Mihail Sebastian
Encyclopedia
Mihail Sebastian was a Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n playwright, essayist, journalist and novelist.

Life

Sebastian was born to a Jewish
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....

 family in Brăila
Braila
Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...

. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group Criterion which included such luminaries as Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
-Early life:Emil M. Cioran was born in Răşinari, Sibiu County, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time. His father, Emilian Cioran, was a Romanian Orthodox priest, while his mother, Elvira Cioran , was originally from Veneţia de Jos, a commune near Făgăraş.After studying humanities at the...

, Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...

 and Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu was a Romanian philosopher, logician, mathematician, professor, and journalist. Near the end of his career, he became known for his antisemitism and devotion to far right politics, in the years leading up to World War II.-Life:...

. Sebastian published several novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s, including Accidentul ("The Accident") and Oraşul cu salcâmi ("The Acacia Tree City"), heavily influenced by French
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...

 novelists such as Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...

 and Jules Renard
Jules Renard
Pierre-Jules Renard or Jules Renard was a French author and member of the Académie Goncourt, most famous for the works Poil de carotte and Les Histoires Naturelles...

.

Although initially an apolitical movement, Criterion came under the increasing influence of Nae Ionescu's own brand of philosophy, called Trăirism, which mixed jingoistic nationalism, existentialism and Christian mysticism, as well as that of the fascist paramilitary organization known as 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...

.

As a Jew, Sebastian came to be regarded as an outsider within the group, even by his friends.
In 1934 he published another novel, De două mii de ani... ("It's been two thousand years..."), about what it meant to be a Jew in Romania, and asked Nae Ionescu, who at the time was still friendly with Sebastian, to write the preface. Ionescu agreed, generating uproar by inserting paragraphs both antisemitic and against the very nature of the book they introduced.

Sebastian "decided to take the only intelligent revenge" and publish the preface, which only heightened the controversy. Sebastian's decision to include the preface prompted criticism from the Jewish community (notable Jewish satirist Ludovic Halevy
Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris...

, for instance, referred to Sebastian as "Ionescu's lap dog"), as well as the far-right circles patronized by Ionescu and 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...

. The anti-semitic daily newspaper Sfarmă Piatră (literally "Breaking Rocks") denounced Sebastian as a Zionist agent and traitor, despite the fact that Sebastian vocally declared himself to be a proud Romanian with no interest in emigrating from his Romanian homeland.

In response to the criticism, Sebastian wrote Cum am devenit huligan ("How I Became a Hooligan"), an anthology of essays and articles depicting the manner in which De două mii de ani... was received by the Romanian public and the country's cultural establishment. In the book, he answered his critics by holding up a mirror to their prejudice, detailing and assailing the claims of both his right-wing and left-wing detractors. He addresses the rabid antisemitism of the former in a clear and unaffected manner, underlining its absurdity:

I was born in Romania, and I am Jewish. That makes me a Jew, and a Romanian. For me to go around and join conferences demanding that my identity as a Jewish Romanian be taken seriously would be as crazy as the Lime Trees on the island where I was born to form a conference demanding their rights to be Lime Trees. As for anyone who tells me that I'm not a Romanian, the answer is the same: go talk to the trees, and tell them they're not trees.


Yet for all the sharpness and clarity of his response, he could not help but feel betrayed and saddened by Ionescu's vicious preface:

What hurt me was not the idea that the preface would be made public - what hurt me was the idea that it had been written. Had I known it would have been destroyed immediately afterwards, it still would have hurt me had it been written...


Sebastian became known in Romanian literature mainly for his plays, such as Steaua fără nume
The Star Without a Name
The Star Without a Name is a play by the Romanian author Mihail Sebastian, completed in 1942. Two movies were based on this play: Mona, l'étoile sans nom , starring Marina Vlady, and Bezymyannaya zvezda ....

("The Star Without a Name"), Jocul de-a vacanţa ("Holiday Games"), and Ultima oră ("Breaking News").

Diary of the fascist years

For 10 years, Sebastian kept a journal that was finally published in Bucharest in 1996 to “considerable debate” and in America under the title Journal, 1935-1944: The Fascist Years. It records the mounting persecution he endured and documents the disdain former friends began showing him in Romania's increasingly antisemitic socio-political landscape. A friend of Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...

