Gellu Naum
Encyclopedia
Gellu Naum was a prominent Romania
n poet, dramatist, novelist, children's writer, and translator. He is remembered as the founder of the Romanian Surrealist
group. The artist Lyggia Naum, his wife, was the inspiration and main character in his 1985 novel Zenobia.
, he was the son of the poet Andrei Naum (who had been drafted in World War I
and died during the Battle of Mărăşeşti
) and his wife Maria. In 1933, he began studying Philosophy at the University of Bucharest
. In 1938, he left for France
, where he continued his studies at the University of Paris
. He took his PhD
diploma with a thesis on the scholastic
philosopher Pierre Abelard.
In 1936 (the year when he published his first book), Naum met Victor Brauner
, who became his close friend and who later introduced him to André Breton
and his Surrealist circle in Paris
.
In 1941, he helped create the Bucharest group of Surrealists (which also included Gherasim Luca
, Paul Păun
, Dolfi Trost
, and Virgil Teodorescu). Naum was drafted into Romanian Army during World War II
and served on the Eastern Front
after the invasion of the Soviet Union
(see Romania during World War II
). Marked by his wartime experience, he was discharged in 1944, after he had fallen ill.
In December 1947, the Surrealist group succumbed to the vicissitudes of postwar Soviet occupation
and successful Communist takeover
of Romania's government. As Socialist realism
had officially become Romania's cultural policy, he could only publish books for children (out of which the two books with Apolodor were reissued several times). Although he published several books in the line of Socialist realism, which he renegated afterwards, he never stopped writing Surrealist poems, such as the 1958 poem composed of several parts Heraclitus (published in the 1968 volume Athanor) or the esoteric manuscript The Way of the Snake, written in 1948-1949 and published after his death, in 2002. Between 1950 and 1953, he taught Philosophy at the Agronomic Institute in Bucharest while working also as a translator. He translated works by Samuel Beckett
, René Char
, Denis Diderot
, Alexandre Dumas, père
, Julien Gracq
, Victor Hugo
, Franz Kafka
, Gérard de Nerval
, Jacques Prévert
, Stendhal
, and Jules Verne
.
He resumed his literary career in 1968, in the wake of a relative cultural liberalization
under Nicolae Ceauşescu
's regime.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
, he traveled abroad and gave public readings in France, Germany
, Switzerland
, and the Netherlands
. In 1995, the German Academic Exchange Service
appointed him scholar at the University of Berlin. Naum spent much of his final years at his retreat in Comana
.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n poet, dramatist, novelist, children's writer, and translator. He is remembered as the founder of the Romanian Surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
group. The artist Lyggia Naum, his wife, was the inspiration and main character in his 1985 novel Zenobia.
Biography
Born in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, he was the son of the poet Andrei Naum (who had been drafted in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and died during the Battle of Mărăşeşti
Battle of Marasesti
The Battle of Mărăşeşti, Vrancea County, eastern Romania was a major battle fought during World War I between Germany and Romania.-Premise:...
) and his wife Maria. In 1933, he began studying Philosophy at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
. In 1938, he left for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he continued his studies at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
. He took his PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
diploma with a thesis on the scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
philosopher Pierre Abelard.
In 1936 (the year when he published his first book), Naum met Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
, who became his close friend and who later introduced him to André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
and his Surrealist circle in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
In 1941, he helped create the Bucharest group of Surrealists (which also included Gherasim Luca
Gherasim Luca
Gherasim Luca was a Surrealist theorist and Romanian poet. He is frequently cited in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.- Biography :...
, Paul Păun
Paul Păun
Paul Păun or Paúl Yvenez was a Romanian Surrealist artist and writer, as well as a trained physician.-Biography:...
, Dolfi Trost
Dolfi Trost
Dolfi or Dolphi Trost was a Romanian surrealist poet, artist, and theorist, and the instigator of entopic graphomania. Together with Gherasim Luca, he was the author of Dialectique de la dialectique...
, and Virgil Teodorescu). Naum was drafted into Romanian Army during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and served on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
after the invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
(see Romania during World War II
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...
). Marked by his wartime experience, he was discharged in 1944, after he had fallen ill.
In December 1947, the Surrealist group succumbed to the vicissitudes of postwar Soviet occupation
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
and successful Communist takeover
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
of Romania's government. As Socialist realism
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
had officially become Romania's cultural policy, he could only publish books for children (out of which the two books with Apolodor were reissued several times). Although he published several books in the line of Socialist realism, which he renegated afterwards, he never stopped writing Surrealist poems, such as the 1958 poem composed of several parts Heraclitus (published in the 1968 volume Athanor) or the esoteric manuscript The Way of the Snake, written in 1948-1949 and published after his death, in 2002. Between 1950 and 1953, he taught Philosophy at the Agronomic Institute in Bucharest while working also as a translator. He translated works by Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, René Char
René Char
René Char was a 20th century French poet.-Biography:Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of four children of Emile Char and Marie-Therese Rouget, where his father was mayor and managing director of the Vaucluse plasterworks...
, Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
, Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
, Julien Gracq
Julien Gracq
Julien Gracq , born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French département of Maine-et-Loire, was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their Surrealism.Gracq first studied in Paris at the Lycée Henri IV, where he earned his...
, Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essentially Romantic French poets.- Biography :...
, Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain very popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. Some of the movies he wrote are extremely well regarded, with Les Enfants du Paradis considered one of the greatest films of all time.-Life and...
