Geo Bogza
Encyclopedia
Geo Bogza (ˈd͡ʒe.o ˈboɡza; born Gheorghe Bogza; February 6, 1908-September 14, 1993) was a Romania
n avant-garde
theorist, poet, and journalist, known for his left-wing and communist
political convictions. As a young man in the interwar period
, he was known as a rebel and was one of the most influential Romanian Surrealists
. Several of his controversial poems twice led to his imprisonment on grounds of obscenity
, and saw him partake in the conflict between young and old Romanian writers, as well as in the confrontation between the avant-garde and the far right
. At a later stage, Bogza won acclaim for his many and accomplished reportage pieces, being one of the first to cultivate the genre in Romanian literature
, and using it as a venue for social criticism
.
After the establishment of Communist Romania
, Bogza adapted his style to Socialist realism
, and became one of the most important literary figures to have serviced the government. With time, he became a subtle critic of the regime, especially under the rule of Nicolae Ceauşescu
, when he adopted a dissident position. Beginning in the late 1960s, he publicized his uncomfortable attitudes as subtext
to apparently innocent articles and essays. An editor for Viaţa Românească
and România Literară
magazines, Geo Bogza was one of the leaders of the Romanian Writers' Union and a member of the Romanian Academy
.
He was the older brother of Radu Tudoran
, himself a known writer, whose political choices were in stark contrast with those of Geo Bogza, and made Tudoran the object of communist persecution. Bogza had lifelong contacts with some representatives of the Romanian avant-garde, among them Victor Brauner
, Max Blecher
, Sesto Pals, Saşa Pană
and Paul Păun
, and was friends with, among others, the essayist and theologian Nicolae Steinhardt
, the dissident Gheorghe Ursu
and the filmmaker Mircea Săucan.
, Prahova County
. At one point during the late 1930s, Bogza was irritated after reading an article authored by one of his fascist
adversaries, Alexandru Hodoş (later a member of the Iron Guard
). Hodoş implied that Bogza was not an ethnic Romanian
, which prompted the latter to elaborate on his origins and his name. Bogza refuted the allegation by indicating that his father was originally from the village of Bogzeşti, in Secuieni
, Neamţ County
, and that his mother (née Georgescu) was the daughter of a Romanian Transylvania
n activist who had fled from Austria-Hungary
to the Kingdom of Romania
. The lineage was confirmed by literary critic George Călinescu
as part of a short biographical essay.
Geo Bogza, who indicated that he was baptized Romanian Orthodox
, also stressed that his given name, Gheorghe, had been turned into the hypocoristic
Geo while he was still a child, and that he had come to prefer the shortened form. During the early stages of his career, he is known to have signed writings with the name George Bogza (George being a variant of Gheorghe).
Bogza attended school in Ploieşti
and trained as a sailor at the Naval Academy
in Constanţa
, but never sought employment in the Romanian Naval Forces
. Until the age of 28, he made part of his income as a sailor on a commercial vessel. He returned to his native Prahova
, lived in Buştenari, and eventually settled in Bucharest
.
In 1927, he made his debut in poetry, writing for the Prahova-based modernist
magazine Câmpina, which was edited by poet Alexandru Tudor-Miu. The following year, he contributed to Saşa Pană
's avant-garde magazine unu
(also known as Unu), edited a short-lived Surrealist and anti-bourgeois magazine that drew inspiration from Urmuz
(and was titled after that writer), and published in Tudor Arghezi
's Bilete de Papagal
. Arghezi admired the younger writer, and he is credited with having suggested the name Urmuz for the magazine.
During that period, Geo Bogza became one of the most recognizable young rebellious authors, a category that also included, among others, Marcel Avramescu, Gherasim Luca
, Paul Păun
, Constantin Nisipeanu and Sesto Pals. In time, he became a noted contributor to the leftist and socialist
press, and one of the most respected Romanian authors of reportage prose. One of his articles-manifesto
s read: "I always had the uncomfortable impression that any beauty may enter the consciousness of a bourgeois only on all fours [italics in the original]." Writing for Urmuz, he condemned convention as "a false sun" and "intellectual acrobatics", depicting his magazine as "a lash that whips the mind".
Winning the praise of his fellow young authors Stephan Roll and Ilarie Voronca
, he was criticized by prominent literary figure George Călinescu, who accused him of "priapism
", based on Bogza's irreverent tone and erotic
imagery. It was also during the late 1920s that Bogza began touring the Prahova Valley
, becoming a close observer of local life in the shadow of the oil industry. He had a conflict with Tudor-Miu in August 1928, after the latter modified a poem Bogza sent to be published in Câmpina—the two reconciled later in the year, and later wrote a special poem for its one-year anniversary. His collaboration with Pană, Roll, Ion Vinea, Simion Stolnicu and others led to the ad hoc establishment of a literary group, which was defined by writer and critic Camil Petrescu
as "the revolutionaries from Câmpina
" (after the town where Bogza spend much of his time). Among other writers who joined Bogza in publishing the five issues of Urmuz were Voronca and the Dada
ist Tristan Tzara
.
He also established a friendship and collaboration with the photographer Iosif Bernea and the painter Victor Brauner
, and was close to the writer and future Orthodox
hermit Nicolae Steinhardt
. After 1930, he was involved in polemics with traditionalist young authors, including poetess Otilia Cazimir (hom he accused of writing with "hypocrisy") and members of the eclectic grouping known as Criterion (who, he claimed, were guilty of "ridicule and opportunism"). His relations with Arghezi also grew more distant, after Bogza expressed disapproval for Arghezi's 1930 decision to collaborate with the Romanian Radio
—Geo Bogza drew attention to his older colleague's previous public statements, in which he had criticized the national station on various grounds.
Early in his youth, while in Buştenari, Geo Bogza met and fell in love with Elisabeta (also known as Bunty), whom he married soon after. Their love affair was celebrated by Bogza's friend Nicolae Tzone, who also stated that she "lived simply and without any sort of commotion in his shadow". Initially, the couple lived in Saşa Pană's Bucharest house, and, for a while afterwards, at the headquarters of unu. In old age, he spoke of one of these lodgings as "an unsanitary loft, where one would either suffocate from the heat or starve with cold."
in 1930, for his Sex Diary, and was temporarily held in Văcăreşti prison, until being acquitted
. At the time, he responded to the hostile atmosphere by publishing an article in unu which included the words "ACADEMICIANS, SHAVE YOUR BRAINS! [capitals in the original]" (also rendered as "disinfect your brains!"). In reference to his trial, the magazine unu wrote: "Bogza will be tried and receive punishment for having the imprudence of not letting himself be macerated by «proper behavior», for having dunked his arms down to the feces, for having raised them up to his nose, smelling them and then spattering all those who were dabbling with their nostrils unperceptive of his exasperated nature." Other positive reactions to his writings notably included that of teachers at a high school in Ploieşti, who invited him to attend a celebration marking the start of the school year.
Reportedly, Bogza asked to be defended by Ionel Teodoreanu
, a known writer who had training in law, but he was ultimately represented by Ionel Jianu. After his success in court, he issued business card
s reading: "GEO BOGZA/ACQUITTED/NOVEMBER 28, 1932 [capitals in the original]". Late in 1933, he edited a new magazine, titled Viaţa Imediată ("The Immediate Life"), of which only one issue was ever published. Its cover photograph showed a group of derelict workers (it was titled Melacolia celor şezând pe lângă ziduri, "The Melancholy of Those Sitting by the Walls").
The same year, he was taken into custody for a second time, after publishing his Offensive Poem—which depicted his sexual encounter with a servant girl—and was sentenced to six days in jail; in 1937, at the same time as H. Bonciu
, Bogza again served time for Offensive Poem, after the matter was brought up by Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voineşti on behalf of the Romanian Academy
. Similar demands for punishment were voiced by historian Nicolae Iorga
and by the poet and fascist
politician Octavian Goga
. Bogza was frequently attacked by Iorga's nationalist
magazine Cuget Clar. During the same period, his friends and fellow Surrealists Luca and Pals were also jailed on similar charges, after they were denounced by Iorga. Other young authors imprisoned on such grounds included Păun, Aurel Baranga and Jules Perahim.
Writing for Azi
, a review edited by Zaharia Stancu
, Bogza dismissed the accusation as a cover-up for an increase in authoritarianism
as King
Carol II
was attempting to compete with the fascist Iron Guard
. The latter's press welcomed the move, and, using strong antisemitic language, instigated the authorities to intervene in similar cases of alleged obscenity
—which it viewed as characteristic of both Surrealism and the Jewish-Romanian
authors who were associated with Bogza.
In 1934, while visiting Braşov
in the company of his wife, Bogza met Max Blecher
, a young man who was beddriden by Pott's disease
and had started work on the novel later known as Întâmplări din irealitatea imediată ("Events in Immediate Unreality"). The three were to become good friends, and Bogza encouraged him to continue writing.
and his connections with the outlawed Romanian Communist Party
(PCR) made Bogza a target of the authorities' surveillance. Siguranţa Statului, the country's secret service, kept a file on him, which contained regular reports by unknown informers. One of them claims: "given that he was a communist, [Bogza] covered the puberty of his writing in the cape of social revolt."
Late in 1937, Geo Bogza traveled to Spain
as a war correspondent
in the Civil War
, supporting the Republican side
. His position of the time drew comparisons with those of other leftist intellectuals who campaigned against or fought Nationalist forces, including W. H. Auden
and George Orwell
. He was accompanied on this journey by Constantin Lucreţia Vâlceanu, who had ambitions of becoming a writer, and whom Bogza asked to contribute to a never-completed novel inspired by the war. Soon after their return, in what was a surprising gesture, Vâlceanu split with the leftist camp and rallied with the Iron Guard.
The writer had grown close to the PCR, but their relations soured ca. 1940, when Bogza was confronted with news that the Soviet Union
and Nazi Germany
had signed a non-aggression pact
. Physician G. Brătescu, who maintained contacts with Saşa Pană and other figures in the Romanian avant-garde and, like him, was then a Communist Party militant, recorded that, by 1943, there was a hint of tension between Pană and Bogza. Bogza did not however cut off links with Surrealism, and was one of the few to be acquainted with the literature of his friend Sesto Pals, which he later helped promote at home and abroad.
After World War II
and the establishment of a communist regime
, the writer adopted and included in his works the themes of Socialist Realism
, and was awarded several honors. During the 1950s, he traveled extensively to the Soviet Union and Latin America
, writing several works on topics such as Decolonization
. In 1955, Bogza became a full member of the Romanian Academy.