, he was deeply disappointed when the latter supported the fascist and anti-Semitic 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...

. Despite this ominous tone, the diary also reveals Sebastian's unflagging sense of humor and self-irony. A fundamental testimony of anti-Semitism in Europe prior to, and during, the years of 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...

, the "Journal" has been compared to those of Victor Klemperer
Victor Klemperer
Victor Klemperer was a businessman, journalist and eventually a Professor of Literature, specialising in the French Enlightenment at the Technische Universität Dresden. His diaries detailing his life under successive German states—the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and the German...

 or Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...

.

He was a great lover of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 and often attended concerts. In his Journal, there are many references to various classical composers and reviews of radio broadcast concerts.

After being kicked out of his home due to the new antisemitic laws, Sebastian moved into a tenement slum where he continued his writing. On August 23, 1944, the Romanian Fascist government of Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...

 was overthrown, and Romania joined the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 (see Romania during World War II
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...

). Sebastian was hit by a truck and died on May 29, 1945, just weeks after the Soviet Army entered the country.

Legacy

In the 2000s, Sebastian's Journal gained a new audience in Western countries due to its lyrical, evocative style and the brutal honesty of its accounts. The manuscript of the journal was obtained by Harry From
Harry From
Theater and film director, movie producer. Born 12 December 1934 in Bucharest, Romania, deceased 5 May 1996 in New York, USA. He left behind his wife of 32 years, and their daughter.-Education:...

, who arranged for their publication in 1996, by the Romanian publishing house Humanitas
Humanitas
The word humanitas was used by Cicero to describe the formation of an ideal speaker who he believed should be educated to possess a collection of virtues of character suitable for an active life of public service; these would include a fund of learning acquired from the study of bonae litterae ,...

. In 2004, American playwright David Auburn
David Auburn
David Auburn is an American playwright.He was raised in Ohio and Arkansas. He attended the University of Chicago, where he was a member of Off-Off Campus, and received a degree in English literature....

 wrote a one-man play based on Sebastian's diary titled, The Journals of Mihail Sebastian. It debuted the same year in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and starred Stephen Kunken
Stephen Kunken
Stephen Kunken is an American actor, best known for his work in theatre. His Broadway credits include Frost/Nixon, Rock 'n' Roll, and Enron, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Play.-Career:...

 in the role of Mihail Sebastian.

Sebastian's niece, Michelle Hechter, a French writer and translator, published in 2000 an autobiographical work titled M. et M. dealing extensively with her uncle's life and writings.

In 2006, Mihail Sebastian was posthumously awarded the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis
Geschwister-Scholl-Preis
The Geschwister-Scholl-Preis is a literary prize which was initiated in 1980 by the State Association of Bavaria in the Stock Market Society of the German Book Trade and the city of Munich...

 for Voller Entsetzen, aber nicht verzweifelt.

Novels

  • Femei (1933) / Women
  • De două mii de ani (1934) / It's Been Two Thousand Years...
  • Oraşul cu salcâmi (1935) / The Acacia Tree City
  • Accidentul (1940) / The Accident

Theatre

  • Jocul de-a vacanţa(1938) / Holiday Games
  • Steaua fără nume (1944) / The Star Without a Name
  • Ultima oră (1945) / Breaking News
  • Insula (1947) / The Island

Other

  • Fragmente dintr-un carnet găsit (1932) / Fragments from a Found Notebook
  • Cum am devenit huligan (1935) / How I Became a Hooligan
  • Corespondenţa lui Marcel Proust (1939) / The Correspondence of Marcel Proust
  • Eseuri, cronici, memorial (1972) / Essays, Chronicles, Memorial
  • Journal, 1935-1944 / published in America as Journal 1935-1944: The Fascist Years (trans. Patrick Camiller. Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 2000) and in Britain as Journal: 1935-1944 (London: Pimlico
    Pimlico
    Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster. Like Belgravia, to which it was built as a southern extension, Pimlico is known for its grand garden squares and impressive Regency architecture....

    , 2003)

External links

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