Ion Sân-Giorgiu: Difference between revisions

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m Replace magic links with templates per local RfC and MediaWiki RfC
Rescuing 2 sources and tagging 1 as dead. #IABot (v1.6.1) (Balon Greyjoy)
Line 6: Line 6:
With time, Sân-Giorgiu moved towards [[modernist literature]]. In 1921, he contributed a serialized column on "[[Expressionist theatre|Dramatic Expressionism]]" to ''[[Adevărul Literar şi Artistic]]'', later published as a single volume.<ref name="Grigorescu, p.377-378">Grigorescu, p.377-378</ref> Sân-Giorgiu's views on Expressionism and modernism, like those of ''Gândirea'' itself, oscillated: in early 1923, he commented negatively in regard to the tendencies of younger poets to "discard [[metaphor]]s", but later authored reviews and essays welcoming the trend.<ref name="Grigorescu, p.377-378"/> At the time, Sân-Giorgiu notably contributed essays on the literature of [[Georg Kaiser]] and [[Walter Hasenclever]] to ''Gândirea''.<ref>Grigorescu, p.387</ref> His 1922 play ''Masca'' ("The Mask"), which followed Expressionist guidelines,<ref>Grigorescu, p.377, 388, 424-425; Lovinescu, p.307</ref> was among the series of [[avant-garde]] productions staged by [[Victor Ion Popa]] during the [[interwar period]].<ref>Grigorescu, p.424-425</ref>
With time, Sân-Giorgiu moved towards [[modernist literature]]. In 1921, he contributed a serialized column on "[[Expressionist theatre|Dramatic Expressionism]]" to ''[[Adevărul Literar şi Artistic]]'', later published as a single volume.<ref name="Grigorescu, p.377-378">Grigorescu, p.377-378</ref> Sân-Giorgiu's views on Expressionism and modernism, like those of ''Gândirea'' itself, oscillated: in early 1923, he commented negatively in regard to the tendencies of younger poets to "discard [[metaphor]]s", but later authored reviews and essays welcoming the trend.<ref name="Grigorescu, p.377-378"/> At the time, Sân-Giorgiu notably contributed essays on the literature of [[Georg Kaiser]] and [[Walter Hasenclever]] to ''Gândirea''.<ref>Grigorescu, p.387</ref> His 1922 play ''Masca'' ("The Mask"), which followed Expressionist guidelines,<ref>Grigorescu, p.377, 388, 424-425; Lovinescu, p.307</ref> was among the series of [[avant-garde]] productions staged by [[Victor Ion Popa]] during the [[interwar period]].<ref>Grigorescu, p.424-425</ref>


During the early 1930s, he seconded [[Victor Eftimiu]] inside the Romanian [[International PEN|PEN Club]] (of which he was General Secretary).<ref>{{ro icon}} [[Barbu Cioculescu]], [http://www.penromania.org/conferinta-sinaia-2001.asp "PEN Clubul român între cele două războaie mondiale"], at the Romanian [[PEN Club]] site; retrieved March 2, 2007</ref> A frequenter of [[Casa Capşa]] restaurant, Sân-Giorgiu was, according to the art collector [[Krikor Zambaccian]], involved in a dispute with poet [[N. Davidescu]] which eventually turned violent.<ref>{{ro icon}} [[Krikor Zambaccian]], [http://destinatii.liternet.ro/articol/121/Krikor-H-Zambaccian/Capsa.html ''Destinaţii culturale. Capşa''], published and hosted by LiterNet; retrieved September 23, 2008</ref> By that time, he was again discarding modernist approaches to literature, and returning to traditionalist techniques and subjects.<ref name="Lovinescu, p.307">Lovinescu, p.307</ref>
During the early 1930s, he seconded [[Victor Eftimiu]] inside the Romanian [[International PEN|PEN Club]] (of which he was General Secretary).<ref>{{ro icon}} [[Barbu Cioculescu]], [http://www.penromania.org/conferinta-sinaia-2001.asp "PEN Clubul român între cele două războaie mondiale"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514092249/http://www.penromania.org/conferinta-sinaia-2001.asp |date=2007-05-14 }}, at the Romanian [[PEN Club]] site; retrieved March 2, 2007</ref> A frequenter of [[Casa Capşa]] restaurant, Sân-Giorgiu was, according to the art collector [[Krikor Zambaccian]], involved in a dispute with poet [[N. Davidescu]] which eventually turned violent.<ref>{{ro icon}} [[Krikor Zambaccian]], [http://destinatii.liternet.ro/articol/121/Krikor-H-Zambaccian/Capsa.html ''Destinaţii culturale. Capşa''], published and hosted by LiterNet; retrieved September 23, 2008</ref> By that time, he was again discarding modernist approaches to literature, and returning to traditionalist techniques and subjects.<ref name="Lovinescu, p.307">Lovinescu, p.307</ref>