Historian Vladimir Tismăneanu
indicated that he was one of the few genuine left-wing intellectuals associated with the regime during the 1950s—alongside Anatol E. Baconsky
, Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Geo Dumitrescu, Petru Dumitriu, Paul Georgescu
, Gheorghe Haupt, Eugen Jebeleanu
, Mihail Petroveanu, and Nicolae Tertulian. According to Tismăneanu, this group was able to interpret the cultural policies endorsed by Romania's leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 threatened to disrupt communism in neighboring countries, when the regime turned against advocates of liberalization
such as Miron Constantinescu
, Mihail Davidoglu, Alexandru Jar, and Ion Vitner. Commenting on this, Vladimir Tismăneanu noted that Geo Bogza and all others failed to distance himself from the new repressive mood, and that the group's silence indirectly helped chief ideologist Leonte Răutu and his subordinate Mihai Beniuc
to restore effective control over the Romanian Writers' Union
.
Bogza was, however, skeptical about the goals of the PCR, and his support for it was much reduced in time. Literary historian Eugen Simion discussed the writer's effort to tone down the scale of cultural repression, and included him among the "decent men" to have done so. Bogza's brother Radu Tudoran
, an anti-communist
who had risked a prison sentence in the late 1940s after attempting to flee the country, was condemned by the communist press, and lived in relative obscurity.
In 1958, Geo Bogza himself was exposed to official criticism in the official Communist Party paper, Scînteia
, which claimed that he and other writers had been exposed to "bourgeois tendencies" and "cosmopolitanism
", no longer caring about "the desires of the Romanian people". This subject drew attention in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
, a country which, under Josip Broz Tito
, had engaged on an independent path and was criticizing the Eastern Bloc
countries for their commitment to Stalinism
(see Titoism
). In an article he contributed to Borba
, Yugoslav writer Marko Ristić, who spoke of the Romanian as "my friend [...], the nostalgic, gifted and loyal Geo Bogza", took the Scînteia campaign as proof that the Gheorghiu-Dej regime was still reminiscent of Joseph Stalin
's. Ristić, who feared the purpose and effect such attacks had on Romanian culture
, noted that Bogza had "in vain, done his utmost, by
trying to adapt himself to the circumstances, not to betray himself, even in the period when Stalin alone [...] was solving esthetic problems, appraising artistic works and giving the tone in his well-known method."
In February 1965, as Gheorghiu-Dej was succumbing to cancer, the Writers' Union Conference facilitated an unprecedented attack on Socialist Realism. This dispute saw writers attacking Union president Beniuc, who was identified with Stalinism—as a result of the confrontation, in what was an early sign of liberalization, Beniuc was dismissed from his post, and replaced with Zaharia Stancu
. According to literary historian Valeriu Râpeanu, Bogza, who attended the Conference, went so far as to demand that Beniuc's chair be burned.
. Despite his official status, Bogza himself was critical of the adoption of nationalist
themes in official discourse after the ascendancy of Nicolae Ceauşescu
in the 1960s. The new doctrine, eventually consecrated in Ceauşescu's April Theses, saw him taking the opposing side: during the early 1970s, Bogza published pieces in which he voiced covert criticism of the new policies. Tismăneanu cited him among the most important intellectuals of various backgrounds to have done so, in a class also comprising members of the Oniric
group, as well as the cultural figures Jebeleanu, Ion Caraion, Ştefan Augustin Doinaş
, Dan Hăulică, Nicolae Manolescu
, Alexandru Paleologu
, and Mircea Zaciu. His nonconformist stance drew comparisons with that assumed by his generation colleague, the ethnic Hungarian poet and prominent Writers' Union member József Méliusz. In 1976, Bogza discussed the issue of disappointment, stating: "Life is not like a tournament, but like an outage. From the first to the last day." In reference to such an attitude, which believed was related the political context, literary critic and novelist B. Elvin, himself a former leftist and dissident, saw in Bogza a symbol of "verticality, refusal, contempt".
Bogza was nonetheless often ambiguous in his relations with the authorities, while his public statements oscillated between covert satire
and open praise. Between 1966 and 1973, he was a contributor to Contemporanul
magazine, and was well known in Romania for regularly publishing short essays in that magazine (some of them were also read on national radio
). Bogza also had a permanent column in the influential magazine România Literară
. His gestures of defiance include his display of support for Lucian Pintilie
, a director whose work was being censored
. In 1968, having just seen Pintilie's subversive film The Reenactment
shortly before it was banned, Bogza scribbled in the snow set on the director's car the words: "Long live Pintilie! The humble Geo Bogza"; the statement was recorded with alarm by agents of Romania's secret police, the Securitate
, who had witnessed the incident.
In the 1970s, Bogza and several of his Writers' Union colleagues became involved in a bitter conflict with the nationalist Săptămâna magazine, which was led by novelist Eugen Barbu
(who was also one of the persons overseeing censorship in Communist Romania). In 1979, România Literară published evidence that, in his writings, Barbu had plagiarized
works of Russian literature
. Rumors spread that Geo Bogza had orchestrated the scandal, after he had been confronted with an initiative to transform the Union into a "Union of Communist Writers". The latter initiative was recorded by the Securitate, who, in a report of 1978, attributed it to Barbu and poet Adrian Păunescu
. According to various speculations made ever since, Bogza contacted one of Barbu's former protegés, who admitted that he had earlier copied texts by various authors to be selectively included in Eugen Barbu's novels.
In autumn 1980, the Securitate, was alarmed of his alleged intention to condemn the country's officials for allowing antisemitism to be expressed in the press. This came after nationalist poet Corneliu Vadim Tudor
signed an article in Săptămâna, which outraged representatives of the Jewish community
. Romania's Chief Rabbi
, Moses Rosen
, was quoted saying that Tudor's piece was evidence of "fascism
" and the prosecutable offense of "instigations to racial hatred". A Securitate note, published by Ziua
journal in 2004, claimed that Rosen was preparing to bring up for debate the issue of antisemitism in Romanian society, and depicted Bogza, alongside Jebeleanu and Dan Deşliu, as "exercising influence" over the Rabbi in order to have him "publicly demand the unmasking of «antisemitism» in the S[ocialist] R[epublic] of Romania".
(who, in 1985, was beaten to death on orders from the Securitate), as well as to filmmaker Mircea Săucan, himself an adversary of the communist regime. One theory attributes Ursu's violent death to him having refused to incriminate his writer friends during interrogations—among those whose activities may have interested the investigators were Bogza, Nina Cassian
, and Iordan Chimet
.
In late March 1989, ten months before the Romanian Revolution
overthrew communism, Bogza, together with Paleologu, Doinaş, Hăulică, Octavian Paler
, Mihail Şora, and Andrei Pleşu
, signed the Letter of the Seven, addressed to Dumitru Radu Popescu
(head of the Writers' Union) in protest over poet Mircea Dinescu
's house arrest
by the Securitate. Yosef Govrin, who served as Israel
's Ambassador to Romania during the era, commented on the document, which was sent to members of the diplomatic corps and to other circles: "Despite its restrained style, the letter sharply accused the Writers' Union for not having defended its members and for the alienation rife between Romanian culture and its themes."
During the final stages of his life, Geo Bogza granted a series of interviews to journalist Diana Turconi, who published them as Eu sunt ţinta ("I Am the Target"). He died in Bucharest, after a period during which he was interned at the local Elias Hospital.
has endured as a topic of interest, and was considered by many to have resulted in some of his best writings. Bogza was defined by art critic S. A. Mansbach as "the most scandalous of Romania's avant-garde poets and editor of and contributor to a plethora of its radical publications", while Sex Diary was argued to be "the touchstone of Romania's emerging Surrealist avant-garde". In 1992, the American
avant-garde magazine Exquisite Corpse accompanied some of his early poems with the observation "It is the younger Bogza we love."
Much of Bogza's work is related to social criticism
, reflecting his political convictions. This was the case in many of his reportage and satirical
pieces. In reference to this trait, Mihuleac commented that the 20-year-old Bogza was in some ways a predecessor of later generations of protesters, such as the American Beatnik
s and the United Kingdom
's "angry young men
". In 1932, Bogza stated: "We write not because we wish to become writers, but because we are doomed to write, just as we would be condemned to insanity, to suicide."
The young Bogza made obscenity an aesthetic credo. Shortly after his acquittal, he wrote: "In order to reach a new form of nobility, one is required, beforehand, to vaccinate one's soul with mud." He elaborated: "The word must be stripped of the unctuous senses that have come to depose themselves on it. Cleansed of ash. The flame inside kindled, for the introduction of words, like that of women, is [currently] a privilege reserved for the great landowners." Geo Bogza's spoke in defense of taboo words such as căcat ("shit") and ţâţă ("tit"), arguing that the original frankness of Romanian profanity
had been corrupted by modern society. One of his usual and highly controversial poems of the period read:
As a youth, he extended his protest to the cultural establishment as a whole—while visiting the high school in Ploieşti
, where he was supposed to address the staff, he attacked local educational institutions
for "taking care to castrate [...] the glands of any outright affirmation", and for resembling "the Bastille
". In his early prose poems
, Bogza addressed workers in the oil industry in his native Prahova, claiming to define himself in relation to their work (while still appealing to the imagery of filth). The series has been defined by critic Constantin Stănescu as poems "rehabilitating, among other things, the compromised «genre» of the social poem". One such piece, published in 1929 and titled Poem cu erou ("Poem with a Hero"), documented the unusual death of a roughneck
named Nicolae Ilie, who burned after his clothes caught fire. The incident was discussed in the press of his day, and the poet is credited with having personally aided in publicizing it. Bogza allegorically
spoke of feeling "the ţuică
and pumpkin-like" smell of Nicolae Ilie's feces "every time I raise a loaf of bread or a mug of milk to my mouth". He wrote:
He extended an appeal to the oil industry workers, in which he identify oil with foulness and with himself:
In another one of his earliest poetry works (Destrămări la ore fixe, "Unravellings at Pre-Convened Hours"), Geo Bogza elaborated on the theme of melancholy and loss:
, Bogza was credited by journalist Cătălin Mihuleac with establishing and "ennobling" the genre. He is occasionally cited alongside his contemporary F. Brunea-Fox, whose equally famous reportages were less artistic and had more to do with investigative journalism
. Mihuleac, who noted that Bogza was "unnervingly talented", also argued that: "Romanian journalism is indebted to Geo Bogza more than to anyone else."
Also according to Mihuleac, Bogza went through a radical change around 1935, when his writing turned professional and his subjects turned from "himself" to "the multitudes". This writings were eventually structured into two main series: Cartea Oltului ("The Book of the Olt River
"), and Ţări de piatră, de foc, de pământ ("Lands of Stone, Fire, Earth"). The writer traveled the land in search of subjects, and the results of these investigations were acclaimed for their power of suggestion and observation.
One of his reportages of the period notably discussed the widespread poverty he had encountered during his travels to the eastern province of Bessarabia
, and was titled Basarabia: Ţară de pământ ("Bessarabia: Land of Soil"). In it, the writer spoke of how most tailors were almost always commissioned by locals not to produce new clothes, but to mend old ones (at a time when the larger part of family incomes in the region were spent on food and clothing). He toured the impoverished areas of Bucharest
, recording activities around the city landfill
and the lives of dog catchers who gassed their victims and turned them into cheap soap.
