Ana Blandiana
Encyclopedia
Ana Blandiana (ˈana blandiˈana; pen name
of Otilia Valeria Coman; b. 25 March 1942, Timişoara
) is a Romania
n poet, essayist, and political figure. She took her name after Blandiana
, near Vinţu de Jos
, Alba County
, her mother's home village.
After her debut in 1959, in Tribuna, Cluj
, where she signed for the first time as Ana Blandiana, she was published in the anthology 30 de poeţi tineri ("30 Young Poets"). In 1963, after a four-year interdiction due to her father's status, she again published in Contemporanul
(edited by George Ivaşcu
).
Her editorial debut took place in 1964 with the booklet of poems Persoana întâia plural ("First Person Plural"), with a Foreword written by Nicolae Manolescu
. She became known for her Calcâiul vulnerabil ("Achilles' Heel", 1966) and A treia taină ("The Third Secret", 1969). In 1966, Blandiana appeared for the first time at the International Poem Contest (in Lahti, Finland
).
In 1967, she settled in Bucharest
; until the following year, she was one of the editors for Viaţa studenţească, and then (until 1975) worked as editor for Amfiteatru.
She gave two televised readings in 1969, in the company of Andrei Şerban
and the actors Irina Petrescu, Mariana Mihuţ and Florian Pittiş
.
Between 1975 and 1977, she was a librarian at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest. In 1976, her works were first printed in a French
translation, in Croisière du Club des Poètes by :fr:Jean-Pierre Rosnay (Paris
); in 1978, she took part in the First International Festival of Poetry in Paris organized by the famed Club des Poètes.
In the late 1980s, assuming risks of reprisals of the communist regime
, Blandiana started writing protest poems, in answer to the increasingly harsh demands of the system in general.
In 1984 Blandiana's poem 'Totul' ('Everything') was briefly published in the literary magazine Amfiteatru. 'Totul' was a list of elements of everyday life in Bucharest at the time, composed as a comment on the contrast between the official view of life in Romania and the alternative perception of its monotonous shabbiness. The critical nature of the poem led to the edition of Amfiteatru being withdrawn within hours of publication with the editors being dismissed. Nevertheless, the poem appeared in translation in Western media and also had limited underground circulation in Romania.http://www.enzia.com/Pages/Revf7.html
However, in 1987 she published at the Sport-Turism Publishing House the book "Orase de silabe" ("City of syllables") where she writes about all the countries and cities of the world where she traveled in spite of the 'communist dictatorship': over 100. The same year, 1987, she is published in USSR, at Raduga Publishing House from Moscow, with the Russian title Stihotvorenia, rasskazî, asse. Even though the secret services of Ceauşescu ('Securitate') attribute her a dissident status, in 1989 the Minerva Publishing House is publishing in the most popular mass collection "Biblioteca Pentru Toţi" ("Library for all people") an anthology of her poems. Her friends sustain that the book never seen the bookshelves of the libraries. However, "Poezii" ("Poems") has a 'Foreword' written by Eugen Simion.http://civicmedia.ro/acm/index.php?option=com_conent&task=view&id=529&Itemid=96
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
, she entered political life, campaigning for the removal of the communist legacy from administrative office, as well as for an open society
. She left literary work in the background, although she did publish Arhitectura valurilor ("Waves' Architecture", 1990), 100 de poeme ("100 Poems", 1991), and Sertarul cu aplauze ("The Drawer of Applause", prose, 1992). In 1992 she advocates for the released from prison of old time Party member Gheorghe 'Gogu' Radulescu, a former member of the Executive Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and protector of herself during the communist period. Her work was translated into 16 languages.
Ana Blandiana has also published: 50 de poeme, ("50 Poems"), 1970: Octombrie, Noiembrie, Decembrie ("October, November, December"), 1972; Întâmplări din grădina mea (Occurrences in My Garden), 1980; Ora de nisip ("The Hour of Sand"), 1984; Întâmplări de pe strada mea (Occurrences on My Street), 1988; În dimineaţa de după moarte ("On the Morning After Dying"), 1996; La cules îngeri ("Angel Gathering"), 1997; Cartea albă a lui Arpagic ("Arpagic's White Book"), 1998. She has also authored 6 books of essays and 4 books of other prose writings.
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
of Otilia Valeria Coman; b. 25 March 1942, Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
) is a Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n poet, essayist, and political figure. She took her name after Blandiana
Blandiana
Blandiana is a commune located in Alba County, Romania. It has a population of 1,187 and is composed of five villages: Acmariu, Blandiana, Ibru, Poieni and Răcătău.-Attractions:...
, near Vinţu de Jos
Vintu de Jos
Vinţu de Jos, also known as Vinţ is a commune located in the centre of Alba County, Romania. It is composed of eighteen villages: Câmpu Goblii , Ciocaşu , Crişeni , Dealu Ferului , Gura Cuţului , Haţegana , Inuri , Laz , Mătăcina , Mereteu...
, Alba County
Alba County
Alba is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, its capital city being Alba-Iulia with a population of 66,406.- Demographics :In 2002, it had a population of 382,747 and the population density was 61/km².* Romanians - 90.4%* Hungarians - 5.4%...
, her mother's home village.
Literary career
Coman's parents were Gheorghe (1915-1964), a priest who spent years in Communist prisons and died in an accident weeks after his release in a general amnesty, and Otilia (Diacu), an accountant. Her sister Geta was born in 1947. In 1960 she married the writer Romulus Rusan.After her debut in 1959, in Tribuna, Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, where she signed for the first time as Ana Blandiana, she was published in the anthology 30 de poeţi tineri ("30 Young Poets"). In 1963, after a four-year interdiction due to her father's status, she again published in Contemporanul
Contemporanul
Contemporanul is a Romanian literary magazine published in Iaşi, Romania from 1881 to 1891 being sponsored by the socialist circle of the city....