Initially, he was opposed to [[antisemitism]], defining it as "an act of poverty of a failed [[intellectual]] or a cheap opportunity of self-assertion" and "a stupid ferment of [[Anomie|anarchic]] agitation".<ref>[http://www.romanianjewish.org/en/fedrom_02.html "Romanian Intellectuals about the Jews"], at the Romanian Jewish Community site; retrieved September 23, 2008</ref> Nevertheless, he changed his position, by rallying with the leading antisemitic and fascist camp. By 1938, Sân-Giorgiu expressed his support for [[Nazism]] and reportedly made a habit of wearing a Nazi-inspired [[swastika]] on his clothes, while maintaining close contacts with the [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] [[King of Romania|King]] [[Carol II of Romania|Carol II]].<ref>Sebastian, p.56, 152</ref> According to the marginalized [[History of the Jews in Romania|Romanian Jewish]] author [[Mihail Sebastian]], rumor had it that, in 1936, Sân-Giorgiu sought endorsement from [[Nazi Germany]] and competed for its attention with [[Nae Ionescu]], a far right philosopher who had broken with Carol and supported the Iron Guard. The same account has it that Sân-Giorgiu and his journalist ally [[Pamfil Şeicaru]] managed to undermine Ionescu's standing, by presenting Nazi officials with proof that the philosopher had dealings with the prominent Jewish banker [[Aristide Blank]].<ref>Sebastian, p.56</ref>
Initially, he was opposed to [[antisemitism]], defining it as "an act of poverty of a failed [[intellectual]] or a cheap opportunity of self-assertion" and "a stupid ferment of [[Anomie|anarchic]] agitation".<ref>[http://www.romanianjewish.org/en/fedrom_02.html "Romanian Intellectuals about the Jews"], at the Romanian Jewish Community site; retrieved September 23, 2008</ref> Nevertheless, he changed his position, by rallying with the leading antisemitic and fascist camp. By 1938, Sân-Giorgiu expressed his support for [[Nazism]] and reportedly made a habit of wearing a Nazi-inspired [[swastika]] on his clothes, while maintaining close contacts with the [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] [[King of Romania|King]] [[Carol II of Romania|Carol II]].<ref>Sebastian, p.56, 152</ref> According to the marginalized [[History of the Jews in Romania|Romanian Jewish]] author [[Mihail Sebastian]], rumor had it that, in 1936, Sân-Giorgiu sought endorsement from [[Nazi Germany]] and competed for its attention with [[Nae Ionescu]], a far right philosopher who had broken with Carol and supported the Iron Guard. The same account has it that Sân-Giorgiu and his journalist ally [[Pamfil Şeicaru]] managed to undermine Ionescu's standing, by presenting Nazi officials with proof that the philosopher had dealings with the prominent Jewish banker [[Aristide Blank]].<ref>Sebastian, p.56</ref>
Line 15: Line 15:
<blockquote>"Legionary Romania has solved the [[Jewish Question]]. That which the [[Octavian Goga|Oct. Goga]]-presided government has only attempted, the Legion has managed to achieve in less than three months. The Jews have been removed not just from the state apparatus, but also from the industry [and] commerce, where [[cooperative]] and neat Legionary organizations are striving and succeeding in taking their place. [...] We have a duty to pose overtly and without delay the problem of liquidating this miserable [[ghetto]] that is currently forming itself. It is time to ask: What do we do with them? Because to leave them free to multiply like rabbits, to consume our goods, to hate us and produce nothing in return, that cannot be. In Legionary Romania there is no room for drones. [...] It would serve Jews to know that we are not the passive bearers of a social rot, but the national surgeons of a national cancer. Hence I ask our own: what do we do with them? And I ask the Jews to reply honestly: what do you do?"<ref>Sân-Giorgiu, in Ornea, p.419</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>"Legionary Romania has solved the [[Jewish Question]]. That which the [[Octavian Goga|Oct. Goga]]-presided government has only attempted, the Legion has managed to achieve in less than three months. The Jews have been removed not just from the state apparatus, but also from the industry [and] commerce, where [[cooperative]] and neat Legionary organizations are striving and succeeding in taking their place. [...] We have a duty to pose overtly and without delay the problem of liquidating this miserable [[ghetto]] that is currently forming itself. It is time to ask: What do we do with them? Because to leave them free to multiply like rabbits, to consume our goods, to hate us and produce nothing in return, that cannot be. In Legionary Romania there is no room for drones. [...] It would serve Jews to know that we are not the passive bearers of a social rot, but the national surgeons of a national cancer. Hence I ask our own: what do we do with them? And I ask the Jews to reply honestly: what do you do?"<ref>Sân-Giorgiu, in Ornea, p.419</ref></blockquote>


