Nicolae Manolescu died. Union of Writers: “Romanian culture suffers a heavy, irreparable loss”

Literary critic Nicolae Manolescu died on Saturday, Mircea Mihăeș, a close friend of the man of culture, wrote on Facebook.

Nicolae Manolescu was 84 years old and had been admitted to the Elias Hospital, according to HotNews.ro sources, who confirmed the death of the literary critic. Nicolae Manolescu was the president of the Writers’ Union.

“Nicolae Manolescu, the most important Romanian literary critic and historian since the Second World War, has passed away. May God rest him!” Mircea Mihăieș wrote on Facebook.

“One of the great literary critics and teachers of Romanian culture, Nicolae Manolescu, died at the age of 84, following a cardiac arrest. I will keep his memory alive”, Cristian Tudor Popescu also wrote on Facebook.

For his part, literary critic Daniel Cristea-Enache mourns the death of professor Nicolae Manolescu. “Another black day for Romanian culture,” wrote Cristea-Enache on Facebook.

“Today, March 23, 2024, Acad passed away. Nicolae Manolescu, professor of our faculty, author of a monumental work that redefined Romanian literary criticism and historiography in the post-war period. Colleagues and students from the Faculty of Letters are with family and friends, with all those who cherished him, read his books and chronicles and who learned from him. Rest in peace!”, is the message posted, on Saturday evening, on Facebook, also by the representatives of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest.

“The Writers’ Union of Romania announces with deep sorrow the death of academician Nicolae Manolescu (1939-2024), President of the Writers’ Union, director of the weekly “Romania literară”, critic and literary historian of great reputation, one of the greatest personalities of literature Romanians of all times. Nicolae Manolescu identified himself with Romanian literature, he was constantly at the center of living literature, he was a mentor to hundreds of students and doctoral students, as a teacher, as well as to young writers from several generations. As a politician and journalist of attitude he campaigned for democracy and freedom. With the disappearance of Nicolae Manolescu, Romanian culture suffers a heavy, irreparable loss”, says a post of the Writers’ Union.

Who was Nicolae Manolescu

Nicolae Manolescu, critic, literary historian and essayist, was born on November 27, 1939, in Râmnicu Vâlcea. His mother, Sabina Apolzan (née Manolescu), was a French teacher, and his father, Petru Apolzan, a philosophy professor, appears in the “General Dictionary of Romanian Literature” published under the auspices of the Romanian Academy (Univers Enciclopedic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005).

He attended secondary school in Sibiu, then he started his high school courses in Râmnicu Vâlcea. He graduated from high school in Sibiu, after which he attended the Faculty of Philology of the University of Bucharest (1956-1962), with an interruption in 1958 and 1959, when he was expelled because of the file, according to the cited source. He got his license in 1962, and in the same year he started a collaboration at “Contemporanul”.

In 1963, he began his university career as a lecturer at the Department of History of Romanian Literature of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Bucharest, later becoming an assistant (1964-1968), lecturer (1968-1989), then, after 1990, a professor at the same chair. His doctoral thesis – “The Contradiction of Maiorescu” – was defended in 1974.

Manifested early, Nicolae Manolescu’s vocation as a literary chronicler was constantly exercised for three decades (1962-1992). The debut occurs in “Contemporanul”, where G. Ivaşcu offers him the literary chronicle in the spring of 1962. He will continue to support it until 1972, when he is appointed columnist for “Romania literară” by the same G. Ivaşcu (… )” (“General dictionary of Romanian literature”, Univers Enciclopedic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005).

From 1990 he became the director of the “Romania literară” magazine. He gave up the column, but between April 1990 and September 1991 he signed the political analysis column “Ochiul magic”. His activity as a critic was present in almost all cultural publications of the time.

