Gellu Naum Explained

Gellu Naum (1 August 1915 – 29 September 2001) was a Romanian poet, dramatist, novelist, children's writer, and translator. He is remembered as the founder of the Romanian Surrealist group. The artist Lygia Naum, his wife, was the inspiration and main character in his 1985 novel Zenobia.[1]

Biography

Born in Bucharest, he was the son of the poet (who had been drafted in World War I and died during the Battle of Mărășești) and his wife Maria Naum, née Rosa Gluck. 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). 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 reneged on 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 of 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 Ceaușescu's regime. In 1971 he was awarded the Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic, 3rd class.[2]

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. He died at in Bucharest at age 86; after a memorial service at Amzei Church, he was buried in the city's Bellu Cemetery.[3]

Works

Presence in English language anthologies

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: S-a stins din viață Lyggia Naum. ro. Ana Maria . Bota. BBC News. March 6, 2005. April 29, 2024.
  2. Web site: Decretul nr. 138 din 20 aprilie 1971 al Consiliului de Stat al Republicii Socialiste România privind conferirea unor ordine ale Republicii Socialiste România, art. 12. ro. Buletinul Oficial . lege5.ro. December 31, 1971.
  3. News: Gellu Naum s-a stins din viață la 86 de ani. ro. Libertatea. Petre. Dobrescu. October 1, 2001. April 29, 2024.

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