal of revolutionizing the
Move to France
In 1923, Benjamin Fondane eventually left Romania for France, spurred on by the need to prove himself within a different cultural context.[49][57][73][74] He was at the time interested in the success of Dada, an avant-garde movement launched abroad by the Romanian-born author Tristan Tzara, in collaboration with several others.[75] Not dissuaded by the fact that his sister and brother-in-law (the Pascals) had returned impoverished from an extended stay in Paris, Fondane crossed Europe by train and partly by foot.[76]
The writer (who adopted his
After a period of renting furnished rooms, Fondane accepted an offer from Jean, brother of the deceased literary theorist
Claudia Millian, who was also spending time in Paris, described Fondane's new focus on studying
Surrealist episode
The mid-1920s brought Benjamin Fondane's affiliation with Surrealism, the post-Dada avant-garde current centered in Paris. Fondane also rallied with Belgian Surrealist composers E. L. T. Mesens and André Souris (with whom he signed a manifesto on modernist music), and supported Surrealist poet-director Antonin Artaud in his efforts to set up a theater named after Alfred Jarry (which was not, however, an all-Surrealist venue).[87] In this context, he tried to persuade the French Surrealist group to tour his native country and establish contacts with local affiliates.[88]
By 1926, Fondane grew disenchanted with the
In 1928, his own collaboration with the Surrealists took shape as the book Trois scenarii: ciné-poèmes ("Three Scenarios: Cine-poems"), published by Documents internationaux de l'esprit nouveau collection, with artwork by American photographer Man Ray and Romanian painter Alexandru Brătășanu[95] (one of his other contacts in the French Surrealist photographers' group was Eli Lotar, the illegitimate son of Arghezi).[96] The "cine-poems" were intentionally conceived as unfilmable screenplays, in what was his personal statement about artistic compromise between experimental film and the emerging worldwide film industry.[97] The book notably comprised his verdict about cinema being "the only art that was never classical."[98]
Philosophical debut
With time, Fondane became a contributor to newspapers or literary journals in France, Belgium, and
Invited (on Ocampo's initiative)
In October 1929, Fondane was back in Paris, where he focused on translating and popularizing some of Romanian literature's milestone texts, from
Integral and unu
In the mid-1920s, Fondane and painter János Mattis-Teutsch joined the external editorial board of Integral magazine, an avant-garde tribune published in Bucharest by Ion Călugăru, F. Brunea-Fox and Voronca.[107] He was assigned a permanent column, known as Fenêtres sur l'Europe/Ferestre spre Europa (French and Romanian for "Windows on Europe").[108] With Barbu Florian, Fondane became a leading film reviewer for the magazine, pursuing his agenda in favor of non-commercial and "pure" films (such as René Clair's Entr'acte), and praising Charlie Chaplin for his lyricism, but later making some concessions to talkies and the regular Hollywood films.[109] Exploring what he defined as "the great ballet of contemporary French poetry", Fondane also published individual notes on writers Aragon, Jean Cocteau, Joseph Delteil, Paul Éluard and Pierre Reverdy.[110] In 1927, Integral also hosted one of Fondane's replies to the communist Surrealists in France, as Le surréalisme et la révolution ("Surrealism and Revolution").[90][111][112]
He also came into contact with
With Fondane's approval and Minulescu's assistance,
As Paul Daniel notes, the polemics surrounding Priveliști only lasted for a year, and Fondane was largely forgotten by the Romanian public after this moment.[121] However, the discovery of Fondane's avant-garde stance by traditionalist circles took the form of bemusement or indignation, which lasted into the next decades. The conservative critic Const. I. Emilian, whose 1931 study discussed modernism as a psychiatric condition, mentioned Fondane as one of the leading "extremists", and deplored his abandonment of traditionalist subjects.[122] Some nine years later, the antisemitic far right newspaper Sfarmă-Piatră, through the voice of Ovidiu Papadima, accused Fondane and "the Jews" of having purposefully maintained "the illusion of a literary movement" under Lovinescu's leadership.[123] Nevertheless, before that date, Lovinescu himself had come to criticize his former pupil (a disagreement which echoed his larger conflict with the unu group).[124] Also in the 1930s, Fondane's work received coverage in the articles of two other maverick modernists: Perpessicius, who viewed it with noted sympathy, and Lucian Boz, who found his new poems touched by "prolixity".[125]
Rimbaud le voyou, Ulysse and intellectual prominence
Back in France, where he had become Shestov's assistant,[126] Fondane was beginning work on other books: the essay on 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud—Rimbaud le voyou ("Rimbaud the Hoodlum")—and, despite an earlier pledge not to return to poetry, a new series of poems.[72][121] His eponymously titled study-portrait of German philosopher Martin Heidegger was published by Cahiers du Sud in 1932.[127] Despite his earlier rejection of commercial films, Fondane eventually became an employee of Paramount Pictures, probably spurred on by his need to finance a personal project[78][128] (reputedly, he was accepted there with a second application, his first one having been rejected in 1929).[72] He worked first as an assistant director, before turning to screenwriting.[90] Preserving his interest in Romanian developments, he visited the Paris set of Televiziune,[129] a Romanian cinema production for which he shared directorial credits.[106] His growing interest in Voronca's own poetry led him to review it for Tudor Arghezi's Bucharest periodical, Bilete de Papagal, where he stated: "Mr. Ilarie Voronca is at the top of his form. I'm gladly placing my stakes on him."[130]
In 1931, the poet married Geneviève Tissier, a trained jurist[121] and lapsed Catholic.[78] Their home on Rue Rollin subsequently became a venue for literary sessions, mostly grouping the Cahiers du Sud contributors. The aspiring author Paul Daniel, who became Rodica Wechsler's husband in 1935, attended such meetings with his wife, and recalls having met Gaultier, filmmaker Dimitri Kirsanoff, music critic Boris de Schlözer, poets Yanette Delétang-Tardif and Thérèse Aubray, as well as Shestov's daughter Natalie Baranoff.[131] Fondane also enjoyed a warm friendship with Constantin Brâncuși, the Romanian-born modern sculptor, visiting Brâncuși's workshop on an almost daily basis and writing about his work in Cahiers de l'Étoile.[132] He witnessed first-hand and described Brâncuși's primitivist techniques, likening his work to that of a "savage man".[133]
Rimbaud le voyou was eventually published by Denoël & Steele company in 1933, the same year when Fondane published his poetry volume Ulysse ("Ulysses") with Les Cahiers du Journal des Poètes.[72][78][134] The Rimbaud study, partly written as a reply to Roland de Renéville's monograph Rimbaud le Voyant ("Rimbaud the Seer"),[90] consolidated Fondane's international reputation as a critic and literary historian. In the months after its publication, the book earned much praise from scholars and writers—from Joë Bousquet, Jean Cocteau, Benedetto Croce and Louis-Ferdinand Céline,[72][135] to Jean Cassou, Guillermo de Torre[136] and Miguel de Unamuno.[72] It also found admirers in the English poet David Gascoyne, who was afterward in correspondence with Fondane, and the American novelist Henry Miller.[90] Ulysse itself illustrated Fondane's interest in scholarly issues: he sent one autographed copy to Raïssa Maritain, wife of Jacques Maritain (both of whom were Catholic thinkers).[78][137] Shortly after this period, the author was surprised to read Voronca's own French-language volume Ulysse dans la cité ("Ulysses in the City"): although puzzled by the similarity of titles with his own collection, he described Voronca as a "great poet."[138] Also then, in Romania, B. Iosif completed the Yiddish translation of Fondane's Psalmul leprosului ("The Leper's Psalm"). The text, left in his care by Fondane before his 1923 departure, was first published in Di Woch, a periodical set up in Romania by poet Yankev Shternberg (October 31, 1934).[139]
Anti-fascist causes and filming of Rapt
The 1933 establishment of a
Fondane left the Paramount studios the same year, disappointed with company policies and without having had any screen credit of his own (although, he claimed, there were over 100 Paramount scripts to which he had unsigned contributions).