During the same year, Sân-Giorgiu's newspaper published influential essays by [[Mihail Manoilescu]], who advocated [[corporatism]] and called for its implementation in the National Legionary State.<ref>Ornea, p.282-283</ref> Having survived the violent clash between the Iron Guard and their nominal partner, ''[[Conducător]]'' [[Ion Antonescu]] (events known as the [[Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom|Legionary Rebellion]]), he left Romania after Antonescu's regime and Romania's alliance to the [[Axis Powers]] crumbled in autumn 1944 (''see [[Soviet occupation of Romania]]'').<ref name="wtseb">{{ro icon}} [[William Totok]], [http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?art=1799&nr=2005-06-10 "Cultura romanească în Germania. Jurnalul lui Mihail Sebastian tradus în limba germană"], in ''[[Revista 22]]'', Nr. 796, June 2005</ref> He joined Sima's [[Vienna]]-based Legionary cabinet, holding a nominal office as Minister of Education.<ref name="wtseb"/> The justice system in [[Communist Romania]] tried him ''[[trial in absentia|in absentia]]'', and sentenced him to death.<ref name="ipcorbul">{{ro icon}} Iulia Popovici, [http://www.ziua.net/display.php?id=232645&data=2008-02-04 "Vintilă Corbul înapoi acasă"], in ''[[Ziua]]'', February 4, 2008</ref> The writer died in exile.
During the same year, Sân-Giorgiu's newspaper published influential essays by [[Mihail Manoilescu]], who advocated [[corporatism]] and called for its implementation in the National Legionary State.<ref>Ornea, p.282-283</ref> Having survived the violent clash between the Iron Guard and their nominal partner, ''[[Conducător]]'' [[Ion Antonescu]] (events known as the [[Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom|Legionary Rebellion]]), he left Romania after Antonescu's regime and Romania's alliance to the [[Axis Powers]] crumbled in autumn 1944 (''see [[Soviet occupation of Romania]]'').<ref name="wtseb">{{ro icon}} [[William Totok]], [http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?art=1799&nr=2005-06-10 "Cultura romanească în Germania. Jurnalul lui Mihail Sebastian tradus în limba germană"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008065501/http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?art=1799&nr=2005-06-10 |date=2007-10-08 }}, in ''[[Revista 22]]'', Nr. 796, June 2005</ref> He joined Sima's [[Vienna]]-based Legionary cabinet, holding a nominal office as Minister of Education.<ref name="wtseb"/> The justice system in [[Communist Romania]] tried him ''[[trial in absentia|in absentia]]'', and sentenced him to death.<ref name="ipcorbul">{{ro icon}} Iulia Popovici, [http://www.ziua.net/display.php?id=232645&data=2008-02-04 "Vintilă Corbul înapoi acasă"]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, in ''[[Ziua]]'', February 4, 2008</ref> The writer died in exile.