He debuted with the volume “Romanian Literature of Today”. 1944-1964”, written in collaboration with Dumitru Micu (1965). They followed: “Infidel Readings” (1966), “The Metamorphoses of Poetry” (1968), “Maorescu’s Contradiction” (1970), “Themes” (vol. I-VII, published between 1971- 1988), “Introduction to Alexandru Odobescu’s work” (1976), “Sadoveanu or Utopia of the Book” (1976, Writers’ Union Award and Romanian Academy Award), “Noah’s Ark” (I-III, 1980 -1983), “On poetry” (1987), “Critical history of Romanian literature” (1990), “The right to normality. Political discourse and reality” (1991); “Books have souls” (1995); “The metamorphoses of poetry. Metamorphoses of the novel” (1999); “Romantic Poets” (1999); “Homework” (2000); “Post-war Romanian literature. Manolescu’s list” (vol. I-III, 2001); “Reading and writing” (2002); “Modern Poets” (2003); “Reading for everyone’s understanding” (2003), “Life and books. Memories of a long-distance reader” (2009).

In November 2008, Nicolae Manolescu launched at the Gaudeamus Fair the work “Critical history of Romanian literature. 5 centuries of literature”, which has over 1,500 pages and on which he worked for 25 years.

Nicolae Manolescu was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy on October 24, 1997, and on March 28, 2013 he became a full member of this high scientific and cultural forum.

He is a member of the Romanian Writers’ Union since 1963, according to the dictionary “Members of the Romanian Academy (1866-2003)” (Editura Enciclopedică/Editura Academiei Române, Bucharest, 2003). He was elected president of the Romanian Writers’ Union (USR) in 2005. On November 23, 2009, he was elected for a second term at the head of USR, then re-elected as head of USR on October 7, 2013. On May 5, 2018, he was re-elected president of USR, for the 2018-2023 mandate.

He was a founding member of the Civic Alliance and a member of its Steering Committee (1990), then, from July 1991, president of the Civic Alliance Party (PAC), according to the work “Personalities of contemporary Romania. Protagonists of public life”, edited by ROMPRES National Press Agency (Bucharest, 1995). He held the position of president of the Civic Alliance Party until 1998, when PAC and PNL merged. He was a senator from Sibiu in the 1992-1996 legislature, being elected, in September 1992, on the lists of the Romanian Democratic Convention.

In November 1996, he ran for the Presidency of Romania, from the National Liberal Alliance (ANL). In the period 2006-2015, he was ambassador of Romania to UNESCO.

On December 1, 2000, he was conferred by the Presidency of Romania the National Order “Faithful Service” in the Grand Cross degree, and on December 1, 2008 – the National Order “Star of Romania” in the Grand Cross degree.

He was awarded with prizes from the Romanian Academy, the Writers’ Union, the Bucharest Writers’ Association, and from the French state – with the title of “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”.

In October 2004, he received the Prometheus Award for his entire career – Opera Omnia, awarded by the “Anonymous” foundation, and at the “Manuscriptum” Awards Gala on December 11, 2008, he was awarded the “Manuscriptum” grand prize, for the book “Critical History” of Romanian literature”. He received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Oradea (2010), from the University “1 Decembrie 1918” Alba Iulia (2011), from the National School of Political and Administrative Sciences (2012), from the University “Babeş-Bolyai” ‘ from Cluj-Napoca (2012), of the University “Vasile Alecsandri” from Bacău (2016). On January 14, 2017, Nicolae Manolescu received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the “Alecu Russo” University in Bălţi – Republic of Moldova, during a ceremony on the occasion of the “Eminescu Days”. In 2011, the Senate of the University of Bucharest awarded him the title of Professor Emeritus.

At the Gala of the National Commission of Romania for UNESCO in the Centenary Year, which took place on November 27, 2018, the literary critic Nicolae Manolescu was among the personalities who were awarded diplomas of excellence in high recognition of the outstanding contribution to the fulfillment and affirmation the ideals and objectives of UNESCO. According to a draft decision adopted by the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest in October 2019, he was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the Capital.