From Tararira to World War II
Despite selling many copies of his books and having Rapt played at the Panthéon Cinema, Benjamin Fondane was still facing major financial difficulties, accepting a 1936 offer to write and assist in the making of Tararira, an avant-garde musical product of the Argentine film industry.[94][152] This was his second option: initially, he contemplated filming a version of Ricardo Güiraldes' Don Segundo Sombra, but met opposition from Güiraldes' widow.[94] While en route to Argentina, he became friends with Georgette Gaucher, a Breton woman, with whom he was in correspondence for the rest of his life.[72]
Under contract with the Falma-film company, Fondane was received with honors by the
With the money received in Buenos Aires, the writer contemplated returning on a visit to Romania, but he abandoned all such projects later in 1936, instead making his way to France.
In 1939, Fondane was naturalized French. This followed an independent initiative of the Société des écrivains français professional association, in recognition for his contribution to French letters.[160] Cahiers du Sud collected the required 3,000 francs fee through a public subscription, enlisting particularly large contributions from music producer Renaud de Jouvenel (brother of Bertrand de Jouvenel) and philosopher-ethnologist Lucien Lévy-Bruhl.[161] Only months after this event, with the outbreak of World War II, Fondane was drafted into the French Army. During most of the "Phoney War" interval, considered too old for active service, he was in the military reserve force, but in February 1940 was called under arms with the 216 Artillery Regiment.[162] According to Lina, "he left [home] with unimaginable courage and faith."[163] Stationed at the Sainte Assise Castle in Seine-Port, he edited and stenciled a humorous gazette, L'Écho de la I C-ie ("The 1st Company Echo"), where he also published his last-ever work of poetry, Le poète en patrouille ("The Poet on Patrolling Duty").[164]
First captivity and clandestine existence
Fondane was captured by the Germans in June 1940 (shortly before the
He was working on two poetry series, Super Flumina Babylonis (a reference to Psalm 137) and L'Exode ("The Exodus"), as well as on his last essay, focusing on 19th-century poet Charles Baudelaire, and titled Baudelaire et l'expérience du gouffre ("Baudelaire and the Experience of the Abyss").[168] In addition to these, his other French texts, incomplete or unpublished by 1944, include: the poetic drama pieces Philoctète, Les Puits de Maule ("Maule's Well", an adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables) and Le Féstin de Balthazar ("Belshazzar's Feast"); a study about the life and work of Romanian-born philosopher Stéphane Lupasco; and the selection from his interviews with Shestov, Sur les rives de l'Illisus ("On the Banks of the Illisus").[169] His very last text is believed to be a philosophical essay, Le Lundi existentiel ("The Existential Monday"), on which Fondane was working in 1944.[94][170] Little is known about Provèrbes ("Proverbs"), which, he announced in 1933, was supposed to be an independent collection of poems.[171]
According to various accounts, Fondane made a point of not leaving Paris, despite the growing restrictions and violence.
After 1941, Fondane became friends with another Romanian existentialist in France, the younger Emil Cioran. Their closeness signaled an important stage in the latter's career: Cioran was slowly moving away from his fascist sympathies and his antisemitic stance, and, although still connected to the revolutionary fascist Iron Guard, had reintroduced cosmopolitanism to his own critique of Romanian society.[170][177][178] In 1943, transcending ideological boundaries, Fondane also had dinner with Mircea Eliade, the Romanian novelist and philosopher, who, like their common friend Cioran, had an ambiguous connection with the far right.[179] In 1942, his own Romanian citizenship rights, granted by the Jewish emancipation of the early 1920s, were lost with the antisemitic legislation adopted by the Ion Antonescu regime,[180] which also officially banned his entire work as "Jewish".[181] At around that time, his old friends outside France made unsuccessful efforts to obtain him a safe conduct to neutral countries. Such initiatives were notably taken by Jacques Maritain from his new home in the United States[78] and by Victoria Ocampo in Argentina.[94][182]
Deportation and death
He was eventually arrested by
Accounts differ on what happened to his sister Lina. Paul Daniel believes that she decided to go looking for her brother, also went missing, and, in all probability, became a victim of another deportation.[185] Other sources state that she was arrested at around the same time as, or even together with, her brother, and that they were both on the same transport to Auschwitz.[51][78][170][173][187] According to other accounts, Fondane was in custody while his sister was not, and sent her a final letter from Drancy; Fondane, who had theoretical legal grounds for being spared deportation (a Christian wife), aware that Lina could not invoke them, sacrificed himself to be by her side.[78][94][170][173] While in Drancy, he sent another letter, addressed to Geneviève, in which he asked for all his French poetry to be published in the future as Le Mal des fantômes ("The Ache of Phantoms").[188][189] Optimistically, Fondane referred to himself as "the traveler who isn't done traveling".[78][188]
While Lina is believed to have been marked for death upon arrival (and immediately after sent to the gas chamber),[78] her brother survived the camp conditions for a few more months. He befriended two Jewish doctors, Moscovici and Klein, with whom he spent his free moments engaged in passionate discussions about philosophy and literature.[51] As was later attested by a survivor of the camp, the poet himself was among the 700 inmates selected for extermination on October 2, 1944, when the Birkenau subsection outside Brzezinka was being evicted by SS guards.[190] He was aware of impending death, and reportedly saw it as ironic that it came so near to an expected Allied victory.[166] After a short interval in Block 10, where he is said to have awaited his death with dignity and courage, he was driven to the gas chamber and murdered.[170][191] His body was cremated, along with those of the other victims.[5][166]
Literary work and philosophical contribution
Symbolist and traditionalist beginnings
As a young writer, Benjamin Fondane moved several times between the extremes of Symbolism and Neoromantic traditionalism. Literary historian Mircea Martin analyzed the very first of his as pastiches of several, sometimes contradictory, literary sources. These influences, he notes, come from local traditionalists, Romantics and Neoromantics—Octavian Goga (the inspiration for Fondane's earliest pieces), Grigore Alexandrescu, Vasile Alecsandri, George Coșbuc, Ștefan Octavian Iosif; from French Symbolists—Paul Verlaine; and from Romanian disciples of Symbolism—Dimitrie Anghel, George Bacovia, Alexandru Macedonski, Ion Minulescu.[192] The young author had a special appreciation for the 19th century national poet, Mihai Eminescu. Familiar with Eminescu's entire poetic work,[15] he was one of the young poets who tried to reconcile Eminescu's Neoromantic, ruralizing, traditionalism with the urban phenomenon that was Symbolism.[193] While Fondane continued to credit Minulescu's radical and jocular Symbolism as a main influence on his own poems, this encounter was overall less significant than his enthusiasm for Eminescu;[194] in contrast, Bacovia's desolate and macabre poetry left enduring traces in Fondane's work, shaping his depiction of provincial environments and even transforming his worldview.[90][184][195][196]
Fondane's early affiliation with Ovid Densusianu's version of Romania's Symbolist current was, according to literary historian Dumitru Micu, superficial. Micu notes that the young Fondane sent his verse to be published by magazines with incompatible agendas, suggesting that his collaboration with Vieața Nouă was therefore incidental, but also that, around 1914, Fondane's own style was a "conventional Symbolism".[23] Writing in 1915, the poet himself explained that his time with the magazine in question ought not be interpreted as anything other than conjectural.[23] During his polemic with Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște, he defined himself as an advocate of an "insolent" Symbolism, a category defined by and around Remy de Gourmont.[36] This perspective was further clarified in O lămurire..., which explained how Tăgăduința lui Petru was to be read: "A clear, although Symbolist, book. For it is, unmistakably, Symbolist. [...] Symbolism doesn't necessarily mean neologism, morbid, bizarre, decadent, confusing and badly written. But rather—if there is talent—original, commonsensical, depth, non-imitation, lack of standard, subconscious, new and sometimes healthy."[42] From a regional point of view, the young Fondane is sometimes included with Bacovia in the Moldavian branch of Romanian Symbolism, or, more particularly, in the Jewish Moldavian subsection.[197]