, Stendhal
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
, and Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
.
He resumed his literary career in 1968, in the wake of a relative cultural liberalization
Liberalization
In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation...
under Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
's regime.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, he traveled abroad and gave public readings in France, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. In 1995, the German Academic Exchange Service
German Academic Exchange Service
The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....
appointed him scholar at the University of Berlin. Naum spent much of his final years at his retreat in Comana
Comana, Giurgiu
Comana is a commune in Giurgiu County, Romania. It is composed of five villages: Comana, Vlad Ţepeş, Budeni, Falaştoaca and Grădiştea.Comana monastery was founded by Vlad III "Ţepeş" in 1461, and is possibly the site of his tomb....
.
Works
- Drumeţul incendiar ("The Incendiary Traveler"; poems, illustrated by Victor Brauner), Bucharest, 1936
- Vasco de GamaVasco da GamaVasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
, (poem, illustrated by Jacques Hérold), Bucharest, 1940 - Culoarul somnului, ("The Corridor of Sleep"; poems, illustrated by Victor BraunerVictor BraunerVictor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
), Bucharest, 1944 - Medium (prose), Bucharest, 1945
- Critica mizeriei ("Critique of Misery"; manifesto, co-written with Paul Păun and Virgil Teodorescu), Bucharest, 1945
- Teribilul interzis ("The Terrible Forbidden"; drama, illustrated by Paul Păun), Bucharest, 1945
- Spectrul longevităţii: 122 de cadavre ("The Specter of Longevity: 122 corpses"; drama, co-written with Virgil Teodorescu), Bucharest, 1946
- Castelul Orbilor ("Castle of the Blind"; drama), Bucharest, 1946
- L'infra-noir ("Infra-Black"; manifesto, co-written with Gherasim Luca, Paul Păun, Virgil Teodorescu, and Dolfi Trost), Bucharest, 1947
- Éloge de Malombra - Cerne de l'amour absolu ("MalombraMalombraMalombra is a 1917 silent Italian drama film directed by Carmine Gallone. The film was shown as part of the Silent Divas of the Italian Cinema programme at the 38th New York Film Festival in 2000.-Plot:...
's Eulogy - Black Circle of Absolute Love"; manifesto, co-written with Gherasim Luca, Paul Păun, and Dolfi Trost), Bucharest, 1947 - Filonul, Bucharest, 1952 ("The Vein"; prose)
- Tabăra din munţi, Bucharest, 1953 ("The Camp in the Mountains"; prose)
- Aşa-i Sanda, Bucharest, 1956 ("So Is Sanda"; poems for children)
- Cartea cu Apolodor, Bucharest, 1959 ("The Book With Apolodor"; poems for children, illustrated by Jules Perahim)
- Poem despre tinereţea noastră, Bucharest, 1960 ("Poem About Our Youth"; poems, illustrated by Jules Perahim)
- Soarele calm, Bucharest, 1961 ("The Calm Sun"; poems, illustrated by Jules Perahim)
- A doua carte cu Apolodor, Bucharest, 1964 ("The Second Book With Apolodor"; poems for children, illustrated by Jules Perahim)
- AthanorAthanorIn alchemy, an athanor is a furnace used to provide heat for alchemical digestion. An athanor is a self-feeding furnace, designed to maintain a uniform temperature....
(poems), Bucharest, 1968 - Poetizaţi, poetizaţi... ("Poeticize, Poeticize..."; prose), Bucharest, 1970
- Copacul-animal ("The Animal-Tree"; poems), Bucharest, 1971
- Tatăl meu obosit ("My Tired Father"; poems), Bucharest, 1972
- Poeme alese ("Selected Poems"; poems), Bucharest, 1974
- Cărţile cu Apolodor ("The Apolodor Books", poems for children), Bucharest, 1975
- Descrierea turnului ("Description of the Tower"; poems), Bucharest, 1975
- Insula. Ceasornicăria Taus. Poate Eleonora ("The Island. The Taus Clockmakers. Eleonora, Perhaps"; drama), Bucharest, 1979
- Partea cealaltă ("The Other Side"; poems), Bucharest, 1980
- Zenobia (novel), Bucharest, 1985
- Amedeu, cel mai cumsecade leu, Bucharest, 1988 ("Amedeu, The Most Honest Lion"; poems for children, illustrated by N. Nobilescu)
- Apolodor, un mic pinguin călător, Bucharest, 1988 ("Apolodor, A Small Travelling Penguin"; poems for children, illustrated by N. Nobilescu)
- Malul albastru ("The Blue Shore; prose), Bucharest, 1990
- Faţa şi suprafaţa, urmat de Malul albastru ("Face and Surface, followed by The Blue Shore", poems), Bucharest, 1994
- Focul negru ("Black Fire"; poems), Bucharest, 1995
- Sora fântână ("Sister Fountain"; poems), Bucharest, 1995
- Întrebătorul ("The Inquirer"; prose), Bucharest, 1996
- Copacul-animal, urmat de Avantajul vertebrelor ("The Animal-Tree, followed by The Advantage of Vertebrae"), Cluj-NapocaCluj-NapocaCluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, 2000 - Ascet la baraca de tir ("Recluse in the Firing Range Shack"; poems), Bucharest, 2000
- Calea şearpelui ("The Way of the Snake"), Bucharest, 2002 (posthumous)