Eugen Barbu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1924-02-20)20 February 1924 |
| Died | 7 September 1993(1993-09-07) (aged 69) Bucharest,Romania |
| Resting place | Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, journalist |
| Period | 1955–1993 |
| Genre | historical novel,fiction |
| Literary movement | Realism,neorealism |
| Spouse | Marga Barbu |
Eugen Barbu (Romanian pronunciation:[e.uˈdʒenˈbarbu]; 20 February 1924 – 7 September 1993) was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondentmember of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended that heplagiarized in his novelIncognito and for theanti-Semitic campaigns he initiated in the newspapersSăptămâna andRomânia Mare which he founded and led.[1][2][3] He also founded, alongside his discipleCorneliu Vadim Tudor, thenationalistGreater Romania Party (PRM).[4]
His most famous writings are the novelsGroapa (1957) andPrincipele (1969).[5] Barbu's prose, in which the influence ofneorealism has been noted, drew comparison to the works ofMateiu Caragiale,Tudor Arghezi, andCurzio Malaparte.[6] It was however, considered unequal by several critics, who took into measure Barbu's preference forarchaisms, as well as his fluctuating narrative style.[7]
Barbu also wrote several film scripts,[8] some of which were for films starring his wife, the actressMarga Barbu (Florin Piersic'sMărgelatu series).
The son of writer and journalistN. Crevedia,[9][10] Barbu was born inBucharest, and briefly attended theUniversity of Bucharest's Faculty of Law, and then graduated from the Faculty of Letters (1947); he subsequently worked as a journalist for theleft-wing press.[5] Attending meetings of theSburătorul society, he made his debut in 1955 (with thenovellaMunca de jos).[5] The following year, he published his first novel,Balonul e rotund.[5]
One of the few persons trusted with official criticism on both political and literary issues during thecommunist regime — underGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and especially underNicolae Ceaușescu[11] — he was noted for his early writings in praise ofSoviet achievements such as theSputnik program,[12] and his progressive move to a more nationalist tone as this became condoned (and later encouraged).[13] He was also involved in thecensorship apparatus, a position which, some have argued, he used indiscriminately against his literary rivals.[14]
HisPrincipele novel, set during thePhanariote era, was interpreted to be an ironic reference to Gheorghiu-Dej's rule and thelabor camps of theDanube–Black Sea Canal, and was condoned by the regime during a period of relativeliberalization — cut short by theJuly Theses of 1971.[15] At the time, he was also an editor ofLuceafărul, before being dismissed following his prolonged and notorious conflicts with younger writers (while the regime was interested in ensuring the latter's confidence).[12] Barbu was an informal envoy to the United States during the late 1960s, visiting the influential exiled scholarMircea Eliade at his home inChicago, unsuccessfully calling for his return, and vouching for a "magnificent reception" to his home country (in order to mark the potential image coup).[16]
He was several times elected to theGreat National Assembly,[17] until the plagiarism scandal prevented him from being again proposed for the office.[18] In 1977, Barbu won theHerder Prize, which permitted him to offer his protégé Tudor a scholarship year inVienna.
In 1979,România Literară published a special section in which it placed side by side a text fromIncognito and one taken from a translated work by theSoviet writerKonstantin Paustovsky; the two sections were considered virtually identical.[19] The ensuing scandal animated the literary world, and has often been cited as a reference for similar and more recent controversies.[19] Speaking at the time, Barbu dismissed the accusations ascharacter assassination.[18]
During the 1970s and '80s, he notably launched verbal attacks against Romanian intellectuals who had defected the country, as well as against writers who were critical of the regime[20] (the latter includedPaul Goma, whom, in 1977, he called "a non-entity").[21]
Barbu's polemic articles were often obscene in tone,[22] and their message offered Ceauşescu a nationalist support whichVladimir Tismăneanu has identified as "chauvinistic".[22] By 1980, Tudor's editorials inSăptămâna drew complaints from members of theJewish-Romanian community;[23] consequently, Barbu and Tudor came under the attention of theSecuritate.[23] According toZiua, a Securitate file of the time reveals that the two had begun questioning thedétente between Romania and the United States, contradicting official policy, and theorizing that theMost favored nation status, which Romania had just received, was actually harming the country (while arguing that data to prove this had been kept hidden by a Jewish plot).[23]
Many attacks focused onMonica Lovinescu, who was broadcastinganti-communist messages onRadio Free Europe — in one instance during 1987, Barbu used his column inSăptămâna to belittle the work ofEugen Lovinescu, a major literary critic who was Monica Lovinescu's father; this drew criticism from theRomanian Communist Party (of which Barbu was a member) and alarm from the Securitate, as it went against more restrained official guidelines regarding the works of Eugen Lovinescu.[24]
After theRomanian Revolution of 1989, Barbu and Tudor emerged as ideologists of a new nationalist trend, which largely repeated themes present in previous official discourse, while casting aside references tocommunism.[25] Between 1992 and the time of his death, Barbu served in theRomanian Chamber of Deputies as representative of theGreater Romania Party for Bucharest.
In early 2005, eleven years after his death, the satirical magazineAcademia Cațavencu uncovered and publicized a Securitate file which seems to indicate that Barbu had sexual encounters with underage girls, provided by Tudor and paid for their services.[26] Tudor initially called on the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives to explain if the find was real, and received a positive answer.[26] He later vehemently dismissed the allegations, indicating that virtually all of the girls' personal data was not found in census records, and that Anita Barton, the only one of them to have actually been found, was aged 19 at the time of her alleged meeting with Barbu.[26]
He died in Bucharest in 1993 and was buried atBellu Cemetery, on Writer's Alley, close toMihai Eminescu's resting place. His wife,Marga Barbu, was buried next to him when she died in 2009.[27]