The various stylistic directions of Fondane's early poetry came together in Priveliști. Mircea Martin reads in it the poet's emancipation from both Symbolism and traditionalism, despite it being opened with a dedication to Minulescu, and against Eugen Lovinescu's belief that such pastorals were exclusively traditionalist.[198] According to Martin, Priveliști parts from its Romantic predecessors by abandoning the "descriptive" and "sentimentalist" in pastoral conventions: "Everything seems designed on purpose to confound and defy the traditional mindset."[199] Similarly, writer-critic Gheorghe Crăciun found the Priveliști texts contiguous with other early forms of Romanian modernism.[196]
Nevertheless, much of the volume still adheres to lyricism and the conventional idyll format, primarily by identifying itself with the slow rhythms of country life.[200] These traits were subsumed by literary historian George Călinescu into a special category, that of "traditionalist Symbolism", centered on "that which brings man closer to Creation's interior life".[201] The same commentator suggested that the concept linked modernism and traditionalism through the common influence of Charles Baudelaire,[202] whom Fondane himself credited as the "mystical power" behind Priveliști.[196] The cycle also recalls Fondane's familiarity with another pastoral poet, Francis Jammes.[11][15] Of special note is an ode, Lui Taliarh ("At Thaliarchus"), described by Călinescu as the masterpiece of Priveliști.[203] Directly inspired by Horace's Odes I.9, and seen by Martin as Fondane's will to integrate death into life (or "plenary living"),[204] it equates existence with the seasonal cycle:
Ca mâne, toamna iară se va mări prin grâne, |
Tomorrow maybe, autumn will expand over the fields of grain, |
Arghezian modernism and Expressionist echoes
From its traditionalist core, Priveliști created a modernist structure of uncertainty and violent language. According to Mircea Martin, the two tendencies were so intertwined that one could find both expressed within the same poem.
Statements made by the young Fondane, in which he explains his indifference toward the landscape as it is, and his preference for the landscape as the poet himself creates it, have been a traditional source for critical commentary.
[...] și trec țărani cu rapăn, ca niște boi; trec boi |
[...] and mangy peasants pass, like oxen; oxen pass |
Literary historian
Avant-garde critique of parochialism
The introduction of rhetorical violence within a traditional poetic setting announced Fondane's transition into the more radical wing of the modernist movement. During his Priveliști period, in his articles for Contimporanul, the poet stated that Symbolism was dead,[226] and in subsequent articles drew a line between the original and non-original sides of Romanian Symbolism, becoming particularly critical of Macedonski.[227] Defining his programmatic approach as leading, through the avant-garde, into a Neoclassical modernism (or a "new Classicism"),[49][228][229] Benjamin Fondane argued: "To be excessive: that is the only way of being innovative."[230] His perspective, mixing revolt and messages about creating a new tradition, was relatively close to Contimporanul's own artistic program, and as such a variant of Constructivism.[231] During his own transition from Symbolism, Fondane looked on the avant-garde itself with critical distance. Discussing it as the product of a tradition leading back to Stéphane Mallarmé, he reproached Cubism for displaying a limitation of range, and viewed Futurism as essentially destructive (but also useful for having created a virgin territory to support "constructive man"); likewise, he found Dada a solid, but limited, method of combating interwar period's "metaphysical despair".[232]
The affiliation to the avant-garde came with a sharp critique of
However, during a virtual polemic with
Scholar Constantin Pricop interprets Fondane's overall perspective as that of a "constructive" critic, citing a fragment of Imagini și cărți din Franța: "Let us hope the time will come when we may bring our personal contribution into Europe. [...] Until such time, let's keep a check on the continuous assimilation of foreign culture [...]; let's therefore return to cultural criticism."[74] Commenting at length on the probable motivations of Fondane's discourse, Cernat suggests that, like many of his avant-garde colleagues, Fondane experienced a "peripheral complex", merging Bovarysme and frustrated ambition.[244] According to Cernat, the poet surpassed this moment after experiencing success in France, and his decision to have Priveliști printed at home was intended as a special tribute to Romania and its language.[245] There is however a pronounced difference between Fondane's French and Romanian work, as discussed by critics and by Fondane himself.[74][93][170][196][246] The elements of continuity are highlighted in Crăciun's account: "French literature and culture signified for Fundoianu a process of clarification and self-definition, but not a change of identity."[196]
Jewish tradition and Biblical language
Several of Fondane's exegetes have discussed the links between his apparent traditionalism and the classical themes of either
Deodată, după geamuri se aprindeau făclii; |
At once, flames lit up behind windows; |
Fondane expanded on his interest in the Jewish heritage in his early prose and drama. The various pre-1923 articles, including his obituary pieces for
Tăgăduința lui Petru, believed by Mircea Martin to be a sample of Fondane's debt to André Gide,[250] is the first of his works to take inspiration from the Bible (in this case, looking beyond the Talmud).[94] Also Biblical in subject, Monologul lui Baltazar has been interpreted by Crohmălniceanu as a negative comment on nihilism and the Übermensch theory, notions embodied by the protagonist Belshazzar, legendary ruler of Babylon during the Jewish captivity.[33] Fondane's progressive focus on Jewish Biblical sources mirrored the Christian interests of his mentor Arghezi. Like Arghezi, Fondane wrote a series of Psalms—although, according to Martin, his tone was "too cadenced and solemn for one to expect a confrontation or a touching confession".[208] However, Martin notes, the Jewish author either adopted or anticipated (depending on the reliability of his manuscripts' dating) Arghezi's poetry of exhortation and curses, in which ugliness, baseness and destitution speak directly to divinity.[251] These sentiments are found in Fondane's Psalmul leprosului, which the same critic identifies as "the series' masterpiece":
Căci trupul meu se crapă de buboaie — |
For my body is breaking up in boils— |
Surrealism, anti-communism and Jewish existentialism
Throughout and beyond his participation in the Surrealist milieus (an affiliation illustrated primarily by his filmmaker and popularizer activities, rather than by his literary creation),[253] Benjamin Fondane remained an existentialist, primarily following Lev Shestov's views on the human condition. This came as a critique of the scientific method and rationalism as human explanations of the world, notably outlined in his own Faux traité d'esthétique.[184][229][254] Probably developed independently from Shestovist thought, his overall objection toward abstract projects has been likened by essayist Gina Sebastian Alcalay to the later stances of André Glucksmann or Edgar Morin.[51] These attitudes shaped his assessments of Surrealism. In one of Integral chronicles, Fondane himself explained that the movement, described as superior to Dada's "joyous suicide", had created a "new continent" with its rediscovery of dreams.[255] Poet and critic Armelle Chitrit notes that, in part, Fondane's later dissidence was also motivated on an existentialist level, since Surrealism "had stopped asking questions"; instead, she notes, Fondane "believed neither in reason nor in any system based on it. It is folly, he wrote, to perpetuate the attempt to make man and history cohabitable. One of [S]hestov's rare disciples, he sets only the powers of life against those of chaos."[174] As Fondane wrote to Claude Sernet, Rimbaud le voyou was in part at attempt at preventing the other Surrealists from confiscating Rimbaud's mythical status.[256] According to Romanian-born writer Lucian Raicu, its "somber" tone and allusive language are also early clues that Fondane had a nightmarish vision of the political and intellectual climate.[126] His Shestovist interpretation, opposing existence to ideas, was contested by intellectual figure Raymond Queneau: himself a former Surrealist, Queneau suggested that Fondane was relying on blind faith, having a distorted perspective on science, literature and the human intellect.[257] Furthermore, he noted that, under the influence of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Fondane described reality exclusively in primitivist terms, as the realm of savagery and superstition.[258]
Fondane's objection to the
Fondane found himself opposed to the general trend of intellectual partisanship, and took pride in defining himself as a politically independent skeptic.