George Călinescu
proposed that, "although written in the most normal of syntaxes", his pieces were still connected with avant-garde styles such as Surrealism
and Dada
, and answered to a call issued by unus Paul Sterian to seek life at its purest. In parallel, Călinescu contended, Bogza's path mirrored those of Italian
Futurists
such as Ardengo Soffici
and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
and that of the French
Hussards
leader Paul Morand
. A reportage authored after Bogza visited the town of Mizil
was also a study in experimental literature
. Titled 175 de minute la Mizil ("175 Minutes in Mizil"), it has been summarized as "the adventure of the banal", and, together with a satirical sketch by his predecessor Ion Luca Caragiale
, credited with having helped impress on the public Mizil's image as a place where nothing important ever happens. Similarly, his travels in Bessarabia saw him depicting Hotin
as a the epitome of desert places and Bălţi
as the source of "a pestilent stench".
In one of his satirical pieces, Bogza mocked the Romanian Post seemingly excessive regulations to have writing utensils made available for the public, but secured in place with a string:
The next stage in Bogza's literary career was described by Mihuleac as "embarrassing". This was in reference to his assimilation of communist tenets, and his willingness to offer praise to the official heroes of Communist Party
history such as Vasile Roaită
(a participant in the Griviţa Strike of 1933
). In one such article, Bogza claimed to have witnessed the sight of proletarians
who were living in "new and white-painted houses" and had manufactured business card
s for themselves, proudly advertising their qualifications in the field of work and positions in the state-run factory.
More controversial still was his agitprop
piece of 1950, Începutul epopeii ("The Start of the Epic"). The text praised the regime for designing and ordering work to begin on the Danube-Black Sea Canal
, which, in reality, was to prove one of the harshest sites for penal labor, where thousands of political prisoner
s were to be killed. Historian Adrian Cioroianu
cited the reportage, alongside Petru Dumitriu's Drum fără pulbere and other writings of the time, as an example of "mobilizing-deferential literature". He summarized the content of such texts as claiming to depict a "final battle, of mythological proportions, between the old and new Romania—offering [...] a clear prognostic in respect to who would win."
s, hid subversive messages. According to Mihuleac, the writer was critical of his own position in relation to the Communist Party and explained it as a compromise—he believed this message to be evident in Bogza's poem Treceam ("I Was Passing"):
He thus wrote a piece entitled Bau Bau (Romanian
for "Bogeyman
"), telling of how his parents encouraged him to fear things watching him from outside his window as a means of ensuring he behaved himself while they were absent—the subtext
was generally interpreted as an allegory
of Ceauşescu's anti-Soviet
policies (which attempted to prevent opposition by, among other things, alluding to the threat of Soviet intervention). At some point during the second half of 1969, instead of his usual column, Geo Bogza sent for publication a drawing of three poplar
s, with a caption which read:
The poplar metaphor was one of Bogza's favorite: he had first used it in reference to himself, as early as 1931, in an interview with Saşa Pană
. Facing a jail term for his scandalous poetry, he spoke of the tree as a symbol of both aloofness and his own fate.
His subtle technique, like similar ones developed by other România Literară
contributors, was at times detected by the regime. Thus, a secret Securitate
report of 1984, made available ten years later, read: "The present line-up of România Literară magazine is characterized by a gap between the political content of its editorials (perfectly in line [and] in which declarations of adherence are being made in respect to the state and party policies) and the content of the magazine which, of course, is different; [...] the criticism of content which is discussed on [România Literarăs] front page grows aesthetizing through the rest of the magazine."
and Surrealists. Among the most noted writers whom he aided to express themselves freely were his co-contributors Tristan Tzara
, Stephan Roll and Ilarie Voronca
, and he was also noted for being the first to publish Urmuz
's Fuchsiada (a few years after its author committed suicide). Max Blecher
also expressed gratitude to Geo and Ecaterina Bogza for helping him complete and publish Întâmplări din irealitatea imediată.
His role as critic, patron and promoter of art continued under the communist regime, and he kept a vivid interest in reviewing literature of all kinds. After the 1960s, he was involved in recuperating the Romanian avant-garde, and, together with Paul Păun
and Marcel Avramescu, helped introduce the previously unpublished works of Sesto Pals to an international audience. In 1978, he also republished his earliest poems for Urmuz, as part of the new volume Orion. His position also allowed him to extend a degree of protection to literary figures persecuted by the authorities. According to Eugen Simion, during the 1950s, a common initiative of Bogza and philosopher Tudor Vianu
attempted to rescue the academic and essayist D. D. Panaitescu from Communist imprisonment. Antonie Plămădeală
, a political prisoner
of the communist regime and future Romanian Orthodox
Metropolitan of Transylvania, credited Bogza and the writer and theologian Gala Galaction
with having insured recognition for his debut novel in spite of political obstacles.
The relevancy of Bogza's dissidence, like the similar attitudes of Eugen Jebeleanu
, Marin Preda
and others, was nonetheless debated by author Gheorghe Grigurcu, who described it as a "coffee-house opposition". Grigurcu, who placed stress on the closeness between these writers and dissenting but high-ranking Communist Party activists such as Gheorghe Rădulescu and George Macovescu
, called attention to the fact that Bogza had refused to sign his name to an appeal for radical change, drafted by novelist Paul Goma
in 1977. Reportedly, when confronted with Goma's grassroots movement, Geo Bogza had asked: "Who is this Goma person?"
Bogza often credited real-life events and persons in his poetry. Alongside Nicolae Ilie and his death, his early poems make direct references to Alexandru Tudor-Miu, to the poets Simion Stolnicu and Virgil Gheorghiu, and to Voronca's wife, Colomba. During the same stage of his career, Geo Bogza dedicated a short piece to the 19th century writer Mihai Eminescu
, to whose sad poems he attributed his own momentary adolescent urge to commit suicide—as an old man, he would depose flowers at Eminescu's statue in front of the Romanian Athenaeum
each January 15 (the poet's birthday). A short essay he authored late in life, titled Ogarii ("The Borzois"), drew a comparison between the breed, seen as an example of elegance, and the eccentric Symbolist
author Mateiu Caragiale
.
The innovative reportages he authored later in life were credited with setting guidelines and opening the road for a series of notable authors, among whom were Paul Anghel...Te Deum la Grivita, Traian T. Coşovei, Ioan Grigorescu and Ilie Purcaru. Cornel Nistorescu
, himself a columnist and author of reportage, is also seen as one of Bogza and F. Brunea-Fox's disciples. Critics have noted the potential impact his early poetry has or may have on Postmodern literature
in Romania. Several commentators, including Nicolae Manolescu
, have traced a connection between his poems of the 1920s and 1930s and many of those authored by Florian Iaru between 1982 and the early 2000s.
In contrast to both his status as a former political prisoner and his new-found Christian faith, Nicolae Steinhardt
continued to value Bogza's contributions, and, in 1981, authored an essay dedicated to his work and their friendship. Titled Geo Bogza - un poet al Efectelor, Exaltării, Grandiosului, Solemnităţii, Exuberanţei şi Patetismului ("Geo Bogza - a Poet of Impressions, Exaltation, Grandeur, Solemnity, Exuberance and Pathetism") and edited by writer Mircea Sântimbreanu, it was characterized by literary critic Ion Bogdan Lefter as a "eulogy
[...] to their shared youth, seen as a paradise of liberty". G. Brătescu, who was himself involved in editing and claims to have aided in publishing Steinhardt's volume, recalled being "fascinated" by both Bogza's "impertuosity", as well as by Steihardt's "art of evidencing such an impertuousity."
Sesto Pals also authored Epitaf pentru Geo Bogza ("Epitaph for Geo Bogza"), first published by Nicolae Tzone in 2001. The writer was also the subject for one of B. Elvin's essays, collected as Datoria de a ezita ("The Duty to Hesitate") and first published in 2003. In the same year, his correspondence with various Transylvania
n writers was published as Rânduri către tinerii scriitori ardeleni ("Letters to the Young Transylvanian Writers"). The relation between Bogza and Mircea Săucan served as the basis for a short work of fiction, which the latter authored and dictated as part of a 2007 book of interviews.
, which was itself the topic of scandal. The piece, defined by S. A. Mansbach as one of Brauner's "most fully realized Surrealist canvases of [the early 1930s]", depicted the subject nude, with a severed head and elongated sex organs (symbols which probably alluded to elements present in Bogza's own texts).
Bogza's novella, Sfârşitul lui Iacob Onisia ("The End of Iacob Onisia"), has served as the basis for a 1988 film, Iacob (translated into English as Jacob, or, in full, The Miseries of a Gold Miner - Jacob). A story of violent workers leading miserable lives and tempted to steal for their livelihood, it was adapted for the screen and directed by Mircea Danieliuc, and starred Dorel Vişan in the title role (other actors credited include Cecilia Bîrbora, Ion Fiscuteanu
and Dinu Apetrei). Writing for The New York Times
, American
critic Vincent Canby
described the production as "uncharacterized and murky". Nevertheless, Romanian critics saw Danieliuc's production as an accomplished piece of subversiveness, arguing that the director had used a Socialist realist pretext to comment on the conflict between the Ceauşescu regime and the Jiu Valley
miners (see Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977
). Bogza's trial has been the subject of an episode in the series Bucureşti, strict secret ("Bucharest, Top Secret"), produced by writer and political scientist Stelian Tănase
and aired by Realitatea TV
in 2007.
A school in Bucharest and one in Bălan
were named in Bogza's honor, as were a culture house and a street in Câmpina
. A memorial plaque was raised on downtown Bucharest's Ştirbei Vodă Street, at a house where he lived between 1977 and 1993. Câmpina also hosts the annual Geo Bogza Theater Festival.
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 avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
theorist, poet, and journalist, known for his left-wing and communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
political convictions. As a young man in the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, he was known as a rebel and was one of the most influential Romanian Surrealists
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. Several of his controversial poems twice led to his imprisonment on grounds of obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
, and saw him partake in the conflict between young and old Romanian writers, as well as in the confrontation between the avant-garde and the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
. At a later stage, Bogza won acclaim for his many and accomplished reportage pieces, being one of the first to cultivate the genre in Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, and using it as a venue for social criticism
Social criticism
The term social criticism locates the reasons for malicious conditions of the society in flawed social structures. People adhering to a social critics aim at practical solutions by specific measures, often consensual reform but sometimes also by powerful revolution.- European roots :Religious...
.
After the establishment of Communist Romania
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...
, Bogza adapted his style to Socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
, and became one of the most important literary figures to have serviced the government. With time, he became a subtle critic of the regime, especially under the rule of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
, when he adopted a dissident position. Beginning in the late 1960s, he publicized his uncomfortable attitudes as subtext
Subtext
Subtext or undertone is content of a book, play, musical work, film, video game, or television series which is not announced explicitly by the characters but is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts...
to apparently innocent articles and essays. An editor for Viaţa Românească
Viata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...
and România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...
magazines, Geo Bogza was one of the leaders of the Romanian Writers' Union and a member of the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
.
