Engaging with the dramatic work of Francophone Romanian writer Matei Vișniec, in particular with his post–Cold War participation in the European network of the theater of the absurd, I focus, chiefly in this chapter’s second half, on the author’s intertextual dialogue with another kindred spirit, Romanian-French author Eugen Ionescu (Eugène Ionesco).1 Because I do so over and against the linguistic and cultural-historical backdrop of France’s highly consequential presence in East European countries such as Romania throughout modernity, I lead off with an overview of the French influence in Romania, especially in Romanian literary history. As I will briefly show, French language and culture have over the past two centuries or so appealed considerably to Romanian writers, critics, artists, philosophers, and politicians, in effect, to entire social categories including but not limited to the intellectual class, before and after Vișniec’s own generation. Playwright, poet, and novelist, Vișniec was born in Romania but has been living for more than three decades in Paris. After years of systematic harassment by Communist censorship, he left his native land and asked for political asylum in France, whose citizen he became in 1993. What made his name well known in French cultural circles, as well as elsewhere in the world, was first of all his dramatic work, which has been published and performed in Paris and other places, inside and outside France, including the Off d’Avignon Festival. Currently the Romanian dramatist who has been translated and staged the most in recent decades worldwide, as well as the living Francophone Romanian writer most appreciated in the French-speaking world, he became, since his relocation to France, entirely bilingual and bicultural. Yet again, this career reset is hardly unusual for modern Romanian authors, whose fascination with French culture has been so powerful that they have often moved to France and have adopted, sometimes with worldwide success, French as their language of expression.
From Postmodern Intertextuality to “Decomposed Theater”: Matei Vișniec between Romanian and Francophone Literatures
Emilia David
2020-01-01
Abstract
Engaging with the dramatic work of Francophone Romanian writer Matei Vișniec, in particular with his post–Cold War participation in the European network of the theater of the absurd, I focus, chiefly in this chapter’s second half, on the author’s intertextual dialogue with another kindred spirit, Romanian-French author Eugen Ionescu (Eugène Ionesco).1 Because I do so over and against the linguistic and cultural-historical backdrop of France’s highly consequential presence in East European countries such as Romania throughout modernity, I lead off with an overview of the French influence in Romania, especially in Romanian literary history. As I will briefly show, French language and culture have over the past two centuries or so appealed considerably to Romanian writers, critics, artists, philosophers, and politicians, in effect, to entire social categories including but not limited to the intellectual class, before and after Vișniec’s own generation. Playwright, poet, and novelist, Vișniec was born in Romania but has been living for more than three decades in Paris. After years of systematic harassment by Communist censorship, he left his native land and asked for political asylum in France, whose citizen he became in 1993. What made his name well known in French cultural circles, as well as elsewhere in the world, was first of all his dramatic work, which has been published and performed in Paris and other places, inside and outside France, including the Off d’Avignon Festival. Currently the Romanian dramatist who has been translated and staged the most in recent decades worldwide, as well as the living Francophone Romanian writer most appreciated in the French-speaking world, he became, since his relocation to France, entirely bilingual and bicultural. Yet again, this career reset is hardly unusual for modern Romanian authors, whose fascination with French culture has been so powerful that they have often moved to France and have adopted, sometimes with worldwide success, French as their language of expression.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