Rallying himself with the main trends of
Late poetry and drama
The spiritual crisis experienced in France was the probable reason why Fondane refused to write poems between 1923 and 1927.[267] As he stated in various contexts, he mistrusted the innate ability of words to convey the tragedy of existence, describing poetry as the best tool for rendering a universal "wordless scream",[268] an "ultimate reality",[269] or an eternal expression of things ephemeral.[229] In his essays, he suggested that the invention of art, like the invention of theory and rhetoric, had deprived poets of their existential function;[184][229] beyond letting themselves be guided by their art, he argued, writers needed to confirm that the principles of life, negative as well as positive, exist.[270] He saw poets as waging an unequal battle with both scientific perspectives and moralism, urging them to place their unique faith "in the mysterious virtue of poetry, in the existential virtue that poetry upholds".[270] Rimbaud le voyou was in part a study of how, during his self-exile to Harar, Rimbaud had not merely abandoned poetry for the sake of adventure, but rather transformed his lifestyle into a poetry of incertitude and personal ambition.[90][271] As Fondane explained in his Baudelaire et l'expérience du gouffre, a poet and thinker could also evidence the abyss he faced, and alleviate his own anxiety, through the use of irony: "Laugh in the face of tragedy, or disappear!"[268]
According to Cernat, his articles for Integral show Fondane as an ally of the "anti-political" and lyrical side of Surrealism, a poet placing his trust in "the negative-
Ulysse was an
In Cioran's account, Benjamin Fondane lived his final years permanently aware "of a misfortune that was about to happen", and built a "complicity with the unavoidable".[170] The same is noted by German Romanian poet and Cioran exegete Dieter Schlesak, who suggests: "Fondane was a man who wished to bear the absolute uncertainty of the outside; that which exists is an intermittent, not continuous, reality. But [true misfortune] is the boredom of faint unliving, [...] of things implied, these being the ones [Fondane] hated."[184] Fondane's visions about history and the role of poetry were notably outlined in L'Exode, a portion of which is dedicated to the powerlessness of Jews in front of prejudice. According to Oișteanu, this text, where the narrative voice speaks of sufferings and defects common in all humans, was probably inspired by the famous monologue in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.[280] Another part, called "astonishingly prophetic" and "cynical apocalyptic" by Chitrit,[281] reads:
Que l'on nous brûle ou que l'on nous cloute |
No matter if you burn or nail us |
Similar themes were being explored by the Super Flumina Babylonis cycle, described by Sernet as "a terrible foreshadowing of events into which peoples and continents were about to sink, into which the author himself was to be dragged without the possibility of return."[166] Writing about the entirety of Fondane's French poetry (Le Mal des fantômes), poet and language theorist Henri Meschonnic argued that the Romanian author was unique in depicting "the revolt and the flavor of life mixed into the sense of death".[94][141]
Legacy
Family and estate
After her husband's death (of which she was for long ignorant) and the end of the war, Geneviève Tissier-Fondane, aided by the Maritains, moved into
The writer was the subject of several visual portrayals by noted artists, some of whom were his personal friends. During his collaboration with Integral and unu,
The poet-philosopher left behind a large manuscript collection, a personal library and a set of works due for publishing. His book collection was split into individual documentary funds, some located in France and others in Romania.
Western echoes
In France, the caretaker of documentary enterprises regarding Fondane was for long Sernet (Voronca's brother-in-law), who released part of Super Flumina Babylonis and other previously unknown texts (published in various issues of Cahiers du Sud and other journals), while supervising a new edition of L'Honneur des poètes, where Fondane was properly credited.[296] In 1945, philosopher Jean Grenier edited the first-ever version of Le Lundi existentiel.[94] A Fondane reader (comprising L'Exode) was being planned around 1946, and supposed to be published by Les Éditions de Minuit, with contributions from poets Jean Lescure[141] and Paul Éluard.[297] Baudelaire et l'expérience du gouffre was eventually published by Éditions Seghers in 1947, under the supervision of Jean Cassou (second edition 1972; third edition 1973).[298] Sernet was also the author of the poem À Benjamain Fondane, déporté ("To Benjamin Fondane, Upon His Deportation"), reportedly dated June 3, 1944.[299] Recollections of Fondane's activity and his friendship with Victoria Ocampo are also found in Ocampo's series Testimonios ("Testimonies").[94]
With support from
In the Western world (including the Romanian diaspora), there were a few authors whose work was influenced directly by Fondane's, among them Voronca[308] and David Gascoyne. Gascoyne, the author of "I.M. Benjamin Fondane" poem and recollection pieces on their friendship, spoke of the Romanian as a mentor, with a "decisive and lasting influence" on his own writings.[90] France is home to a Benjamin Fondane Studies Society, which organizes an annual workshop in Peyresq.[143][294][295] Since 1994, it publishes the academic review Cahiers Benjamin Fondane, which has recovered and published much of Fondane's correspondence[90][188] and political texts.[51] In 2006, following a Fondane Society request, a square on Paris' Rue Rollin was renamed in honor of the Romanian-born writer.[143][309] Three years later, on the 65th commemoration of Fondane's killing, the Mémorial de la Shoah museum hosted a special exhibit dedicated his life and literary work.[94][141][310] In Israel, a fragment from his L'Exode is engraved in English and Hebrew versions on the entrance of Yad Vashem memorial.[173]
By the late 1970s, Fondane's Romanian work was attracting researchers and authors of monographs from various other countries, in particular the United States (John Kenneth Hyde, Eric Freedman etc.) and Communist Czechoslovakia (Libuše Valentová).[311] In West Germany, Fondane's poetic and philosophical contributions were in focus by 1986, when exiled poet Dieter Schlesak published translated samples in Akzente journal.[170][184] Preceded by Gascoyne's French-to-English translation attempts from Fondane,[90] American film editor Julian Semilian's contribution as a translator from Romanian is credited with having played an important part in introducing the English-speaking world to the writings of Fondane and various other Romanian modernists.[312] The first-ever volume of Hebrew translations from Fondane's verse saw print in 2003, with support from Tel Aviv University.[313] Other international echoes include the publication of Odile Serre's Romanian-to-French translations from his early poems.[196][314]
