George Călinescu

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Biography

George Călinescu was born in 1899 in Bucharest. His parents were poor and had to conceal their marriage. Călinescu only found out that Tache Capitanescu was his father when he was nineteen and one year after his father had killed himself. His mother worked as the maid for the Călinescu family who adopted him, Maria Călinescu being the sister of his father. He would later disdain both his natural mother and adoptive parents. He had a difficult schooling, with illness affecting his studies. In 1916, like other Romanians, he fled the country for Moldova when Bucharest was occupied by the Germans. He returned in 1918 and started studying literature and philosophy at the University of Bucharest. After graduating he spent two years in Rome before returning to Romania to work as a teacher. After obtaining a doctorate from the University of Iași with a dissertation on the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu, he taught literature and aesthetics at the University of Iași. During the next ten years, he published several influential works on literature and aesthetics as well as his best-known novel Părinții Otiliei (later: Enigma Otiliei) [The Enigma of Otilia]. He is best-known in Romania for this novel and for his huge and comprehensive history of Romanian literature. He continued to write novels, plays, poetry and works of criticism as well as editing and writing in journals and newspapers. He became a full professor at the University of Bucharest and had a considerable reputation as a teacher and academic. However, he was banned under the Communists and only reinstated a few months before his death in 1965. He remains one of the key figures of Romanian literature.

Bibliography

1925 Alcuni missionari catolici italiani nella Moldavia nei secoli XVII e XVIII (history)
1930 Altre notizie sui missionari cattolici italiani nei paesi romeni (religion)
1932 Viața lui Mihai Eminescu (literature)
1933 Cartea nunții (novel)
1934 Opera lui Mihai Eminescu (literature)
1937 Poesii (poetry)
1938 Viata lui Ion Creangă (later: Ion Creangă) (literature)
1938 Părinții Otiliei (later: Enigma Otiliei) [The Enigma of Otilia] (novel)
1939 Principii de estetică (literature)
1940 Șun, mit mongol sau Calea netulburată (drama)
1941 Istoria literaturii române de la origini până în prezent (History of Romanian Literature) (literature)
1945 Istoria literaturii române. Compendiu (literature)
1946 Impresii asupra literaturii spaniole (literature)
1946 Sensul clasicismului (literature)
1947 Universul poeziei (Studies in Poetics) (literature)
1949 Trei nuvele (novellas)
1949 Kiev, Moscova, Leningrad (travel)
1953 Bietul Ioanide (novel)
1953 Am fost în China nouă (travel)
1956 Studii și conferințe (literature)
1959 Nicolae Filimon (literature)
1962 Gr. M. Alecsandrescu (literature)
1963 Lauda lucrurilor (poetry)
1964 Ludovic al XIX-lea (drama)
1964 Cronicile optimistului (journalism)
1965 Estetica basmului (literature)
1965 Impresii asupra literaturii spaniole (literature)
1965 Iubita lui Balcescu (novella)
1965 Teatru (drama)
1965 Scrinul negru (novel)
1965 Vasile Alecsandri (literature)
1966 Studii si cercetari de istorie literara (literature)
1966 I. Eliade Radulescu si scoala sa (literature)
1967 Scriitori străini (literature)
1967 Ulysse (literature)
1979 Avatarii faraonului Tlà (drama)
1984 Aforisme şi reflecţii (aphorisms)
1988 Însemnări și polemice (essays)
1991 Cronici literare şi recenzii (literature)
1998 Mihai Eminescu: 1850-1889: poetul naţional (literature)
1998 Mari prozatori; Momentul 1880: Promoţia ruralilor. Naturalismul (literature)
1999 Fals jurnal (journal)
2002 Cultură şi naţiune (culture)
2006-2008 Opere: publicistică (journalism)

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