He was the older brother of Radu Tudoran
Radu Tudoran
- Biography :He was born in Blejoi, judeţul Prahova on March 8th, 1910 as Nicolae Bogza, the younger brother of Geo Bogza, and son of Alexandru Bogza....
, himself a known writer, whose political choices were in stark contrast with those of Geo Bogza, and made Tudoran the object of communist persecution. Bogza had lifelong contacts with some representatives of the Romanian avant-garde, among them Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
, Max Blecher
Max Blecher
Max Blecher was a writer from Romania.His father was a well-to-do Jewish merchant and the owner of a porcelain shop. He attended primary and secondary school in Roman, Romania. After receiving his baccalaureat, Blecher left for Paris to study medicine...
, Sesto Pals, Saşa Pană
Sasa Pana
Saşa Pană was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, and short story writer.-Biography:...
and Paul Păun
Paul Păun
Paul Păun or Paúl Yvenez was a Romanian Surrealist artist and writer, as well as a trained physician.-Biography:...
, and was friends with, among others, the essayist and theologian Nicolae Steinhardt
Nicolae Steinhardt
Nicolae Steinhardt was a Romanian writer, Orthodox hermit and father confessor.-Early life:...
, the dissident Gheorghe Ursu
Gheorghe Ursu
Gheorghe Emil Ursu was a Romanian construction engineer, poet, diarist and dissident. A left-wing activist and avant-garde intellectual who joined the Romanian Communist Party as a youth, he was soon after disillusioned with the Communist regime, and became one of its most outspoken critics...
and the filmmaker Mircea Săucan.
Early years and the avant-garde
Geo Bogza was born in BlejoiBlejoi
Blejoi is a commune in Prahova County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Blejoi, Ploieştiori and Ţânţăreni.-Natives:* Geo Bogza* Radu Tudoran...
, Prahova County
Prahova County
Prahova is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploieşti.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 829,945 and the population density was 176/km². It is Romania's most populated county, having a population density double than the country's mean...
. At one point during the late 1930s, Bogza was irritated after reading an article authored by one of his fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
adversaries, Alexandru Hodoş (later a member of the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
). Hodoş implied that Bogza was not an ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, which prompted the latter to elaborate on his origins and his name. Bogza refuted the allegation by indicating that his father was originally from the village of Bogzeşti, in Secuieni
Secuieni, Neamt
Secuieni is a commune in Neamţ County, Romania. It is composed of nine villages: Başta, Bârjoveni, Bogzeşti, Butnăreşti, Giuleşti, Prăjeşti, Secuieni, Secuienii Noi and Unceşti....
, Neamţ County
Neamt County
Neamț is a county of Romania, in the historic region of Moldavia, with the county seat at Piatra Neamț. It has three communes, Bicaz-Chei, Bicazu Ardelean and Dămuc in Transylvania.-Demographics:...
, and that his mother (née Georgescu) was the daughter of a Romanian Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n activist who had fled from Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
to the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
. The lineage was confirmed by literary critic George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
as part of a short biographical essay.
Geo Bogza, who indicated that he was baptized Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
, also stressed that his given name, Gheorghe, had been turned into the hypocoristic
Hypocoristic
A hypocorism is a shorter form of a word or given name, for example, when used in more intimate situations as a nickname or term of endearment.- Derivation :Hypocorisms are often generated as:...
Geo while he was still a child, and that he had come to prefer the shortened form. During the early stages of his career, he is known to have signed writings with the name George Bogza (George being a variant of Gheorghe).
Bogza attended school in Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
and trained as a sailor at the Naval Academy
Mircea cel Batrân Naval Academy
The Mircea cel Bătrân Naval Academy is a higher education institution based in the Black Sea port of Constanţa that trains officers for the Romanian Naval Forces, as well as maritime officers and engineers for the merchant marine.-History:...
in Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, but never sought employment in the Romanian Naval Forces
Romanian Naval Forces
The Romanian Navy is the navy branch of the Romanian Armed Forces; it operates in the Black Sea and on the Danube.-History:-Development of the Romanian Navy:The Romanian Navy has been founded in 1860 as a river flotilla on the Danube...
. Until the age of 28, he made part of his income as a sailor on a commercial vessel. He returned to his native Prahova
Prahova County
Prahova is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploieşti.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 829,945 and the population density was 176/km². It is Romania's most populated county, having a population density double than the country's mean...
, lived in Buştenari, and eventually 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....
.
In 1927, he made his debut in poetry, writing for the Prahova-based modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
magazine Câmpina, which was edited by poet Alexandru Tudor-Miu. The following year, he contributed to Saşa Pană
Sasa Pana
Saşa Pană was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, and short story writer.-Biography:...
's avant-garde magazine unu
Unu
unu was the name of an avant-garde art and literary magazine, published in Romania from April 1928 to September 1935. Edited by writers Saşa Pană and Moldov, it was dedicated to Dada and Surrealism....
(also known as Unu), edited a short-lived Surrealist and anti-bourgeois magazine that drew inspiration from Urmuz
Urmuz
Urmuz was a Romanian writer, lawyer and civil servant, who became a cult hero in Romania's avant-garde scene. His scattered work, consisting of absurdist short prose and poetry, opened a new genre in Romanian letters and humor, and captured the imagination of modernists for several generations...
(and was titled after that writer), and published in Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
's Bilete de Papagal
Bilete de Papagal
Bilete de Papagal was a Romanian left-wing publication edited by Tudor Arghezi, begun as a daily newspaper and soon after issued as a weekly satirical and literary magazine...
. Arghezi admired the younger writer, and he is credited with having suggested the name Urmuz for the magazine.
During that period, Geo Bogza became one of the most recognizable young rebellious authors, a category that also included, among others, Marcel Avramescu, Gherasim Luca
Gherasim Luca
Gherasim Luca was a Surrealist theorist and Romanian poet. He is frequently cited in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.- Biography :...
, Paul Păun
Paul Păun
Paul Păun or Paúl Yvenez was a Romanian Surrealist artist and writer, as well as a trained physician.-Biography:...
, Constantin Nisipeanu and Sesto Pals. In time, he became a noted contributor to the leftist and socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
press, and one of the most respected Romanian authors of reportage prose. One of his articles-manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
s read: "I always had the uncomfortable impression that any beauty may enter the consciousness of a bourgeois only on all fours [italics in the original]." Writing for Urmuz, he condemned convention as "a false sun" and "intellectual acrobatics", depicting his magazine as "a lash that whips the mind".
Winning the praise of his fellow young authors Stephan Roll and Ilarie Voronca
Ilarie Voronca
Ilarie Voronca was a Romanian-French avant-garde poet and essayist.Voronca was of Jewish ethnicity...
, he was criticized by prominent literary figure George Călinescu, who accused him of "priapism
Priapism
Priapism is a potentially harmful and painful medical condition in which the erect penis or clitoris does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours. There are two types of priapism: low-flow and high-flow. Low-flow...
", based on Bogza's irreverent tone and erotic
Eroticism
Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love...
imagery. It was also during the late 1920s that Bogza began touring the Prahova Valley
Prahova Valley
Prahova Valley is the valley where the Prahova river makes its way between the Bucegi and the Baiu Mountains, in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania. It is a tourist region, situated about 100 km north of the capital city of Bucharest.Geographically, the Prahova river separates the Eastern...
, becoming a close observer of local life in the shadow of the oil industry. He had a conflict with Tudor-Miu in August 1928, after the latter modified a poem Bogza sent to be published in Câmpina—the two reconciled later in the year, and later wrote a special poem for its one-year anniversary. His collaboration with Pană, Roll, Ion Vinea, Simion Stolnicu and others led to the ad hoc establishment of a literary group, which was defined by writer and critic Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu was a Romanian playwright, novelist, philosopher and poet. He marked the end of the traditional novel era and laid the foundation of the modern novel era.- Life :...
as "the revolutionaries from Câmpina
Câmpina
Câmpina is a city in Prahova county, Romania, north of the county seat Ploieşti, located on the main route between Wallachia and Transylvania. In 2003, the city celebrated 500 years since its founding.-History:...
" (after the town where Bogza spend much of his time). Among other writers who joined Bogza in publishing the five issues of Urmuz were Voronca and the Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ist Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
.
He also established a friendship and collaboration with the photographer Iosif Bernea and the painter Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
, and was close to the writer and future Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
hermit Nicolae Steinhardt
Nicolae Steinhardt
Nicolae Steinhardt was a Romanian writer, Orthodox hermit and father confessor.-Early life:...
. After 1930, he was involved in polemics with traditionalist young authors, including poetess Otilia Cazimir (hom he accused of writing with "hypocrisy") and members of the eclectic grouping known as Criterion (who, he claimed, were guilty of "ridicule and opportunism"). His relations with Arghezi also grew more distant, after Bogza expressed disapproval for Arghezi's 1930 decision to collaborate with the Romanian Radio
Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company , informally referred to as Radio Romania , is the public radio broadcaster in Romania. It operates four national radio channels, and, under the Radio România Regional umbrella, eleven regional radio stations. The four national radio channels are: Radio...
—Geo Bogza drew attention to his older colleague's previous public statements, in which he had criticized the national station on various grounds.
Early in his youth, while in Buştenari, Geo Bogza met and fell in love with Elisabeta (also known as Bunty), whom he married soon after. Their love affair was celebrated by Bogza's friend Nicolae Tzone, who also stated that she "lived simply and without any sort of commotion in his shadow". Initially, the couple lived in Saşa Pană's Bucharest house, and, for a while afterwards, at the headquarters of unu. In old age, he spoke of one of these lodgings as "an unsanitary loft, where one would either suffocate from the heat or starve with cold."
Trials and jail terms
Bogza's work was at the center of scandals in the 1930s: he was first arrested on charges of having produced pornographyPornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
in 1930, for his Sex Diary, and was temporarily held in Văcăreşti prison, until being acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
. At the time, he responded to the hostile atmosphere by publishing an article in unu which included the words "ACADEMICIANS, SHAVE YOUR BRAINS! [capitals in the original]" (also rendered as "disinfect your brains!"). In reference to his trial, the magazine unu wrote: "Bogza will be tried and receive punishment for having the imprudence of not letting himself be macerated by «proper behavior», for having dunked his arms down to the feces, for having raised them up to his nose, smelling them and then spattering all those who were dabbling with their nostrils unperceptive of his exasperated nature." Other positive reactions to his writings notably included that of teachers at a high school in Ploieşti, who invited him to attend a celebration marking the start of the school year.
Reportedly, Bogza asked to be defended by Ionel Teodoreanu
Ionel Teodoreanu
Ionel Teodoreanu was a Romanian novelist and lawyer. He is mostly remembered for his books on the themes of childhood and adolescence.-Biography:...