Recognition of Fondane's overall contribution was however rare, as noted in 1989 by Martin Stanton: "[Fondane is] surely the most underestimated intellectual of the 1930s".[272] Writing some nine years later, Chitrit also argued: "His works [...] are as important as they are unknown."[174] Cioran, who in 1986 dedicated a portion of his Exercises in Admiration collection to his deceased friend, mentioned that Baudelaire et l'expérience du gouffre, made memorable by its study of boredom as a literary subject, had since found numerous readers.[90][315] Cioran kept a fond memory of his friend, and recalled not being able to pass on Rue Rollin without experiencing "terrible pain".[170] Awareness of Fondane's philosophy was nevertheless judged unsatisfactory by scholar Moshe Idel. Speaking in 2007, he suggested that Fondane the philosopher remained less familiar to Jewish studies academics in Israel than his various counterparts in Germanic Europe.[316]
Argentinian director Edgardo Cozarinsky, who was inspired in his youth by Fondane's introduction of avant-garde films (preserved in the Argentine Film Archives), staged and narrated a dramatized version of his biography, performed at the Villa Ocampo.[94] Fondane scholar Olivier Salazar-Ferrer also authored a theatrical adaptation of L'Exode (premiered by France's Théâtre de La Mouvance company in 2008).[317]
Romanian echoes
In his native country, Benjamin Fondane was present in the memoirs of several authors. One special case is Arghezi, who, despite his disciple's admiration, left a sarcastic and intentionally demoralizing portrayal of Fondane in his 1930 volume Poarta Neagră.[90][318] A year after the poet's death at Auschwitz, Arghezi returned with a sympathetic obituary, printed in Revista Fundațiilor Regale.[54][57] Fondane was also the subject of a Surrealist poem in prose, or "short-circuit", by Stephan Roll, where he was referred to as "a Don Juan of the brain's lineage from God".[319] A very hostile depiction of Fondane and other Jewish writers, noted for its antisemitic undertones, was present in the 1942 memoirs of writer Victor Eftimiu.[320] A reflection of the late 1940s communization of Romania, Sașa Pană's recollection piece De la B. Fundoianu la Benjamin Fondane ("From B. Fundoianu to Benjamin Fondane"), published by Orizont review, reinterpreted some of the poet's activities, and avant-garde history in general, from a partisan Marxist vantage point.[321] Later memoirs mentioning the writer include a piece by Adrian Maniu in the Cluj-based magazine Steaua (December 1963) and a new tribute by Pană in Luceafărul (October 1964).[322] Pană's recollections were later turned into a larger narrative, the 1973 autobiographical novel Născut în 02 ("Born in '02").[323] Fondane also features prominently in Claudia Millian's Cartea mea de aduceri-aminte ("My Book of Recollections"), published the same year as Pană's volume.[324] Also in 1973, the former Surrealist campaigner Geo Bogza dedicated Fondane an eponymous prose poem, centered on an existential contradiction: "To be born in Moldavia, in sweet, gentle Moldavia... and to end up in the furnaces at Auschwitz."[173][188] Among the younger Romanian poets, who debuted during communism, Nichita Stănescu was influenced by Priveliști in some of his own earliest works,[325] as was Andrei Codrescu.[326]
Posthumous Romanian editions of Fondane's works included the selection Poezii ("Poems"), edited by the former Surrealist author
Writing in 1978, Martin noted that the focus of such recoveries was on Fondane's poetry, while Fondane the thinker and "informed commentator", "one of the most evolved critical voices in 1920s
The hidden parts of Benjamin Fondane's contribution became accessible only after the
Eight years later, comparatist Irina Georgescu assessed that interest in the more unknown aspects of Fondane's work had been rekindled by public conferences and new monographs (among which she cites the contributions of scholars Mariana Boca, Nedeea Burcă and Ana-Maria Tomescu).[57] Le Féstin de Balthazar was performed in its Romanian version (Ospățul lui Baltazar), directed by Alexandru Dabija for the Nottara Theater company.[334] The 65th commemoration of Fondane's death was marked locally with several events, including the premiere of Andreea Tănăsescu's Exil în pământul uitării ("Exile to the Land of Oblivion"), a contemporary ballet and performance art show loosely inspired by his poetry.[310] In 2006, the Romanian Cultural Institute set up the Benjamin Fondane International Award for Francophone literature in countries outside France.[317] In 2016, Cătălin Mihuleac published a biographical short story (and eulogy), Ultima țigară a lui Fondane ("Fondane's Last Cigarette").[335]
Fondane's literary posterity was also touched by an extended controversy, notably involving Mircea Martin and philosopher Mihai Șora. The scandal was ignited after October 2007, when Șora and poet Luiza Palanciuc set up the Restitutio Benjamin Fondane translation program, with support from Editura Limes and Observator Cultural magazine.[173][294][295] Martin contested this initiative, arguing that he had earlier publicized his intent of editing a Romanian-language Fondane reader, and claiming legal precedence on copyrights.[173][294][295] A parallel conflict ensued between Editura Limes and Observator Cultural, after which the Restitutio program split into separate projects.[294]
Presence in English language anthologies
- Something is still present and isn't, of what's gone. A bilingual anthology of avant-garde and avant-garde inspired Rumanian poetry, (translated by Victor Pambuccian), Aracne editrice, Rome, 2018.
Notes
- ^ Daniel, p. 595
- ^ Daniel, pp. 596–597, 641, 643
- ^ "Radio Romania International - מורשת יהודית ברומניה 14.06.2020 - בנימין פונדויאנו – חלק ראשון". Radio Romania International. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
- ^ Daniel, p. 596
- ^ Z. Ornea, "Iudaismul în eseistica lui Fundoianu" Archived 2016-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 48/1999
- ^ Daniel, p. 597
- ^ Daniel, p. 597; Sandqvist, p. 355
- ^ Daniel, pp. 596–597, 602
- ^ Daniel, pp. 598, 601. See also Tomescu (2006), p. 122
- ^ Daniel, pp. 599, 602–603
- ^ a b c d e f g h (in Romanian) Roxana Sorescu, "B. Fundoianu – anii de ucenicie" (II), in Observator Cultural, Nr. 501, November 2009
- ^ Daniel, pp. 599–601
- ^ Daniel, pp. 600–601
- ^ Daniel, pp. 598–599
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m (in Romanian) Roxana Sorescu, "B. Fundoianu – anii de ucenicie" (I), in Observator Cultural, Nr. 500, November 2009
- ^ Daniel, p. 599
- ^ Daniel, pp. 599, 601–602; Martin, p. VI
- ^ Daniel, p. 603
- ^ Daniel, pp. 602–603
- ^ Daniel, pp. 603, 609. Sandqvist (p. 354), who places the collaboration with Valuri in 1912, notes that it was in this context that the poet first adopted his Benjamin Fundoianu signature.
