OBSERVATOR CULTURAL - Spiritul critic in actiune

Lead article

 

Carmen Musat writes: the death of Ticu Dumitrescu, (former President of the Association of Former Political Prisoners) reopens the question as to why Dumitrescu’s legislative initiatives failed. Both the law he proposed for deconspiring Securitate and the law he projected for governing the functioning of the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS) failed to achieve their objects—failures that sadly illustrate the impossibility of  Romanian society’s accepting and overcoming its history.

Ciprian Ciucu figures there must be something indecent about the sudden decency in the voices of the politicians currently negotiating the future government.
 Bedros Horasangian discusses the parliamentary elections that took place on November 30.
Arina Petrovici comments on protests by Greek students in the wake of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos’ death at the hands of an Athenian policeman.

 

Latest

 

Ionut Tudor goes to the Periferic 8 Biennial for Contemporary Art as Gift, which ran in Iasi from October 3 through October 18.
Mirela Visan comments on Fratelui meu din exil: Epoca stalinista in Romania in scrisorile Monseniorului Vladimir Ghika – print, preot si martir (To my Exiled Brother: the Stalinist Age in Romania in the Letters of Monsignor Vladimir Ghika – Prince, Priest and Martyr, Tirgu-Lapus: Galaxia Gutenberg Publishing, 2008).

 

Revisiting

 

Laura Mesina, Antonio Patras and Iulian Costache revisit the second edition of Paul Cornea’s Originile romantismului romanesc. Spiritul public, miscarea ideilor si literatura intre 1780-1840 (The Origins of Romanian Romanticism: Public Spirit, Movement of Ideas and Literature between 1780 and 1840. Bucharest: Cartea Romaneasca, 2008).

 

Literary history

 

Geo Serban looks back at the literary trajectory of Eugen Barbu.

 

Bianca Burta-Cernat and Ovidiu Simonca read Gabriel Liiceanu’s Scrisori catre fiul meu (Letters to My Son. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2008).
Fanny Chartres presents Catherine Cusset’s Problema lui Jane (The Story of Jane, translated by Marie-Jeanne Vasiloiu. Bucharest: Leda, 2008).
Silvia Dumitrache looks at Naghib Mahfuz’ O mie si una de nopti si zile (One Thousand and One Nights and Days, a novel, translated by Mihai Patru. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2008).

Psychoanalysis

 

Ion Vianu writes about “The Will to Power and Hatred,” an essay (translated from French by Doina Ioanid). Vianu originally presented the essay during ‘Challenges for Psychoanalysis in the 21st Century: Rethinking Hate and Violence.’ The colloquium took place in Bucharest between October 30 and November 1.

Cristian Cercel interviews writer Jan Koneffke.

 

International

 

Radu Jorgensen publishes the 1st part of an article on book lists of all sorts.
Iulia Popovici writes about antidote, a performance piece by Nicoleta Esinencu that played at the Constantin Brincusi Exhibition Center in Chisinau from November 28 through December 4.
Florin Irimia reads Ira B. Nadel’s biography of Leonard Cohen: Various Positions. A Life of Leonard Cohen (University of Texas Press, 2007).

 

Arts

 

Theatre
Doru Mares goes to the 20th Contemporary Drama Festival in Brasov, at the Sica Alexandrescu Theatre. The festival ran from November 14 through November 22.

 

Film
Mihai Fulger interviews director Laurent Cantet, who participated in Bucharest’s French Film Festival, which ran from December 5 through December 11.
 Iaromira Popovici writes an essay on Marc Forster’s Stranger than Fiction (2006) and Peter Weir’s The Truman Show (1998).

 

Visual arts
Cosmin Ungureanu continues his reportorial museum tour with a visit to Rubensţ house in Antwerpen.

 

Music
Anca Florea invites us to two openings: and Orpheus and Eurydice by Adrian Enescu on a theme by Gluck and La cantatrice villane by Fioravanti. The performances took place within the framework of the ‘Ludovic Spiess’ Opera and Ballet Experimental Studio of the Bucharest National Opera. The first concert took place on October 25, the second on November 30.
Mihai Plamadeala discusses Act Band’s latest album, Exactly.
Mihai Vakulovski interviews Felicia Filip of the Bucharest National Opera.

In memoriam

Caius Dobrescu and Stefan Stoica pay a final homage to former political prisoner Ticu Dumitrescu, who died on December 5.