, a known writer who had training in law, but he was ultimately represented by Ionel Jianu. After his success in court, he issued business card
Business card
Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company affiliation and contact information such as street addresses, telephone...
s reading: "GEO BOGZA/ACQUITTED/NOVEMBER 28, 1932 [capitals in the original]". Late in 1933, he edited a new magazine, titled Viaţa Imediată ("The Immediate Life"), of which only one issue was ever published. Its cover photograph showed a group of derelict workers (it was titled Melacolia celor şezând pe lângă ziduri, "The Melancholy of Those Sitting by the Walls").
The same year, he was taken into custody for a second time, after publishing his Offensive Poem—which depicted his sexual encounter with a servant girl—and was sentenced to six days in jail; in 1937, at the same time as H. Bonciu
H. Bonciu
H. Bonciu, or Horia Bonciu , was a Romanian novelist, poet, journalist and translator, noted especially as an atypical figure on his country's avant-garde scene...
, Bogza again served time for Offensive Poem, after the matter was brought up by Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voineşti on behalf of the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
. Similar demands for punishment were voiced by historian Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
and by the poet and fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
politician Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
. Bogza was frequently attacked by Iorga's nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
magazine Cuget Clar. During the same period, his friends and fellow Surrealists Luca and Pals were also jailed on similar charges, after they were denounced by Iorga. Other young authors imprisoned on such grounds included Păun, Aurel Baranga and Jules Perahim.
Writing for Azi
Azi (Romanian newspaper)
Azi is a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest....
, a review edited by Zaharia Stancu
Zaharia Stancu
Zaharia Stancu was a Romanian prose writer, novelist, poet, and philosopher.Stancu was born in 1902 in Salcia, a village in Teleorman County, Romania. After leaving school at the age of thirteen he worked at various jobs. In 1921, with the help of Gala Galaction, he became a journalist...
, Bogza dismissed the accusation as a cover-up for an increase in authoritarianism
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
as King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
was attempting to compete with the fascist Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
. The latter's press welcomed the move, and, using strong antisemitic language, instigated the authorities to intervene in similar cases of alleged obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
—which it viewed as characteristic of both Surrealism and the Jewish-Romanian
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
authors who were associated with Bogza.
In 1934, while visiting Braşov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
in the company of his wife, Bogza met Max Blecher
Max Blecher
Max Blecher was a writer from Romania.His father was a well-to-do Jewish merchant and the owner of a porcelain shop. He attended primary and secondary school in Roman, Romania. After receiving his baccalaureat, Blecher left for Paris to study medicine...
, a young man who was beddriden by Pott's disease
Pott's disease
Pott's disease is a presentation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis that affects the spine, a kind of tuberculous arthritis of the intervertebral joints...
and had started work on the novel later known as Întâmplări din irealitatea imediată ("Events in Immediate Unreality"). The three were to become good friends, and Bogza encouraged him to continue writing.
Adoption of communism and official status
His growing sympathy for communismCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and his connections with the outlawed Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
(PCR) made Bogza a target of the authorities' surveillance. Siguranţa Statului, the country's secret service, kept a file on him, which contained regular reports by unknown informers. One of them claims: "given that he was a communist, [Bogza] covered the puberty of his writing in the cape of social revolt."
Late in 1937, Geo Bogza traveled to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
as a war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
in the Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, supporting the Republican side
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
. His position of the time drew comparisons with those of other leftist intellectuals who campaigned against or fought Nationalist forces, including W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
and George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
. He was accompanied on this journey by Constantin Lucreţia Vâlceanu, who had ambitions of becoming a writer, and whom Bogza asked to contribute to a never-completed novel inspired by the war. Soon after their return, in what was a surprising gesture, Vâlceanu split with the leftist camp and rallied with the Iron Guard.
The writer had grown close to the PCR, but their relations soured ca. 1940, when Bogza was confronted with news that the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
had signed a non-aggression pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
. Physician G. Brătescu, who maintained contacts with Saşa Pană and other figures in the Romanian avant-garde and, like him, was then a Communist Party militant, recorded that, by 1943, there was a hint of tension between Pană and Bogza. Bogza did not however cut off links with Surrealism, and was one of the few to be acquainted with the literature of his friend Sesto Pals, which he later helped promote at home and abroad.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the establishment of a 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...
, the writer adopted and included in his works the themes of Socialist Realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
, and was awarded several honors. During the 1950s, he traveled extensively to the Soviet Union and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, writing several works on topics such as Decolonization
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...
. In 1955, Bogza became a full member of the Romanian Academy.
Historian Vladimir Tismăneanu
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian and American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park...
indicated that he was one of the few genuine left-wing intellectuals associated with the regime during the 1950s—alongside Anatol E. Baconsky
Anatol E. Baconsky
Anatol E. Baconsky , also known as A. E. Bakonsky, Baconschi or Baconski, was a Romanian modernist poet, essayist, translator, novelist, publisher, literary and art critic...
, Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Geo Dumitrescu, Petru Dumitriu, Paul Georgescu
Paul Georgescu
Paul Georgescu was a Romanian literary critic, journalist, fiction writer and communist political figure. Remembered as both a main participant in the imposition of Socialist Realism in its Romanian form and a patron of dissenting modernist and postmodern literature, he began his career in...
, Gheorghe Haupt, Eugen Jebeleanu
Eugen Jebeleanu
Eugen Jebeleanu , Romanian poet, was born in Câmpina, where he attended elementary school. After graduating from high school in Braşov at age 11 in 1922, he published his first poems five years later in the literary review Viaţa literară...
, Mihail Petroveanu, and Nicolae Tertulian. According to Tismăneanu, this group was able to interpret the cultural policies endorsed by Romania's leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was the Communist leader of Romania from 1948 until his death in 1965.-Early life:Gheorghe was the son of a poor worker, Tănase Gheorghiu, and his wife Ana. Gheorghiu-Dej joined the Communist Party of Romania in 1930...
after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 threatened to disrupt communism in neighboring countries, when the regime turned against advocates of liberalization
Liberalization
In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation...
such as Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu was a Romanian communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party , as well as a Marxist sociologist, historian, academic, and journalist...
, Mihail Davidoglu, Alexandru Jar, and Ion Vitner. Commenting on this, Vladimir Tismăneanu noted that Geo Bogza and all others failed to distance himself from the new repressive mood, and that the group's silence indirectly helped chief ideologist Leonte Răutu and his subordinate Mihai Beniuc
Mihai Beniuc
Mihai Beniuc was a Romanian proletcultist poet, dramatist and novelist. He graduated from the University of Cluj in 1931 majoring in psychology, philosophy and sociology. This was reflected in his writing, particularly the novels...
to restore effective control over the Romanian Writers' Union
Writers' Union of Romania
The 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...
.
Bogza was, however, skeptical about the goals of the PCR, and his support for it was much reduced in time. Literary historian Eugen Simion discussed the writer's effort to tone down the scale of cultural repression, and included him among the "decent men" to have done so. Bogza's brother Radu Tudoran
Radu Tudoran
- Biography :He was born in Blejoi, judeţul Prahova on March 8th, 1910 as Nicolae Bogza, the younger brother of Geo Bogza, and son of Alexandru Bogza....
, an anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
who had risked a prison sentence in the late 1940s after attempting to flee the country, was condemned by the communist press, and lived in relative obscurity.
In 1958, Geo Bogza himself was exposed to official criticism in the official Communist Party paper, Scînteia
Scînteia
Scînteia was the name of two newspapers edited by Communist groups at different intervals in Romanian history...
, which claimed that he and other writers had been exposed to "bourgeois tendencies" and "cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
", no longer caring about "the desires of the Romanian people". This subject drew attention in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, a country which, under Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
, had engaged on an independent path and was criticizing the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
countries for their commitment to Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
(see Titoism
Titoism
Titoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...
). In an article he contributed to Borba
Borba (newspaper)
Borba is a Serbian newspaper, formerly the official newspaper of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia...
, Yugoslav writer Marko Ristić, who spoke of the Romanian as "my friend [...], the nostalgic, gifted and loyal Geo Bogza", took the Scînteia campaign as proof that the Gheorghiu-Dej regime was still reminiscent of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's. Ristić, who feared the purpose and effect such attacks had on Romanian culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
, noted that Bogza had "in vain, done his utmost, by
trying to adapt himself to the circumstances, not to betray himself, even in the period when Stalin alone [...] was solving esthetic problems, appraising artistic works and giving the tone in his well-known method."
In February 1965, as Gheorghiu-Dej was succumbing to cancer, the Writers' Union Conference facilitated an unprecedented attack on Socialist Realism. This dispute saw writers attacking Union president Beniuc, who was identified with Stalinism—as a result of the confrontation, in what was an early sign of liberalization, Beniuc was dismissed from his post, and replaced with Zaharia Stancu
Zaharia Stancu
Zaharia Stancu was a Romanian prose writer, novelist, poet, and philosopher.Stancu was born in 1902 in Salcia, a village in Teleorman County, Romania. After leaving school at the age of thirteen he worked at various jobs. In 1921, with the help of Gala Galaction, he became a journalist...
. According to literary historian Valeriu Râpeanu, Bogza, who attended the Conference, went so far as to demand that Beniuc's chair be burned.
In opposition to Ceauşescu
A member of the Writers' Union leadership board after 1965, he was editor of the influential literary magazine Viaţa RomâneascăViata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...
. Despite his official status, Bogza himself was critical of the adoption of nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
themes in official discourse after the ascendancy of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
in the 1960s. The new doctrine, eventually consecrated in Ceauşescu's April Theses, saw him taking the opposing side: during the early 1970s, Bogza published pieces in which he voiced covert criticism of the new policies. Tismăneanu cited him among the most important intellectuals of various backgrounds to have done so, in a class also comprising members of the Oniric
Onirism
Onirism was a surrealist Romanian literary school most popular during the 1960s, in the wake of popular uprisings in Eastern Europe. One of the techniques it employed was automatic writing....
group, as well as the cultural figures Jebeleanu, Ion Caraion, Ştefan Augustin Doinaş
Stefan Augustin Doinas
Ştefan Augustin Doinaş was a Romanian Neoclassical poet of the Communist era....
, Dan Hăulică, 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...
, Alexandru Paleologu
Alexandru Paleologu
Alexandru Paleologu was a Romanian essayist, literary critic, diplomat and politician. He is the father of historian Theodor Paleologu.-Biography:...
, and Mircea Zaciu. His nonconformist stance drew comparisons with that assumed by his generation colleague, the ethnic Hungarian poet and prominent Writers' Union member József Méliusz. In 1976, Bogza discussed the issue of disappointment, stating: "Life is not like a tournament, but like an outage. From the first to the last day." In reference to such an attitude, which believed was related the political context, literary critic and novelist B. Elvin, himself a former leftist and dissident, saw in Bogza a symbol of "verticality, refusal, contempt".