Sân-Giorgiu's daughter, Ioana, stayed behind in Romania. She later married [[Vintilă Corbul]], a [[genre fiction]] author, screenwriter and former lawyer, who had faced political persecution in the 1950s.<ref name="ipcorbul"/> Ioana Sân-Giorgiu died of cancer in 1969; ten years later, Corbul [[Defection|defected]] and restarted his writing career in [[France]] (where he died in 2008).<ref name="ipcorbul"/>
Sân-Giorgiu's daughter, Ioana, stayed behind in Romania. She later married [[Vintilă Corbul]], a [[genre fiction]] author, screenwriter and former lawyer, who had faced political persecution in the 1950s.<ref name="ipcorbul"/> Ioana Sân-Giorgiu died of cancer in 1969; ten years later, Corbul [[Defection|defected]] and restarted his writing career in [[France]] (where he died in 2008).<ref name="ipcorbul"/>

Revision as of 13:12, 10 January 2018

Ion Sân-Giorgiu (also known as Sîn-Giorgiu, Sângiorgiu or Sîngiorgiu; 1893–1950) was a

government in exile
.

Biography

Born in

Botoşani, Sân-Giorgiu was educated in Germany.[1] He debuted as a traditionalist poet, affiliated with the group originally formed around Sămănătorul magazine.[2] According to literary historian Eugen Lovinescu, he was, with Anastasie Mândru and George Vâlsan, one of the best-known Sămănătorul poets in the Regat regions.[3]

With time, Sân-Giorgiu moved towards

Dramatic Expressionism" to Adevărul Literar şi Artistic, later published as a single volume.[4] Sân-Giorgiu's views on Expressionism and modernism, like those of Gândirea itself, oscillated: in early 1923, he commented negatively in regard to the tendencies of younger poets to "discard metaphors", but later authored reviews and essays welcoming the trend.[4] At the time, Sân-Giorgiu notably contributed essays on the literature of Georg Kaiser and Walter Hasenclever to Gândirea.[5] His 1922 play Masca ("The Mask"), which followed Expressionist guidelines,[6] was among the series of avant-garde productions staged by Victor Ion Popa during the interwar period.[7]

During the early 1930s, he seconded

N. Davidescu which eventually turned violent.[9] By that time, he was again discarding modernist approaches to literature, and returning to traditionalist techniques and subjects.[10]

Initially, he was opposed to antisemitism, defining it as "an act of poverty of a failed intellectual or a cheap opportunity of self-assertion" and "a stupid ferment of anarchic agitation".[11] Nevertheless, he changed his position, by rallying with the leading antisemitic and fascist camp. By 1938, Sân-Giorgiu expressed his support for Nazism and reportedly made a habit of wearing a Nazi-inspired swastika on his clothes, while maintaining close contacts with the authoritarian King Carol II.[12] According to the marginalized Romanian Jewish author Mihail Sebastian, rumor had it that, in 1936, Sân-Giorgiu sought endorsement from Nazi Germany and competed for its attention with Nae Ionescu, a far right philosopher who had broken with Carol and supported the Iron Guard. The same account has it that Sân-Giorgiu and his journalist ally Pamfil Şeicaru managed to undermine Ionescu's standing, by presenting Nazi officials with proof that the philosopher had dealings with the prominent Jewish banker Aristide Blank.[13]

Sân-Giorgiu was a member of the fascist and antisemitic National Christian Party (PNC), which took power when Carol appointed its leader Octavian Goga as Premier. In 1938, after the PNC fell in disfavor with the monarch, Ion Sân-Giorgiu rallied with the latter's National Renaissance Front, becoming its official journalist.[14] Goga's dismissal caught Ion Sân-Giorgiu on a theatrical tour of Germany.[15] Sebastian, who conversed with him right after, mentions him being "unrecognizable", and records his claims that the PNC was responsible for a series of mistakes, and notes that Sân-Giorgiu took no apparent displeasure in talking to a Jew, being "friendly and communicative".[15] Also according to Sebastian, Sân-Giorgiu claimed to have registered major successes in Germany, having stated: "Not even Ibsen had such a triumph; not one unfavorable review."[15]

In November 1940, after the Iron Guard established its National Legionary State government, Sân-Giorgiu threw his support behind the latter, while expressing his new thoughts on the Romanian Jewish community and racial policies in a column for Chemarea Vremii:

"Legionary Romania has solved the

Jewish Question. That which the Oct. Goga-presided government has only attempted, the Legion has managed to achieve in less than three months. The Jews have been removed not just from the state apparatus, but also from the industry [and] commerce, where cooperative and neat Legionary organizations are striving and succeeding in taking their place. [...] We have a duty to pose overtly and without delay the problem of liquidating this miserable ghetto that is currently forming itself. It is time to ask: What do we do with them? Because to leave them free to multiply like rabbits, to consume our goods, to hate us and produce nothing in return, that cannot be. In Legionary Romania there is no room for drones. [...] It would serve Jews to know that we are not the passive bearers of a social rot, but the national surgeons of a national cancer. Hence I ask our own: what do we do with them? And I ask the Jews to reply honestly: what do you do?"[16]

During the same year, Sân-Giorgiu's newspaper published influential essays by

Communist Romania tried him in absentia, and sentenced him to death.[19]
The writer died in exile.

Sân-Giorgiu's daughter, Ioana, stayed behind in Romania. She later married Vintilă Corbul, a genre fiction author, screenwriter and former lawyer, who had faced political persecution in the 1950s.[19] Ioana Sân-Giorgiu died of cancer in 1969; ten years later, Corbul defected and restarted his writing career in France (where he died in 2008).[19]

Work

Sân-Giorgiu's early Sămănătorist works, influenced by Panait Cerna and Mihai Eminescu, were though by Lovinescu to be "lacking in originality".[20] As he gradually moved towards modernism, Lovinescu notes, the poet displayed "abuse of imagery", "the perkiness of free forms", "egocentrism" and "tumultuous sensualism."[20]

The earliest of his plays were characterized by Lovinescu as "Expressionist travesties, which do away with observation and even with talent, being content with ideas and theories".[10] Masca showed the interactions between three amorous couples, all of whom are masked. One of the pairs, a female billionaire and her male artist lover, find themselves on the verge of an existential crisis as their masks are removed, and is on the verge of splitting up.[10] According to Lovinescu: "It's fortunate that the author-theorist would intervene to put [their masks] up again, thus enabling them to go on lying to one another."[10] In the 1925 drama Femeia cu două suflete ("The Woman with Two Souls"), Expressionism is toned down, but still present, particularly in the author's refusal to specify the setting and the characters' background—in reference to this aspect, Lovinescu writes: "Nothing [in it] is [...] seen, individualized, localized; everything is reduced to a possible subject."[10] The plot deals with a forceful ménage à trois situation: the female singer Mona, obsessively loved by the sculptor Dionis, accepts the advances of Fink, a theater manager, and, overwhelmed by shame, decides to kill herself.[10]

By 1926, having discarded Expressionism and returned to a traditional style, Sân-Giorgiu wrote a series of satirical plays, among which was Banchetul ("The Banquet").[10] Lovinescu notes that they owed inspiration to 19th century author Ion Luca Caragiale.[10]

Notes

  1. ^ Grigorescu, p.377
  2. ^ Lovinescu, p.66-67, 307
  3. ^ Lovinescu, p.66-67
  4. ^ a b Grigorescu, p.377-378
  5. ^ Grigorescu, p.387
  6. ^ Grigorescu, p.377, 388, 424-425; Lovinescu, p.307
  7. ^ Grigorescu, p.424-425
  8. PEN Club
    site; retrieved March 2, 2007
  9. ^ Template:Ro icon Krikor Zambaccian, Destinaţii culturale. Capşa, published and hosted by LiterNet; retrieved September 23, 2008
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Lovinescu, p.307
  11. ^ "Romanian Intellectuals about the Jews", at the Romanian Jewish Community site; retrieved September 23, 2008
  12. ^ Sebastian, p.56, 152
  13. ^ Sebastian, p.56
  14. ^ Ornea, p.419
  15. ^ a b c Sebastian, p.152
  16. ^ Sân-Giorgiu, in Ornea, p.419
  17. ^ Ornea, p.282-283
  18. ^ a b Template:Ro icon William Totok, "Cultura romanească în Germania. Jurnalul lui Mihail Sebastian tradus în limba germană" Archived 2007-10-08 at the Wayback Machine, in Revista 22, Nr. 796, June 2005
  19. ^ a b c Template:Ro icon Iulia Popovici, "Vintilă Corbul înapoi acasă"[permanent dead link], in Ziua, February 4, 2008
  20. ^ a b Lovinescu, p.67

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ion_Sân-Giorgiu&oldid=819634365"