The President of the Romanian Writers’ Union, Nicolae Manolescu, passed away at the age of 84

National

The President of the Romanian Writers’ Union, Nicolae Manolescu, passed away on Saturday, March 23, 2024, at the age of 84. The literary critic had been admitted to the Elias Hospital after a heart attack.

The announcement was made on a social network by the writer and university professor Mircea Mihaies.

“Nicolae Manolescu, the most important Romanian literary critic and historian since the Second World War, has passed away.“, he noted Mircea Mihaies.

Nicolae Manolescu, born Nicolae Apolzan, (November 27, 1939, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Vâlcea county) was a critic and literary historian, university professor, full member of the Romanian Academy. He also worked as a politician after the 1989 Revolution, party leader and parliamentarian, ambassador of Romania to UNESCO. Since 2005, he has been president of the Romanian Writers’ Union. Since 1990, he has been the director of Literary Romania. He was decorated with the orders of the Cultural Merit in the Grand Cross degree, and respectively the Star of Romania in the Grand Cross degree, according to the publication Literary Romania.

Who was Nicolae Manolescu

Nicolae Manolescu, critic, literary historian and essayist, was born on November 27, 1939, in Râmnicu Vâlcea.

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.

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) and followed, among others: ‘Infidel Readings’ (1966), ‘The Metamorphoses of Poetry’ (1968), ‘Maiorescu’s Contradiction’ (1970 ), “Temes” (vol. I-VII, published between 1971-1988).

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 was a member of the Romanian Writers’ Union from 1963, according to the dictionary “Members of the Romanian Academy (1866-2003)” (Encyclopedic Publishing House/Editura Academiei Române, Bucharest, 2003).

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”.

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.

Read the full article published on the site tvrinfo.ro by accessing the adjacent title:The literary critic Nicolae Manolescu passed away

Ziarul de Vrancea is not legally responsible for the content of the texts in the comments below. You retain responsibility for the messages exclusively.

The Vrancea newspaper wants this site to be a space for civilized discussions, for common sense comments. For this reason, those who post comments on articles must comply with the following rules:
1. To refer only to the article on which he posts comments.
2. To use a civilized language, without insults, slander, anti-Semitic, xenophobic or racist comments.
3. Attacks on the authors are prohibited, if they are not related to the text.
4. The username should not be the name of public figures or parodies of them.
The author of an article can be criticized for possible mistakes, incoherence, lack of documentation, etc.
Failure to comply with the rules mentioned above will lead to the deletion of comments, without warning and without explanation.
Repeated violations will result in the prohibition of access to this site facility.