Bogza was nonetheless often ambiguous in his relations with the authorities, while his public statements oscillated between covert satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and open praise. Between 1966 and 1973, he was a contributor to 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....
magazine, and was well known in Romania for regularly publishing short essays in that magazine (some of them were also read on national radio
Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company , informally referred to as Radio Romania , is the public radio broadcaster in Romania. It operates four national radio channels, and, under the Radio România Regional umbrella, eleven regional radio stations. The four national radio channels are: Radio...
). Bogza also had a permanent column in the influential magazine România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...
. His gestures of defiance include his display of support for Lucian Pintilie
Lucian Pintilie
-Filmography:* Duminică la ora şase * Reconstituirea * Salonul numărul 6 * De ce trag clopotele, Mitică? - see also the "Portrayals and tributes" section at Mitică* Balanţa * O vară de neuitat * Prea târziu...
, a director whose work was being censored
Censorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...
. In 1968, having just seen Pintilie's subversive film The Reenactment
The Reenactment
The Reenactment is a 1968 black-and-white film by Romanian director Lucian Pintilie. It is based on a novel by Horia Pătraşcu, which in turn reflects real-life events witnessed by the author. Produced under the communist regime, which it indirectly criticizes, it is a tragicomedy about...
shortly before it was banned, Bogza scribbled in the snow set on the director's car the words: "Long live Pintilie! The humble Geo Bogza"; the statement was recorded with alarm by agents of Romania's secret police, the Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
, who had witnessed the incident.
In the 1970s, Bogza and several of his Writers' Union colleagues became involved in a bitter conflict with the nationalist Săptămâna magazine, which was led by novelist Eugen Barbu
Eugen Barbu
Eugen Barbu was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended that he plagiarized in his novel Incognito and for the anti-Semitic campaigns he initiated in the...
(who was also one of the persons overseeing censorship in Communist Romania). In 1979, România Literară published evidence that, in his writings, Barbu had plagiarized
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
works of Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
. Rumors spread that Geo Bogza had orchestrated the scandal, after he had been confronted with an initiative to transform the Union into a "Union of Communist Writers". The latter initiative was recorded by the Securitate, who, in a report of 1978, attributed it to Barbu and poet Adrian Păunescu
Adrian Paunescu
Adrian Păunescu was a Romanian poet, journalist, and politician. Though criticised for praising dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Păunescu was called "Romania's most famous poet" in a Associated Press story, quoted by the New York Times.-Life:Born in Copăceni, Bălţi County, in what is now the Republic...
. According to various speculations made ever since, Bogza contacted one of Barbu's former protegés, who admitted that he had earlier copied texts by various authors to be selectively included in Eugen Barbu's novels.
In autumn 1980, the Securitate, was alarmed of his alleged intention to condemn the country's officials for allowing antisemitism to be expressed in the press. This came after nationalist poet Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...
signed an article in Săptămâna, which outraged representatives of the Jewish community
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
. Romania's Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
, Moses Rosen
Moses Rosen
Moses Rosen was Chief Rabbi of RomanianJewry between 1948–1994 and president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania between 1964-1994...
, was quoted saying that Tudor's piece was evidence of "fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
" and the prosecutable offense of "instigations to racial hatred". A Securitate note, published by Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...
journal in 2004, claimed that Rosen was preparing to bring up for debate the issue of antisemitism in Romanian society, and depicted Bogza, alongside Jebeleanu and Dan Deşliu, as "exercising influence" over the Rabbi in order to have him "publicly demand the unmasking of «antisemitism» in the S[ocialist] R[epublic] of Romania".
End of communism and final years
Bogza was also close to the outspoken dissident Gheorghe UrsuGheorghe Ursu
Gheorghe Emil Ursu was a Romanian construction engineer, poet, diarist and dissident. A left-wing activist and avant-garde intellectual who joined the Romanian Communist Party as a youth, he was soon after disillusioned with the Communist regime, and became one of its most outspoken critics...
(who, in 1985, was beaten to death on orders from the Securitate), as well as to filmmaker Mircea Săucan, himself an adversary of the communist regime. One theory attributes Ursu's violent death to him having refused to incriminate his writer friends during interrogations—among those whose activities may have interested the investigators were Bogza, Nina Cassian
Nina Cassian
Nina Cassian is a Romanian poet, composer, journalist and film critic.. , The Independent She is noted for her translating abilities, and has rendered into Romanian the works of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Christian Morgenstern, Yiannis Ritsos, and Paul Celan...
, and Iordan Chimet
Iordan Chimet
Iordan Chimet was a Romanian poet, children's writer and essayist, whose work was inspired by Surrealism and Onirism. He is also known as a memoirist, theater, art and film critic, book publisher and translator...
.
In late March 1989, ten months before the Romanian Revolution
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...
overthrew communism, Bogza, together with Paleologu, Doinaş, Hăulică, Octavian Paler
Octavian Paler
Octavian Paler was a Romanian writer, journalist, politician in Communist Romania, and civil society activist in post-1989 Romania.-Biography:Octavian Paler was born in Lisa, Braşov Country.He was educated at Spiru Haret High School in Bucharest...
, Mihail Şora, and Andrei Pleşu
Andrei Plesu
Andrei Gabriel Pleşu is a Romanian philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic, and politician.- Biography :Born in Bucharest, the son of Radu Pleşu, a surgeon and Zoe Pleşu , he spent much of his early youth in the country side...
, signed the Letter of the Seven, addressed to Dumitru Radu Popescu
Dumitru Radu Popescu
Dumitru Radu Popescu is a Romanian novelist, poet, dramatist, essayist, short story writer, and formerly communist politician. A former member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party , he is a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy and was, between 1980 and 1990, Chairman of...
(head of the Writers' Union) in protest over poet Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu is a Romanian poet, journalist and editor.He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ştefan Dinescu, a metalworker and Aurelia . Dinescu studied at the Faculty of Journalism of the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, and was considered a gifted young poet during his youth, with several poetry...
's house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
by the Securitate. Yosef Govrin, who served as Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's Ambassador to Romania during the era, commented on the document, which was sent to members of the diplomatic corps and to other circles: "Despite its restrained style, the letter sharply accused the Writers' Union for not having defended its members and for the alienation rife between Romanian culture and its themes."
During the final stages of his life, Geo Bogza granted a series of interviews to journalist Diana Turconi, who published them as Eu sunt ţinta ("I Am the Target"). He died in Bucharest, after a period during which he was interned at the local Elias Hospital.
Avant-garde aesthetics
Geo Bogza's lifelong but uneven involvement with SurrealismSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
has endured as a topic of interest, and was considered by many to have resulted in some of his best writings. Bogza was defined by art critic S. A. Mansbach as "the most scandalous of Romania's avant-garde poets and editor of and contributor to a plethora of its radical publications", while Sex Diary was argued to be "the touchstone of Romania's emerging Surrealist avant-garde". In 1992, the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
avant-garde magazine Exquisite Corpse accompanied some of his early poems with the observation "It is the younger Bogza we love."
Much of Bogza's work is related to social criticism
Social criticism
The term social criticism locates the reasons for malicious conditions of the society in flawed social structures. People adhering to a social critics aim at practical solutions by specific measures, often consensual reform but sometimes also by powerful revolution.- European roots :Religious...
, reflecting his political convictions. This was the case in many of his reportage and satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
pieces. In reference to this trait, Mihuleac commented that the 20-year-old Bogza was in some ways a predecessor of later generations of protesters, such as the American Beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
s and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's "angry young men
Angry young men
The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...
". In 1932, Bogza stated: "We write not because we wish to become writers, but because we are doomed to write, just as we would be condemned to insanity, to suicide."
The young Bogza made obscenity an aesthetic credo. Shortly after his acquittal, he wrote: "In order to reach a new form of nobility, one is required, beforehand, to vaccinate one's soul with mud." He elaborated: "The word must be stripped of the unctuous senses that have come to depose themselves on it. Cleansed of ash. The flame inside kindled, for the introduction of words, like that of women, is [currently] a privilege reserved for the great landowners." Geo Bogza's spoke in defense of taboo words such as căcat ("shit") and ţâţă ("tit"), arguing that the original frankness of Romanian profanity
Romanian profanity
Romanian profanity refers to a set of words considered blasphemous or inflammatory in the Romanian language.Romanian is considered to have a huge set of inflammatory terms and phrases...
had been corrupted by modern society. One of his usual and highly controversial poems of the period read:
Adunaţi pe întâiul meridian al sexului proxeneţii continentelor au hotărât să aleagă marele mongol al vaginurilor Pentru cele mai frumoase fete ale popoarelor ziarele continentale au întocmit elogii pe mii de coloane Pentru bijuteria vaginului premiat miliardarii continentelor îşi ascut în umbră phalusul lor de aur. |
Gathered on the first meridian of sex the pimps of the continents have decided to elect a great mogul of the vaginae For the most beautiful girls of the peoples the continental newspapers have composed eulogies on thousands of columns For the jewel of the prized vagina the billionaires of the continents sharpen their golden phallus in the shadows. |
As a youth, he extended his protest to the cultural establishment as a whole—while visiting the high school in Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
, where he was supposed to address the staff, he attacked local educational institutions
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
for "taking care to castrate [...] the glands of any outright affirmation", and for resembling "the Bastille
Bastille
The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. The Bastille was built in response to the English threat to the city of...
". In his early prose poems
Prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery and emotional effects.-Characteristics:Prose poetry can be considered either primarily poetry or prose, or a separate genre altogether...