- ^ a b Daniel, pp. 603–604
- ^ Daniel, pp. 604–605
- ^ a b c Daniel, p. 605
- ^ Daniel, pp. 605, 609; Martin, p. X
- ^ Daniel, p. 606
- ^ Martin, pp. V–VI
- ^ Daniel, pp. 606–609
- ^ Daniel, pp. 608–609
- ^ Cernat, pp. 15, 56
- ^ Daniel, pp. 609, 615–616; Tomescu (2005), p. 230
- ^ Daniel, p. 609
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 610
- ^ a b c d Cernat, p. 274
- ^ Daniel, p. 610; Tomescu (2006), p. 122
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 612
- ^ a b c Daniel, p. 611
- ^ Daniel, pp. 596–597
- ^ Daniel, pp. 612, 614
- ^ Daniel, pp. 612–613
- ^ Cernat, pp. 139, 149; Daniel, p. 613
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 613
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 614
- ^ Daniel, pp. 614–615
- ^ Daniel, pp. 614–615. Some of these names also in Răileanu & Carassou, p. 16 and Sandqvist, p. 354
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 16; Sandqvist, p. 354
- ^ Daniel, p. 615
- ^ Cernat, pp. 34, 39, 132, 405–406
- ^ Cernat, p. 44
- ^ a b c d e f g h i (in Romanian) Michaël Finkenthal, "M. Sebastian și B. Fondane: despre identități și opțiuni literare", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 397, October 2007
- ^ a b c Daniel, p. 622
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j (in Romanian) Gina Sebastian Alcalay, "Fundoianu, eseist, filozof și profet" Archived 2016-08-07 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 20/2001
- ^ Daniel, pp. 611, 622
- ^ Daniel, pp. 611–612
- ^ a b c d Oișteanu, p. 28
- ^ Tomescu (2005), pp. 229–230
- ^ Daniel, pp. 613–614, 615; Tomescu (2005), p. 228
- ^ a b c d e f g h (in Romanian) Irina Georgescu, "Dezrădăcinatul, scriitorul și eroul", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 500, November 2009
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 10
- ^ Daniel, pp. 616–617; Martin, p. V
- ^ Cernat, p. 132
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 617
- ^ a b Daniel, pp. 609–610
- ^ Cernat, p. 426; Daniel, p. 611
- ^ (in Romanian) Iulian Băicuș, "Marcel Proust și românii", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 70, June 2001
- ^ Daniel, p. 611. See also Cernat, p. 227
- ^ Cernat, p. 272; Daniel, p. 617
- ^ Cernat, p. 272
- ^ Cernat, pp. 272–273
- ^ Daniel, p. 617; Tomescu (2006), pp. 125, 126. See also Cernat, pp. 271–274
- ^ Daniel, p. 618; Sandqvist, p. 355
- ^ Daniel, p. 618. See also Cernat, p. 273
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Michaël Finkenthal, "Benjamin Fondane în Argentina", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 299, December 2005
- ^ Cernat, pp. 36–37, 211, 408–409; Daniel, p. 598; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 13, 131–132; Tomescu (2005), pp. 228–229; (2006), pp. 121, 123
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j (in Romanian) Constantin Pricop, "B. Fundoianu și literatura română" Archived 2016-08-07 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 27/2004
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 14–15, 137–139
- ^ Daniel, pp. 618–620
- ^ Călinescu, p. 864; Sandqvist, p. 354
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y (in Romanian) Michel Carassou, "Fondane – Maritain. Corespondența", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 410, February 2008
- ^ Daniel, pp. 619–621, 623
- ^ Tomescu (2006), p. 122
- ^ Daniel, pp. 620–623
- ^ Daniel, pp. 621–622, 624
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 624
- ^ Daniel, pp. 623–624
- ^ a b Daniel, pp. 621–622
- ^ a b Tomescu (2005), p. 228; (2006), p. 121
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 136, 137, 142
- ^ Sandqvist, p. 217
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 50, 154
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u David Gascoyne, Benjamin Fondane, Roger Scott, "David Gascoyne & Benjamin Fondane (David Gascoyne et Benjamin Fondane v.o.)" Archived 2015-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, in Temporel, Nr. 9, April 26, 2010
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 68–69, 136–137
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 71–75, 136
- ^ a b c d e f g h (in Romanian) Ion Simuț, "Libertatea spiritului creator" Archived 2016-08-07 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 29/2005
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t (in French) Silvia Baron Supervielle, "L'Argentine n'oublie pas Benjamin Fondane", in Les Lettres Françaises, Nr. 67, January 2010, p. 5
- ^ Daniel, p. 623. See also: Cernat, pp. 287, 289; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 16, 18, 20, 136, 138, 143
- ^ Cernat, p. 56
- ^ Andrew, pp. 139–140
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 16
- ^ Daniel, pp. 624–625. See also: Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 70, 135, 142, 159; Sitman, p. 117
- ^ Jordan Strump, note to Queneau, p. 214
- ^ a b Moyn, p. 173
- ^ Cernat, p. 226; Sitman, p. 117
- ^ Cernat, p. 226
- ^ Daniel, pp. 625–626
- ^ Daniel, p. 626. See also: Cernat, p. 227; Tomescu (2005), p. 230
- ^ a b c Cernat, p. 287
- ^ Cernat, p. 222; Răileanu & Carassou, p. 167; Sandqvist, p. 355
- ^ Cernat, p. 222
- ^ Cernat, pp. 286–289, 292
- ^ Cernat, pp. 287–288; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 17, 33–45, 53–61
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 18, 46–52, 139, 143
- ^ a b c (in Romanian) Ion Pop, "Avangarda românească și politica" Archived October 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Tribuna, Nr. 76, November 2005, p. 14
- ^ Cernat, pp. 153, 288; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 17–18, 62–67
- ^ Daniel, pp. 609, 628
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 92–122
- ^ (in Romanian) Michaël Finkenthal, "Ce s-a întîmplat cu 'algiștii' în 1933?" Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, in Apostrof, Nr. 1/2007; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 94–95, 112–117
- ^ Daniel, pp. 595, 626–627
- ^ Daniel, pp. 618, 622
- ^ (in Romanian) Dan Gulea, "Activ, retroactiv" Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, in Apostrof, Nr. 8/2007
- ^ Grigorescu, p. 389
- ^ a b c Daniel, p. 627
- ^ Cernat, pp. 299, 307–308, 310
- ISBN 973-9155-43-X
- ^ Cernat, pp. 299, 308
- ^ Cernat, pp. 324, 336
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Lucian Raicu, "Posomorâta carte" Archived 2012-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 1/2008
- ^ Daniel, p. 630
- ^ Andrew, pp. 139–140; Cernat, p. 287
- ^ Daniel, p. 643
- ^ Daniel, p. 628
- ^ Daniel, pp. 627–628, 631
- ^ Daniel, p. 628. See also Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 16, 20
- ^ Sandqvist, p. 250
- ^ Daniel, pp. 627–628, 641
- ^ Daniel, pp. 629–630
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 629
- ^ a b c Viotto, p. 111
- ^ Daniel, p. 628. For the original dispute between Fondane and Voronca, see Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 93–96
- ^ Daniel, p. 598
- ^ Daniel, p. 631
- ^ a b c d e f g (in French) Édouard Launet, "Dans les petits papiers de Fondane", in Libération, November 16, 2009
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 16, 20, 136
- ^ a b c d e f (in Romanian) Michaël Finkenthal, "Fundoianu și duminica istoriei", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 322, May 2006
- ^ a b Stanton, pp. 259–260
- ^ Andrew, pp. 140, 371
- ^ Andrew, pp. 42, 158–161; Cernat, p. 287; Daniel, pp. 628, 630
- ^ Andrew, pp. 42, 140, 158–161
- ^ Daniel, p. 628. See also Andrew, p. 140