(edited by George Ivaşcu
George Ivaşcu
-Biography:Born in Cerţeşti, Galaţi County, he graduated from the Gheorghe Roşca Codreanu High School in Bârlad in 1929. He then entered the University of Iaşi, graduating from its Letters and Philosophy Faculty in 1933. He subsequently obtained a doctorate in Philology. A librarian at his Iaşi...
).
Her editorial debut took place in 1964 with the booklet of poems Persoana întâia plural ("First Person Plural"), with a Foreword written by Nicolae Manolescu
Nicolae Manolescu
Nicolae Manolescu is a Romanian literary critic. As an editor of România Literară literary magazine, he has reached a record in reviewing books for almost 30 years...
. She became known for her Calcâiul vulnerabil ("Achilles' Heel", 1966) and A treia taină ("The Third Secret", 1969). In 1966, Blandiana appeared for the first time at the International Poem Contest (in Lahti, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
).
In 1967, she settled in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
; until the following year, she was one of the editors for Viaţa studenţească, and then (until 1975) worked as editor for Amfiteatru.
She gave two televised readings in 1969, in the company of Andrei Şerban
Andrei Serban
Andrei Șerban is a Romanian-born American theater director. A major name in twentieth-century theater, he is renowned for his innovative and iconoclastic interpretations and stagings...
and the actors Irina Petrescu, Mariana Mihuţ and Florian Pittiş
Florian Pittis
Florian Pittiş was a Romanian stage and television actor, theatre director, folk music singer, and radio producer.He attended the Gheorghe Lazăr High School in Bucharest and in 1968 he graduated from the Institute of Theatre...
.
Between 1975 and 1977, she was a librarian at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest. In 1976, her works were first printed in a French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
translation, in Croisière du Club des Poètes by :fr:Jean-Pierre Rosnay (Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
); in 1978, she took part in the First International Festival of Poetry in Paris organized by the famed Club des Poètes.
In the late 1980s, assuming risks of reprisals of the communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, Blandiana started writing protest poems, in answer to the increasingly harsh demands of the system in general.
In 1984 Blandiana's poem 'Totul' ('Everything') was briefly published in the literary magazine Amfiteatru. 'Totul' was a list of elements of everyday life in Bucharest at the time, composed as a comment on the contrast between the official view of life in Romania and the alternative perception of its monotonous shabbiness. The critical nature of the poem led to the edition of Amfiteatru being withdrawn within hours of publication with the editors being dismissed. Nevertheless, the poem appeared in translation in Western media and also had limited underground circulation in Romania.http://www.enzia.com/Pages/Revf7.html
However, in 1987 she published at the Sport-Turism Publishing House the book "Orase de silabe" ("City of syllables") where she writes about all the countries and cities of the world where she traveled in spite of the 'communist dictatorship': over 100. The same year, 1987, she is published in USSR, at Raduga Publishing House from Moscow, with the Russian title Stihotvorenia, rasskazî, asse. Even though the secret services of Ceauşescu ('Securitate') attribute her a dissident status, in 1989 the Minerva Publishing House is publishing in the most popular mass collection "Biblioteca Pentru Toţi" ("Library for all people") an anthology of her poems. Her friends sustain that the book never seen the bookshelves of the libraries. However, "Poezii" ("Poems") has a 'Foreword' written by Eugen Simion.http://civicmedia.ro/acm/index.php?option=com_conent&task=view&id=529&Itemid=96
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, she entered political life, campaigning for the removal of the communist legacy from administrative office, as well as for an open society
Open society
The open society is a concept originally developed by philosopher Henri Bergson and then by Austrian and British philosopher Karl Popper. In open societies, government is purported to be responsive and tolerant, and political mechanisms are said to be transparent and flexible...
. She left literary work in the background, although she did publish Arhitectura valurilor ("Waves' Architecture", 1990), 100 de poeme ("100 Poems", 1991), and Sertarul cu aplauze ("The Drawer of Applause", prose, 1992). In 1992 she advocates for the released from prison of old time Party member Gheorghe 'Gogu' Radulescu, a former member of the Executive Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and protector of herself during the communist period. Her work was translated into 16 languages.
Ana Blandiana has also published: 50 de poeme, ("50 Poems"), 1970: Octombrie, Noiembrie, Decembrie ("October, November, December"), 1972; Întâmplări din grădina mea (Occurrences in My Garden), 1980; Ora de nisip ("The Hour of Sand"), 1984; Întâmplări de pe strada mea (Occurrences on My Street), 1988; În dimineaţa de după moarte ("On the Morning After Dying"), 1996; La cules îngeri ("Angel Gathering"), 1997; Cartea albă a lui Arpagic ("Arpagic's White Book"), 1998. She has also authored 6 books of essays and 4 books of other prose writings.
Affiliations
- Member of the Writers' Union of RomaniaWriters' Union of RomaniaThe Writers' Union of Romania , founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chişinău, Republic of Moldova...
- Member of the European Academy of Poetry
- Chairman of the Romanian PEN ClubPEN American CenterPEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
, after its re-establishment in 1990 - 1994 - Founder and leader of the Civic Alliance FoundationCivic Alliance FoundationThe Civic Alliance Foundation is a Romanian non-governmental organization . It is one of the largest Romanian NGOs, working for the consolidation of a civil society in the aftermath of the 42-year long communist regime. The AC has subsidiaries in 36 of the 41 counties, overseen by a 27-member...
, a Romanian non-party movement, whose aim was to alleviate the consequences of more than fifty years of communism in Romania.