, Bogza addressed workers in the oil industry in his native Prahova, claiming to define himself in relation to their work (while still appealing to the imagery of filth). The series has been defined by critic Constantin Stănescu as poems "rehabilitating, among other things, the compromised «genre» of the social poem". One such piece, published in 1929 and titled Poem cu erou ("Poem with a Hero"), documented the unusual death of a roughneck
Roughneck
Roughneck is a slang term for a person whose occupation is hard-manual labour, typically in a dangerous working environment. The term applies across a number of industries, but is most commonly associated with oil rigs...
named Nicolae Ilie, who burned after his clothes caught fire. The incident was discussed in the press of his day, and the poet is credited with having personally aided in publicizing it. Bogza allegorically
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
spoke of feeling "the ţuică
Tuica
Ţuică is a traditional Romanian spirit of somewhere in between 45%-60% alcohol by volume. It is usually made from plums.Ţuică is the official name for the drink when it is prepared only from plums...
and pumpkin-like" smell of Nicolae Ilie's feces "every time I raise a loaf of bread or a mug of milk to my mouth". He wrote:
Mă rog de tine, Nicolae Ilie, mântuieşte-mă de cumplita duhoare putrezeşte mai curând topeşte-te în pământ şi rămâi numai oase albe cum se cuvine unui martir. |
I pray of thee, Nicolae Ilie, deliver me from the awful stench putrefy quicker melt in the earth and remain just white bones as is befitting of a martyr. |
He extended an appeal to the oil industry workers, in which he identify oil with foulness and with himself:
Eu, care sunt mârşav şi violent, şi care asemeni dealurilor petrolifere am mocnit întotdeauna ceva groaznic în măruntaiele mele eu, care pângăresc tot ce ating eu, care asemeni petrolului sunt cum nu se poate mai pătimaş şi izbucnesc din mine şi nu-mi pasă de prăpădul pe care îl aduc în lume. Eu, acesta, vă voi vorbi despre petrol şi crimele lui. |
I, who am black and ugly, who, like the oil-bearing hills, have always had something horrible smoldering in my innards, I, who soil and destroy everything I touch, who am as foul, fervent and ignorant as oil and, like it, explode without caring about the calamity my words bring into the world. That's me. Now I will tell you about oil and its crimes. |
In another one of his earliest poetry works (Destrămări la ore fixe, "Unravellings at Pre-Convened Hours"), Geo Bogza elaborated on the theme of melancholy and loss:
Mari, ca şi mici, ne paşte acelaşi program; un clopoţel suna atunci la ora de geografie; azi clopotele catedralei în aer se destram se tânguiesc chemând, la ora de melancolie. Mă doare caietul pe care m-ai iscălit tu în el am vrut să conturez un suflet nebulos – dacă vei bate la uşe – eu am să strig: NU! fiindcă m-ai găsi împrăştiat, în ţăndări, pe jos. |
Big and small alike, we are destined to the same program; a school bell was sounding the geography class; nowadays the cathedral bells decompose in the air they bewail calling, to the melancholy class. My notebook that you signed hurts me presently in it, I wished to contour a nebulous soul —if you should knock on the door—I will shout: NO! because you would find me scattered, splintered, on the ground. |
Reportage and agitprop
One of the first and most acclaimed authors of reportage in Romanian literatureLiterature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, Bogza was credited by journalist Cătălin Mihuleac with establishing and "ennobling" the genre. He is occasionally cited alongside his contemporary F. Brunea-Fox, whose equally famous reportages were less artistic and had more to do with investigative journalism
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
. Mihuleac, who noted that Bogza was "unnervingly talented", also argued that: "Romanian journalism is indebted to Geo Bogza more than to anyone else."
Also according to Mihuleac, Bogza went through a radical change around 1935, when his writing turned professional and his subjects turned from "himself" to "the multitudes". This writings were eventually structured into two main series: Cartea Oltului ("The Book of the Olt River
Olt River
The Olt River is a river in Romania. It is the longest river flowing exclusively through Romania. Its source is in the Hăşmaş Mountains of the eastern Carpathian Mountains, near the village Bălan. It flows through the Romanian counties Harghita, Covasna, Braşov, Sibiu, Vâlcea and Olt...
"), and Ţări de piatră, de foc, de pământ ("Lands of Stone, Fire, Earth"). The writer traveled the land in search of subjects, and the results of these investigations were acclaimed for their power of suggestion and observation.
One of his reportages of the period notably discussed the widespread poverty he had encountered during his travels to the eastern province of Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, and was titled Basarabia: Ţară de pământ ("Bessarabia: Land of Soil"). In it, the writer spoke of how most tailors were almost always commissioned by locals not to produce new clothes, but to mend old ones (at a time when the larger part of family incomes in the region were spent on food and clothing). He toured the impoverished areas of 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....
, recording activities around the city landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
and the lives of dog catchers who gassed their victims and turned them into cheap soap.
George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
proposed that, "although written in the most normal of syntaxes", his pieces were still connected with avant-garde styles such as Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
, and answered to a call issued by unus Paul Sterian to seek life at its purest. In parallel, Călinescu contended, Bogza's path mirrored those of Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Futurists
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
such as Ardengo Soffici
Ardengo Soffici
Ardengo Soffici , was an Italian writer, painter and Fascist intellectual.-Life:Soffici was born in Rignano sull'Arno, near Florence...
and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement, and a fascist ideologue.-Childhood and adolescence:...
and that of the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Hussards
Hussards (literary movement)
The Hussards was a French literary movement in the 1950s which opposed Existentialism and the figure of the politically engaged intellectual as personified by Jean-Paul Sartre.-Origins:...
leader Paul Morand
Paul Morand
Paul Morand was a French diplomat, novelist, playwright and poet, considered an early Modernist.He was a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies...
. A reportage authored after Bogza visited the town of Mizil
Mizil
Mizil is a town in Prahova County, Romania. Located in the southeastern part of the county, it lies along the road between the cities of Ploieşti and Buzău, and to the northeast of the national capital, Bucharest. Its position led it to become a thriving market town beginning in the 18th century,...
was also a study in experimental literature
Experimental literature
Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...
. Titled 175 de minute la Mizil ("175 Minutes in Mizil"), it has been summarized as "the adventure of the banal", and, together with a satirical sketch by his predecessor Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
, credited with having helped impress on the public Mizil's image as a place where nothing important ever happens. Similarly, his travels in Bessarabia saw him depicting Hotin
Khotyn
Khotyn is a city in Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine, and is the administrative center of Khotyn Raion within the oblast, and is located south-west of Kamianets-Podilskyi. According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, it has a population of 11,124...
as a the epitome of desert places and Bălţi
Balti
Balti can refer to:* Balti language, a language spoken in Baltistan in Pakistan and Ladakh in Kashmir* Balti people, Muslims of Ladakhi/Tibetan origin from Baltistan in Pakistan and Ladakh in Kashmir...
as the source of "a pestilent stench".
In one of his satirical pieces, Bogza mocked the Romanian Post seemingly excessive regulations to have writing utensils made available for the public, but secured in place with a string:
"A million penholders stolen in Romania would almost be an act of culture. And one would [consequently] forget the degrading spectacle of people writing with chained penholders. Of what importance would any loss be, compared with the beauty of penholders having been set free?"
The next stage in Bogza's literary career was described by Mihuleac as "embarrassing". This was in reference to his assimilation of communist tenets, and his willingness to offer praise to the official heroes of Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
history such as Vasile Roaită
Vasile Roaită
Vasile Roaită was a Romanian railway worker for Căile Ferate Române, shot during the Griviţa Strike of 1933 and later touted as a proletarian hero under the Communist regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.-Notes:...
(a participant in the Griviţa Strike of 1933
Grivita Strike of 1933
The Grivița Strike of 1933 was a railway strike which was started at the Grivița Workshops, Bucharest, Romania, on 16 February 1933 by workers of Căile Ferate Române . The strike was brought about by the increasingly poor working conditions of railway employees in the context of the worldwide Great...
). In one such article, Bogza claimed to have witnessed the sight of proletarians
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
who were living in "new and white-painted houses" and had manufactured business card
Business card
Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company affiliation and contact information such as street addresses, telephone...
s for themselves, proudly advertising their qualifications in the field of work and positions in the state-run factory.
More controversial still was his agitprop
Agitprop
Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....
piece of 1950, Începutul epopeii ("The Start of the Epic"). The text praised the regime for designing and ordering work to begin on the Danube-Black Sea Canal
Danube-Black Sea Canal
The Danube – Black Sea Canal is a canal in Romania which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube to Agigea and Năvodari on the Black Sea...
, which, in reality, was to prove one of the harshest sites for penal labor, where thousands of political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s were to be killed. Historian Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Mihai Cioroianu is a Romanian historian, politician, journalist, and essayist. A lecturer for the History Department at the University of Bucharest, he is the author of several books dealing with Romanian history...
cited the reportage, alongside Petru Dumitriu's Drum fără pulbere and other writings of the time, as an example of "mobilizing-deferential literature". He summarized the content of such texts as claiming to depict a "final battle, of mythological proportions, between the old and new Romania—offering [...] a clear prognostic in respect to who would win."
Subtle dissent
During the Ceauşescu years, Bogza developed a unique style, which, under the cover of apparently insignificant and docile metaphorMetaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
s, hid subversive messages. According to Mihuleac, the writer was critical of his own position in relation to the Communist Party and explained it as a compromise—he believed this message to be evident in Bogza's poem Treceam ("I Was Passing"):
Treceam printre tigri Şi le aruncam garoafe Treceam printre leoparzi Şi le aruncam crizanteme Treceam printre gheparzi Şi le aruncam trandafiri Iar ei, cuprinşi de perplexitate Mă lăsau să trec mai departe. |
I was passing among tigers And was throwing them carnations I was passing among leopards And was throwing them chrysanthemums I was passing among cheetahs And was throwing them roses And they, taken over by perplexity Allowed me to move on. |
He thus wrote a piece entitled Bau Bau (Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
for "Bogeyman
Bogeyman
A bogeyman is an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten children into compliant behaviour...
"), telling of how his parents encouraged him to fear things watching him from outside his window as a means of ensuring he behaved himself while they were absent—the subtext
Subtext
Subtext or undertone is content of a book, play, musical work, film, video game, or television series which is not announced explicitly by the characters but is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts...
was generally interpreted as an allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
of Ceauşescu's anti-Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
policies (which attempted to prevent opposition by, among other things, alluding to the threat of Soviet intervention). At some point during the second half of 1969, instead of his usual column, Geo Bogza sent for publication a drawing of three poplar
Poplar
Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar , aspen, and cottonwood....
s, with a caption which read:
"The line of poplars is above is meant to suggest not just the beauty of this autumn, but also my sympathy towards all things having a certain height and a verticality."
The poplar metaphor was one of Bogza's favorite: he had first used it in reference to himself, as early as 1931, in an interview with Saşa Pană
Sasa Pana
Saşa Pană was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, and short story writer.-Biography:...
. Facing a jail term for his scandalous poetry, he spoke of the tree as a symbol of both aloofness and his own fate.
His subtle technique, like similar ones developed by other România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...
contributors, was at times detected by the regime. Thus, a secret Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
report of 1984, made available ten years later, read: "The present line-up of România Literară magazine is characterized by a gap between the political content of its editorials (perfectly in line [and] in which declarations of adherence are being made in respect to the state and party policies) and the content of the magazine which, of course, is different; [...] the criticism of content which is discussed on [România Literarăs] front page grows aesthetizing through the rest of the magazine."
In literature
A central figure in Romanian literature for much of his life, Bogza took special interest in the works of other writers, and contributed to establishing their reputation. During his early period at Urmuz, he actively encouraged various avant-garde trends, and his eclectic interests, as well as his calls to intellectual rebellion played an important role in shaping the work and activity of both ConstructivistsConstructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...
and Surrealists. Among the most noted writers whom he aided to express themselves freely were his co-contributors Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
, Stephan Roll and Ilarie Voronca
Ilarie Voronca
Ilarie Voronca was a Romanian-French avant-garde poet and essayist.Voronca was of Jewish ethnicity...