- ^ Andrew, p. 159
- ^ Andrew, p. 42
- ^ Moyn, pp. 180–181
- ^ Daniel, pp. 630–633, 643–644
- ^ Daniel, pp. 631–632
- ^ Sitman, pp. 117–118
- ^ Sitman, p. 117
- ^ Cernat, p. 287; Răileanu & Carassou, p. 136
- ^ Daniel, pp. 632–633
- ^ Daniel, pp. 627, 629
- ^ Daniel, pp. 630, 633
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 633
- ^ Daniel, pp. 633–634
- ^ Daniel, pp. 634–635
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 634
- ^ Daniel, pp. 634, 644
- ^ Daniel, pp. 635–636; Răileanu & Carassou, p. 133
- ^ a b c d e f Răileanu & Carassou, p. 133
- ^ Daniel, pp. 635–636. See also Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 124, 133
- ^ Daniel, pp. 630, 639–640
- ^ Daniel, p. 641. See also Cernat, p. 274
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o (in Romanian) Dieter Schlesak, "Stația terminus a istoriei. Mărturii ale unei prietenii necunoscute: Emil Cioran și Benjamin Fondane" Archived 2009-12-10 at the Wayback Machine, in Apostrof, Nr. 8/2009
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 641
- ^ Daniel, p. 636
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Romanian) Andrei Oișteanu, "Editarea operei lui Fundoianu. O polemică paguboasă (de ziua Holocaustului)" Archived 2011-01-05 at the Wayback Machine, in Revista 22, Nr. 970, October 2008
- ^ a b c d Chitrit, p. 60
- ^ Daniel, p. 625. See also Oișteanu, p. 341
- ^ Daniel, p. 640. See also Răileanu & Carassou, p. 134
- ^ (in Romanian) Țicu Goldstein, "Între Céline și Cioran", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 506–507, December 2009
- Z. Ornea, "Opera românească a lui Cioran" Archived 2012-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 21/2000
- ISBN 0-691-00540-0
- ^ (in Romanian) Adrian Niculescu, "Destinul excepțional al lui Alexandru Șafran" Archived September 6, 2012, at archive.today, in Observator Cultural, Nr. 523, May 2010
- ISBN 978-973-630-189-6
- ^ Sitman, p. 125
- ^ Daniel, p. 636; Răileanu & Carassou, p. 133
- ^ a b c d e f g (in Romanian) Dieter Schlesak, "Fondane – martor la granița imaginației noastre" Archived 2014-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, in Apostrof, Nr. 4/2009
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 637
- ^ (in Romanian) Ion Vianu, "Fragmente dintr-un jurnal de lectură" Archived 2010-11-01 at the Wayback Machine, in Revista 22, Nr. 637, May 2002
- ^ Călinescu, p. 864; Răileanu & Carassou, p. 133
- ^ a b c d e (in Romanian) Luiza Palanciuc, "Benjamin Fondane: urme, scrisori, mărturii", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 410, February 2008
- Dilema Veche, Nr. 170, May 2007
- ^ Daniel, pp. 637–638
- ^ Daniel, p. 638
- ^ Martin, pp. VII–XIV, XXIV
- ^ Cernat, pp. 11, 36; Tomescu (2005), pp. 230–231. Of the traditionalist poems he composed under such influences, the few explicitly patriotic ones have been deemed "extreme in their conventionalism" by Cernat: (in Romanian) "Totuși, poezia patriotică", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 100, January 2002
- ^ Tomescu (2005), p. 231
- ^ Cernat, pp. 37–38, 398; Martin, pp. XIII, XXXIV; Tomescu (2005), pp. 228, 231–232
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Romanian) Gheorghe Crăciun, "Între poeticitate și pragmatism", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 47, January 2001
- ^ Cernat, pp. 16–17, 37
- ^ Martin, pp. XIV–XV
- ^ Martin, p. XV
- ^ Cernat, pp. 36–37, 308, 310, 324, 398; Grigorescu, pp. 419–420; Martin, pp. XXIII–XXXI; Tomescu (2005), p. 229
- ^ Călinescu, p. 864; Grigorescu, p. 419
- ^ Călinescu, pp. 864, 866
- ^ Călinescu, p. 866; Martin, p. XXV
- ^ Martin, p. XXVI
- ^ Călinescu, p. 866; Martin, p. XXVI
- ^ Martin, p. XXVII
- ^ Cernat, p. 36; Grigorescu, p. 419; Martin, pp. XXVII–XXVIII; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 137–138
- ^ a b Martin, p. XXXV
- ^ a b Martin, p. XXXVII
- ^ Cernat, p. 36
- ^ Călinescu, p. 866; Martin, p. XXXVII
- ^ Cernat, pp. 36–37
- ^ Grigorescu, p. 419; Martin, pp. XVI–XXIII, XXX, XXXVII
- ^ Martin, pp. XVI–XVIII
- ^ Călinescu, pp. 864–865; Grigorescu, p. 419; Martin, pp. XXI–XXII, XXV–XXVII
- ^ a b Călinescu, p. 865
- ^ Martin, pp. XXXI–XXXVII
- ^ Martin, pp. XIX–XXIV
- ^ Martin, p. XIX. Partly quoted in Călinescu, p. 866
- ^ Grigorescu, p. 35; Martin, p. XXVII. See also Tomescu (2005), p. 232
- ^ Martin, pp. XXVII–XXXI
- ^ Grigorescu, pp. 419–420
- ^ Grigorescu, pp. 418, 420
- ^ Grigorescu, p. 419
- ^ Cernat, pp. 36–37, 398
- ^ Sandqvist, p. 196
- ^ Tomescu (2005), pp. 230–232; (2006), pp. 123–124
- ^ Cernat, p. 36; Martin, p. XX; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 14, 20, 159; Tomescu (2005), pp. 229–230
- ^ a b c d e (in Romanian) Mircea Muthu, "B. Fundoianu – Estetica 'falsului tratat' " Archived August 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Tribuna, Nr. 180, March 2010, p. 21
- ^ Martin, p. XX. Paraphrased in Răileanu & Carassou, p. 14
- ^ Cernat, pp. 36–37, 135, 143, 213, 408–410; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 9–12, 14–15
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 14–15, 40–41, 76–82, 137–142
- ^ Cernat, pp. 201, 208–209, 211, 213; Puică, p. 260; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 7–9; Tomescu (2006), p. 123
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Paul Cernat, "Etica 'jocului secund' al criticii", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 521, April 2010
- ^ Cernat, p. 209; Puică, pp. 259–260
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 10, 16–18
- ^ Cernat, pp. 203–204
- ^ Cernat, pp. 76, 143, 200–201, 208–209, 211, 213
- ^ Cernat, pp. 208–209
- ^ Cernat, p. 201. Paraphrased in Răileanu & Carassou, p. 8
- ^ Cernat, p. 209
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 8
- ^ Cernat, p. 201
- ^ Cernat, pp. 16, 36–38, 211, 408–410
- ^ Cernat, pp. 36, 37
- ^ Cernat, pp. 226–227; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 13, 18, 135
- ^ Sandqvist, p. 355
- ^ Cernat, pp. 34, 36, 398
- ^ Călinescu, pp. 864–865
- ^ a b Martin, p. V
- ^ Martin, pp. XXXV–XXXVII
- ^ Martin, p. XXXVI
- ^ Cernat, pp. 289, 412–413; (in Romanian) Ion Pop, "Domni, tovarăși, camarazi!" Archived October 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Tribuna, Nr. 134, April 2008, p. 9; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 18–19, 135–136
- ^ Queneau, pp. 86–87
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 40, 139
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 68
- ^ Queneau, pp. 87–88
- ^ Queneau, pp. 88–89
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 11
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 46–52, 139
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 46–52
- ^ (in Romanian) Michaël Finkenthal, "Istoria intelectualului public: repere bibliografice", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 464, March 2009
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 142
- ^ Moyn, pp. 181, 188
- ISBN 2-8028-0157-0
- ^ Viotto, p. 88
- ^ Cernat, p. 288; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 18, 94, 138
- ^ a b Chitrit, p. 61
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 141
- ^ a b Queneau, p. 87
- ^ (in Romanian) Lucian Raicu, "Fondane – Rimbaud" Archived 2012-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 8/2008
- ^ a b Stanton, p. 267
- ^ a b Chitrit, p. 67
- ^ Cernat, p. 274. See also Tomescu (2006), p. 126
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 94, 141
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 94
