Ovidiu Pecican
Ovidiu Pecican | |
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Medieval history, historiography, social history, cultural history, history of Romania, politics of Romania |
Ovidiu Coriolan Pecican (born January 8, 1959) is a Romanian historian, essayist, novelist, short-story writer, literary critic, poet, playwright, and journalist of partly Serbian origin. He is especially known for his political writings on disputed issues such as regional autonomy for Transylvania, and for his co-authorship of a controversial history textbook for 11th and 12th grade high-school students.
Pecican is co-editor of Caietele Tranziției and a contributor to major newspapers, including
Biography
Career
Born in
Between 1985 and 1990, Pecican worked as a high school professor of history in
In 1994, Pecican published a book of interviews with novelist
Pecican is a Professor (since 2004) and was Chancellor at the Babeș-Bolyai University Faculty of European Studies (1997–1999) and served on the staff of the UBB's "The European Idea" Foundation for European Studies as its first manager (1997–1999). He has been the recipient of TEMPUS grants from the University of Sussex, Utrecht University, the University of Münster, the University of Milan, and the INALCO, as well as receiving grants from the Central European University, Michigan State University and a DAAD grant from the University of Münster.
He is a coordinator of the Other Europes series for the Foundation's publishing house,
Sigma textbook
In late 1999, when the
The volume was immediately faced with criticism from the ultra-nationalist opposition group Greater Romania Party, through the voice of Anghel Stanciu (who called the textbook "anti-national").[5] Soon after, Romania's largest opposition group at the time, the Social Democratic Party, joined in the protest, and Parliamentary groups from outside the governing Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) issued a formal protest: their motion was rejected on November 15, but the scandal, deepened by major coverage in the press,[2][3][4] probably contributed to weakening support for the CDR.[3]
Academia was divided over the issue: while the Romanian Academy expressed concern that the Sigma textbook was not up to educational standards,[3] several, especially young, historians supported it.[2][3] The National Liberal politician and historian Adrian Cioroianu, himself the co-author of a new manual and a vocal critic of the methods of Pecican's adversaries during the polemic, publicly sided with the Sigma authors, and argued in their favor during televised confrontations with Marius Tucă and Octavian Paler.[2]
Eventually, the original version failed to win Ministry approval. In later editions, the Sigma textbook was published with significant changes in content.
2001 Memorandum
With
The Memorandum drew criticism from several sources. In an editorial for Ziua, Adrian Cioroianu expressed his own support for a degree of decentralization, but argued that the document was unrealistic in its assumptions and more radical goals, and that it did not represent a unitary perspective on the issue.[7] The Memorandum was dismissed outright by President Ion Iliescu, a gesture which prompted Pecican to address him in an open letter.[9] The more nationalist political forces called on authorities to indict the document's authors, based on an interpretation of the Constitution of Romania.[4]
Other polemics
In late October 2005, the journalist Melania Mandaș Vergu published an article in
Also in 2005, Pecican was among the group of intellectuals who reacted to the controversial views held by the exiled writer
His polemics include the one against the new treatise on Romanian history, published by the Romanian Academy beginning 2002. Coordinated by the historians Dan Berindei and Virgil Cândea, the large collective work was sharply criticized also by Șerban Papacostea, Leon Șimanschi, Ștefan Andreescu and some other historians for alleged ethical problems, but Pecican accused the synthesis for its perceived nationalist and statist views. Later, when one of the authors, Mihai Bărbulescu, reacted against Pecican's arguments, the latter answered and presented new arguments.
Work
Medieval studies and historiography
Ovidiu Pecican's main contribution to medieval studies addresses the first stages of
Troia, Veneția, Roma (1998) deals with the imagined homelands of the
The debate on regionalism prompted Ovidiu Pecican to write a new book on the regional political forms before and after the founding of the
Some of the other volumes written by Pecican also reflect his questioning of official versions provided for the past. Sânge și trandafiri. Cultura ero(t)ică in Moldova lui Ștefan cel Mare (2005) attempts to provide the reader with a different image of the national hero
Pecican is also interested in how Eastern European culture developed in contact with the Western culture during the 19th and 20th centuries. Hașdeenii. O odisee a receptării (2003) and B. P. Hasdeu istoric (2004), books developed from his PhD thesis, attempt to explain how, through the efforts of several leading intellectuals during the second part of the 19th century, modern nationalism, together with
Novels
Pecican's first novel, Eu și maimuța mea, written in 1994, speaks about love in a psychiatric hospital in the times of
Later in the same year, Ovidiu Pecican and his cousin, Alexandru Pecican, completed work on a second novel, Razzar, a mythical and archetypal metaphor of the human destiny elaborated within the literary conventions of the science fiction genre. Razzar received the Nemira Publishing House Prize for novels in 1998.
Nine years later, Pecican published a third novel, Imberia, which depicts the daily dilemmas a young intellectual has to face in post-communist Romania during the transition period (including sexual alienation and the trauma of his father's death).