, and he was also noted for being the first to publish Urmuz
Urmuz
Urmuz was a Romanian writer, lawyer and civil servant, who became a cult hero in Romania's avant-garde scene. His scattered work, consisting of absurdist short prose and poetry, opened a new genre in Romanian letters and humor, and captured the imagination of modernists for several generations...
's Fuchsiada (a few years after its author committed suicide). Max Blecher
Max Blecher
Max Blecher was a writer from Romania.His father was a well-to-do Jewish merchant and the owner of a porcelain shop. He attended primary and secondary school in Roman, Romania. After receiving his baccalaureat, Blecher left for Paris to study medicine...
also expressed gratitude to Geo and Ecaterina Bogza for helping him complete and publish Întâmplări din irealitatea imediată.
His role as critic, patron and promoter of art continued under the communist regime, and he kept a vivid interest in reviewing literature of all kinds. After the 1960s, he was involved in recuperating the Romanian avant-garde, and, together with Paul Păun
Paul Păun
Paul Păun or Paúl Yvenez was a Romanian Surrealist artist and writer, as well as a trained physician.-Biography:...
and Marcel Avramescu, helped introduce the previously unpublished works of Sesto Pals to an international audience. In 1978, he also republished his earliest poems for Urmuz, as part of the new volume Orion. His position also allowed him to extend a degree of protection to literary figures persecuted by the authorities. According to Eugen Simion, during the 1950s, a common initiative of Bogza and philosopher Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
attempted to rescue the academic and essayist D. D. Panaitescu from Communist imprisonment. Antonie Plămădeală
Antonie Plamadeala
Antonie Plămădeală was a high-level hierarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Transylvania ....
, a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
of the communist regime and future Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
Metropolitan of Transylvania, credited Bogza and the writer and theologian Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
with having insured recognition for his debut novel in spite of political obstacles.
The relevancy of Bogza's dissidence, like the similar attitudes of Eugen Jebeleanu
Eugen Jebeleanu
Eugen Jebeleanu , Romanian poet, was born in Câmpina, where he attended elementary school. After graduating from high school in Braşov at age 11 in 1922, he published his first poems five years later in the literary review Viaţa literară...
, Marin Preda
Marin Preda
Marin Preda was a Romanian novelist, one of the best-known post-WWII Romanian writers.Preda was born in Teleorman county, in a village called Siliştea-Gumeşti, into a family of peasants. He first studied at school in his home village, then schools in Abrud and Cristur-Odorhei...
and others, was nonetheless debated by author Gheorghe Grigurcu, who described it as a "coffee-house opposition". Grigurcu, who placed stress on the closeness between these writers and dissenting but high-ranking Communist Party activists such as Gheorghe Rădulescu and George Macovescu
George Macovescu
George Macovescu was a Romanian writer and communist politician who served as the General Secretary of Ministry of Information of Romania and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.-Life and political career:...
, called attention to the fact that Bogza had refused to sign his name to an appeal for radical change, drafted by novelist Paul Goma
Paul Goma
Paul Goma is a Romanian writer, also known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989. Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he became a political refugee and currently resides in France as a stateless person...
in 1977. Reportedly, when confronted with Goma's grassroots movement, Geo Bogza had asked: "Who is this Goma person?"
Bogza often credited real-life events and persons in his poetry. Alongside Nicolae Ilie and his death, his early poems make direct references to Alexandru Tudor-Miu, to the poets Simion Stolnicu and Virgil Gheorghiu, and to Voronca's wife, Colomba. During the same stage of his career, Geo Bogza dedicated a short piece to the 19th century writer Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
, to whose sad poems he attributed his own momentary adolescent urge to commit suicide—as an old man, he would depose flowers at Eminescu's statue in front of the Romanian Athenaeum
Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's main concert hall and home of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and of the George Enescu annual international...
each January 15 (the poet's birthday). A short essay he authored late in life, titled Ogarii ("The Borzois"), drew a comparison between the breed, seen as an example of elegance, and the eccentric Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
author Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Ion Caragiale was a Romanian poet and prose writer, best known for his novel Craii de Curtea-Veche, which portrays the milieu of boyar descendants before and after World War I. Caragiale's style, associated with Symbolism, the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle, and early modernism, was...
.
The innovative reportages he authored later in life were credited with setting guidelines and opening the road for a series of notable authors, among whom were Paul Anghel...Te Deum la Grivita, Traian T. Coşovei, Ioan Grigorescu and Ilie Purcaru. Cornel Nistorescu
Cornel Nistorescu
Cornel Nistorescu is a Romanian journalist, best known as the editor of Evenimentul Zilei daily. He is known in the United States for an editorial he wrote entitled Cîntarea Americii regarding the American response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.Nistorescu graduated from the...
, himself a columnist and author of reportage, is also seen as one of Bogza and F. Brunea-Fox's disciples. Critics have noted the potential impact his early poetry has or may have on Postmodern literature
Postmodern literature
The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post–World War II literature and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact...
in Romania. Several commentators, including 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...
, have traced a connection between his poems of the 1920s and 1930s and many of those authored by Florian Iaru between 1982 and the early 2000s.
In contrast to both his status as a former political prisoner and his new-found Christian faith, Nicolae Steinhardt
Nicolae Steinhardt
Nicolae Steinhardt was a Romanian writer, Orthodox hermit and father confessor.-Early life:...
continued to value Bogza's contributions, and, in 1981, authored an essay dedicated to his work and their friendship. Titled Geo Bogza - un poet al Efectelor, Exaltării, Grandiosului, Solemnităţii, Exuberanţei şi Patetismului ("Geo Bogza - a Poet of Impressions, Exaltation, Grandeur, Solemnity, Exuberance and Pathetism") and edited by writer Mircea Sântimbreanu, it was characterized by literary critic Ion Bogdan Lefter as a "eulogy
Eulogy
A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
[...] to their shared youth, seen as a paradise of liberty". G. Brătescu, who was himself involved in editing and claims to have aided in publishing Steinhardt's volume, recalled being "fascinated" by both Bogza's "impertuosity", as well as by Steihardt's "art of evidencing such an impertuousity."
Sesto Pals also authored Epitaf pentru Geo Bogza ("Epitaph for Geo Bogza"), first published by Nicolae Tzone in 2001. The writer was also the subject for one of B. Elvin's essays, collected as Datoria de a ezita ("The Duty to Hesitate") and first published in 2003. In the same year, his correspondence with various Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n writers was published as Rânduri către tinerii scriitori ardeleni ("Letters to the Young Transylvanian Writers"). The relation between Bogza and Mircea Săucan served as the basis for a short work of fiction, which the latter authored and dictated as part of a 2007 book of interviews.
Other tributes
Bogza was the subject of a portrait painted by his friend Victor BraunerVictor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
, which was itself the topic of scandal. The piece, defined by S. A. Mansbach as one of Brauner's "most fully realized Surrealist canvases of [the early 1930s]", depicted the subject nude, with a severed head and elongated sex organs (symbols which probably alluded to elements present in Bogza's own texts).
Bogza's novella, Sfârşitul lui Iacob Onisia ("The End of Iacob Onisia"), has served as the basis for a 1988 film, Iacob (translated into English as Jacob, or, in full, The Miseries of a Gold Miner - Jacob). A story of violent workers leading miserable lives and tempted to steal for their livelihood, it was adapted for the screen and directed by Mircea Danieliuc, and starred Dorel Vişan in the title role (other actors credited include Cecilia Bîrbora, Ion Fiscuteanu
Ion Fiscuteanu
Ioan Fiscuteanu was a Romanian theater and film actor. He last worked at the National Theater in Târgu-Mureş. He was born in Sânmihaiu de Câmpie, Bistriţa-Năsăud, Romania....
and Dinu Apetrei). Writing for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
critic Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
described the production as "uncharacterized and murky". Nevertheless, Romanian critics saw Danieliuc's production as an accomplished piece of subversiveness, arguing that the director had used a Socialist realist pretext to comment on the conflict between the Ceauşescu regime and the Jiu Valley
Jiu Valley
The Jiu Valley is a region in southwestern Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains...
miners (see Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977
Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977
The Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 was the largest protest movement against the Communist regime in Romania before its final days, ushering in a period of intermittent labour unrest that would last a dozen years, and the most important challenge posed by a group of workers to the regime since...
). Bogza's trial has been the subject of an episode in the series Bucureşti, strict secret ("Bucharest, Top Secret"), produced by writer and political scientist Stelian Tănase
Stelian Tanase
Stelian Tănase is a Romanian writer, historian, journalist, political analyst, and talk show host. Having briefly engaged in politics during the early 1990s, after the fall of the Communist regime, he has remained a leading figure of the Romanian civil society.A founding member of both the Group...
and aired by Realitatea TV
Realitatea TV
Realitatea TV is a Romanian news television network. The channel is distributed by many cable operators in Romania and Moldova. Its main owner is Romanian businessman Elan Schwartzenberg....
in 2007.
A school in Bucharest and one in Bălan
Balan
-Places:* Bălan, a city in Romania* Bălan, Sălaj, a commune in Sălaj County, Romania* Balan, Ain, a French commune* Balan, Ardennes, a French commune-People:* Balan K...
were named in Bogza's honor, as were a culture house and a street in Câmpina
Câmpina
Câmpina is a city in Prahova county, Romania, north of the county seat Ploieşti, located on the main route between Wallachia and Transylvania. In 2003, the city celebrated 500 years since its founding.-History:...
. A memorial plaque was raised on downtown Bucharest's Ştirbei Vodă Street, at a house where he lived between 1977 and 1993. Câmpina also hosts the annual Geo Bogza Theater Festival.
Collected poems
- Jurnal de sex ("Sex Diary"), 1929
- Poemul invectivă ("Offensive Poem" or "Contemptuous Poem"), 1933
- Ioana Maria: 17 poeme ("Ioana Maria: 17 Poems"), 1937
- Cântec de revoltă, de dragoste şi de moarte ("Song of Revolt, Love and Death"), 1947
- Orion, 1978
Collected journalism
- Cartea Oltului ("The Book of the Olt"), 1945
- Ţări de piatră, de foc, de pământ ("Lands of Stone, Fire, Earth"), 1939
- Oameni şi carbuni în Valea Jiului ("Men and Coal in the Jiu Valley"), 1947
- Trei călătorii în inima ţării ("Three Journeys into the Heart of the Land"), 1951
- Tablou Geografic ("Geographical Survey"), 1954
- Meridiane sovietice ("Soviet Meridians"), 1956
- Azi, ín România: carte radiofonică de reportaj ("Today, in Romania: a Radio Reportage Book"), 1972
- Statui în lună ("Statues on the Moon"), 1977
Other
- Sfârşitul lui Iacob Onisia ("The End of Iacob Onisia"), 1949; novella
- Eu sunt ţinta: Geo Bogza în dialog cu Diana Turconi ("I Am the Target: Geo Bogza Interviewed by Diana Turconi"), 1994
- Rânduri către tinerii scriitori ardeleni ("Letters to the Young Transylvanian Writers"), 2003