- ^ a b c d (in French) Gisèle Vanhese, "Sous le signe d'Ulysse. L'errance dans l'écriture chez Benjamin Fondane et chez Paul Celan" Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Caietele Echinox, Vol. 11, 2006, at the Babeș-Bolyai University's Center for Imagination Studies Archived 2009-04-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 132
- ^ Oișteanu, pp. 341–342
- ^ Oișteanu, p. 439
- ^ Chitrit, pp. 60, 68
- ^ Chitrit, p. 68
- ^ Viotto, pp. 88, 111
- ^ Daniel, pp. 638–639; Viotto, p. 88
- ^ Daniel, pp. 597, 641
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 45, 96
- ^ a b Daniel, p. 644
- ^ Daniel, pp. 598, 644
- ^ (in French) List of Panthéon mentions, at the Association des écrivains combattants site; retrieved June 7, 2020
- ^ Daniel, pp. 638–639, 641
- ^ Daniel, pp. 638–640
- ^ Cernat, p. 227
- ^ Daniel, pp. 599–600; Martin, pp. V–VI
- ^ a b c d e (in Romanian) Carmen Mușat, "Despre copyright și onestitate", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 436, August 2008
- ^ a b c d (in Romanian) Mihai Șora, "Despre întâlnire, onoare și generozitate", in Luceafărul, Nr. 40-41/2008
- ^ Daniel, pp. 639–640
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 125–126
- ^ Daniel, pp. 630, 644. See also Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 130–131
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 125–129
- ^ Daniel, pp. 640, 644
- ^ Cernat, pp. 287, 418, 422; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 142, 143; Stanton, p. 267
- ^ Cernat, pp. 418, 422
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 143
- ^ Chitrit, p. 68; Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 142, 143
- ^ Moyn, pp. 172–173, 180
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 15, 20, 142
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 18, 23–26
- ^ Călinescu, p. 866; Oișteanu, p. 341
- ^ (in French) Ronald Klapka, Dominique Hasselmann, php?article1622 Une place pour Benjamin Fondane, at Remue.net, May 26, 2006; retrieved June 7, 2010
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Liana Tugearu, "Exil în pământul uitării" Archived 2011-06-02 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 51–52/2009
- ^ Daniel, pp. 641–642
- ^ (in Romanian) Ștefan Manasia, " 'The poets work for the future' crede Julian Semilian" Archived October 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Tribuna, Nr. 133, March 2008, p. 2
- ^ (in Romanian) ISRO-Press Bulletin, Vol. lV, Issue 294, Sunday October 19, 2003: Doi scriitori evrei născuți în Romania – Benjamin Fondane și Mihail Sebastian – traduși pentru prima oară în limba ebraică Archived June 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, at the Romanian Jewish Community site; retrieved June 7, 2010
- ^ (in Romanian) "Scriitori români la meet(ing)" Archived October 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Tribuna, Nr. 14, April 2003, p. 23
- ^ Cernat, pp. 37–38
- ^ (in Romanian) "Euroiudaica 2007. Centenar Mihail Sebastian: masă rotundă" Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, in Revista 22, Nr. 908, August 2007
- ^ a b (in Romanian) Tania Radu, "Altfel despre teatru (I)" Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, in Revista 22, Nr. 963, August 2008
- ^ Cernat, pp. 139–140
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, p. 157
- ^ Oișteanu, p. 65
- ^ (in Romanian) Ion Pop, "Din avangardă în ariergardă (III)" Archived October 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, in Tribuna, Nr. 181, March 2010, p. 8
- ^ Daniel, pp. 613, 615
- ^ Răileanu & Carassou, pp. 16, 20
- ^ Daniel, pp. 611, 621
- ^ (in Romanian) Alexandru Condeescu, "Nichita Stănescu – Debutul poetic" Archived 2012-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 14/2005
- ^ (in Romanian) Andrei Codrescu, Andra Rotaru, "În America era rock'n roll, revoluție, LSD și culori", in Luceafărul, Nr. 42/2009
- ^ Daniel, p. 644; Martin, pp. V–VI
- ^ Cernat, p. 426; Puică, p. 259
- ^ Tomescu (2005), p. 232
- ^ (in Romanian) Iulia Deleanu, "Victor Bârlădeanu z.l. – reper spiritual", in Realitatea Evreiască, Nr. 266–267 (1066–1067), December 2006 – January 2007
- ^ Cernat, pp. 36, 422; Oișteanu, pp. 28, 37
- ^ a b Cernat, p. 422
- ^ (in Romanian) Solomon Marcus, "Un nou dicționar Eminescu" Archived 2012-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, in România Literară, Nr. 4/2007
- ^ (in Romanian) "S-a stins un scenograf. In memoriam Sică Rusescu", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 236, August 2004
- Dilema Veche, Nr. 648, July 2016
References
- B. Fundoianu, Poezii, OCLC 252065138:
- Paul Daniel, "Destinul unui poet" and "Tabla ilustrațiilor", p. 595–644
- Mircea Martin, "Poezia lui B. Fundoianu sau peisajul văzut cu ochii închiși", p. V–XXXVII
- ISBN 0-691-00883-3
- George Călinescu, Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1986
- ISBN 978-973-23-1911-6
- Armelle Chitrit, "Poetry and Holocaust: Benjamin Fondane, ISBN 0-8387-5417-1
- OCLC 7463753
- ISBN 978-0-8014-4394-7
- ISBN 978-0-8032-2098-0
- Gina Puică, "La Roumanie et ses maîtres. Quant une civilization s'inspire d'une autre", in Valérie Deshoulières, Muguraș Constantinescu (eds.), Les funambules de l'affection: Maîtres et disciples, ISBN 978-2-84516-416-1
- ISBN 978-0-252-03187-8
- ISBN 2-84272-057-1
- ISBN 0-262-19507-0
- Rosalie Sitman, "Trazos y ecos de una relación transatlántica: Victoria Ocampo, SUR y las letras francesas (1931–1955)", in Eugenia Scarzanella, Mônica Raisa Schpun (eds.), Sin fronteras: encuentros de mujeres y hombres entre América Latina y Europa (siglos XIX–XX), Iberoamericana, Vervuert Verlag, Madrid & Frankfurt am Main, 2008, p. 111–134. ISBN 978-84-8489-407-0
- Martin Stanton, "French Intellectual Groups and the Popular Front", in Martin S. Alexander, Helen Graham (eds.), The French and Spanish Popular Fronts: Comparative Perspectives, ISBN 0-521-35081-6
- (in Romanian) Ana-Maria Tomescu,
- "Tradiționalism, modernitate sau avangardă în poezia lui Barbu Fundoianu?" Archived 2016-03-03 at the December 1 University of Alba Iulia's Philologica Yearbook Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, 2005 (Tome 3), p. 228–232
- "Barbu Fundoianu, Ștefan Petică – personalități cu orgoliul singularității" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, in Philologica Yearbook, 2006 (Tome 1), p. 121–128
- "Tradiționalism, modernitate sau avangardă în poezia lui Barbu Fundoianu?" Archived 2016-03-03 at the
- Piero Viotto, Grandi amicizie: i Maritain e i loro contemporanei, Città Nuova, Rome, 2008. ISBN 978-88-311-7340-7
External links
- Media related to Benjamin Fondane at Wikimedia Commons
- French Wikiquote has quotations related to: Benjamin Fondane
- Benjamin Fondane at IMDb
- "Hot Black Ink – Modernist Idiosyncrasies", English translations from and critical appraisals of Fondane and other Romanian modernists, in the Romanian Cultural Institute's Plural Magazine, Nr. 19/2003
- "eyes wide open" ("paupières mûres") and "horizontal bar" ("barre fixe"), English translation of Fondane's cinépoems at SCRIPTjr.nl
- Guide to the Benjamin Fondane Papers, at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Association Benjamin Fondane site (in French)
- Benjamin Fondane Studies Society site (in French)
- Mémorial de la Shoah exhibition (in French)
- Biography at Éditions Verdier (in French)
- Restitutio Benjamin Fondane Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine (posthumous texts in the Observator Cultural archive) (in Romanian)