Published volumes
Authored
- Eu și maimuța mea, 1990. ISBN 973-35-0145-X
- Un român în lagărele sovietice, 1991. OCLC 28586717
- Europa - o idee în mers, 1997. ISBN 973-98268-2-2
- Troia, Veneția, Roma, 1998
- Lumea lui Simion Dascălul, 1998
- Romania and the European Integration, 1998. ISBN 973-99627-0-X
- Arpadieni, Angevini, români. Studii de medievistică central-europeană, 2001. ISBN 973-85512-5-0
- Clipuri, 2001
- Darul acestei veri, 2001
- Realități imaginate și ficțiuni adevărate în evul mediu românesc, 2002. ISBN 973-35-1439-X
- Trecutul istoric și omul evului mediu, 2002
- Hașdeenii. O odisee a receptării, 2003. ISBN 973-85833-4-9
- Originile istorice ale regionalismului românesc, 2003
- B. P. Hasdeu - istoric, 2004
- Rebel fără pauză, 2004. ISBN 973-86872-4-1
- Poarta leilor. Istoriografia tânară din Transilvania, I, 2005. ISBN 973-7651-11-1
- Sânge și trandafiri. Cultura ero(t)ică in Moldova lui Ștefan cel Mare, 2005
- Zilele și nopțile după-amiezei, 2005
- Imberia, 2006
- Între cruciați și tătari, 2006
- Puncte de atac, 2006
- Poarta leilor. Istoriografia tânără din Transilvania, II, 2006
- Ce istorie scriem, 2006
- Trasee culturale Nord - Sud, 2006. ISBN 978-973-9279-83-3
- Istorii intersectate, 2007
- Troia, Veneția, Roma, I, 2007
- Povești de umbră și povești de soare, 2008
Co-authored
- with Horaţiu Mihaiu: 17 acte cu Piet Mondrian
- with Enikö Magyari-Vincze: Transition in Central and Eastern Europe, 1997
- with Alexandru Pecican: Razzar, 1998
- with Sorin Mitu, Lucia Copoeru, Virgiliu Țârău, and Liviu Țîrău: Istoria românilor. Manual pentru clasa a XI-a and Istoria românilor. Manual pentru clasa a XII-a, 1999
- with Mihai Pătraşcu: Acasă înseamnă Europa, 2003
- with Gheorghe Grigurcu and Laszlo Alexandru: Vorbind, 2004
- with Laszlo Alexandru and Ion Solacolu: Spirala. Paul Goma și problema antisemitismului, 2004
- with Alexandru Pecican: Arta rugii (theater), 2007 (prize from the Cluj branch of the Union of Romanian Writers)
Other
- O utopie tangibilă (interviews with Nicolae Breban), 1994
Notes
References
- Ovidiu Pecican's curriculum vitae at the UBB's Institute for Cultural Anthropology site
- "The European Idea" Foundation page at UBB site
- (in Romanian) "The European Idea" Foundation page at the Faculty of European Studies site
- (in Romanian) Biography in E-Leonardo
- (in Romanian) Ovidiu Pecican's profile at the H. G. Wells Society site
- (in Romanian) "Provincia 2001 - autorii" at the Pro Europa League site
- (in Romanian) Ovidiu Pecican interview in Prăvălia culturală
- (in Romanian) Laszlo Alexandru's reply to Paul Goma's texts in Ziua, August 23, 2005
- (in Romanian) Paul Cernat, "Cioroianu trece ecranul" ("Cioroianu Moves beyond the Screen"), in Observatorul Cultural
- (in Romanian) Adrian Cioroianu, "Regionalizare şi provincialism" ("Regional Autonomy and Provincialism"), in Ziua, December 13, 2001
- (in Romanian) Melania Mandaş Vergu, "«Sătulul de România» Pecican, cel care a remarcat în Istoria de-a XII-a buzele senzuale ale lui Decebal" ("«All Fed Up with Romania» Pecican, The One to Have Made Mention of Decebalus' Sensual Lips in the 12th Grade History Textbook"), in Gândul, October 27, 2005
- (in Romanian) Cora Muntean, "Regionalizarea între spaimă, compromis şi necesitate" ("Regional Autonomy between Fear, Compromise and Necessity"), in Cadran Politic
- (in Romanian) Victor Neumann, "Manualele alternative de istorie: o dezbatere istoriografică sau o imixtiune politică" ("Alternative History Textbooks: a Historiographic Debate or a Political Interference"), in Observator cultural, no. 100, 2002
- (in Romanian) Răzvan Pârâianu, "Politica şi predarea istoriei" ("Politics and the Teaching of History"), in Eurozine
- (in Romanian) Ovidiu Pecican, "Abureala" ("The Smoke Screen"), in Cotidianul, November 2, 2005
- (in Romanian) Ovidiu Pecican, "Scrisoare deschisă adresată domnului Ion Iliescu, preşedintele României" ("Open Letter Addressed to Mr. Ion Iliescu, the President of Romania"), in Provincia, February 2002
External links
- (in Romanian and Hungarian) Homepage of the Provincia Group
- (in Romanian) Ideea Europeană ("The European Idea"), text by Ovidiu Pecican
- (in Romanian) Zeul ("The God"), a short story by Ovidiu Pecican, at the H. G. Wells Society site