Sergiu Dan
Encyclopedia
Sergiu Dan (ˈserd͡ʒju dan; born Isidor Rotman or Rottman; December 29, 1903 – March 13, 1976) was a Romania
n novelist, journalist, Holocaust survivor and political prisoner
of the communist regime
. Dan, the friend and collaborator of Romulus Dianu, was noted during the interwar period
as a contributor to Romania's avant-garde
and modernist
scene, collaborating with poet Ion Vinea on Contimporanul
review and Facla newspaper. He was also affiliated with the rival literary club, Sburătorul
, and noted for criticizing the communist
sympathies of other avant-garde writers. His main works of the 1930s include contributions to the psychological novel
, thriller and political novel genres, received with critical acclaim.
Of Jewish Romanian
origin, Sergiu Dan was the subject of antisemitic defamation, and, during World War II
, was deported to Transnistria
. After his return home, Dan spoke about his experiences in the book Unde începe noaptea ("Where Night Begins"), which endures one of the few Romanian contributions to Holocaust literature, and has for long been censored by dictatorial regimes. The writer's political stance also clashed with the post-1948 communist establishment, and, during the 1950s, he was interned at Aiud prison
. Dan was eventually forced to adapt his writing style to the aesthetic requirements of Romanian Socialist realism
, and spent the final decades of his life in relative obscurity. His work was rediscovered and reassessed following the 1989 Revolution
.
, in Moldavia
region, the son of Simon Rotman. His first steps in cultural journalism happened before 1926, when he was affiliated with the newspaper Cugetul Românesc; his earliest poems were published in cultural magazines such as Chemarea and Flacăra
, and a debut novella
, Iudita şi Holofern ("Judith and Holofernes
"), saw print in 1927. Sergiu Dan's brother, Mihail Dan, was also a journalist, known for his translations from Soviet
author Vladimir Mayakovsky
.
In the late 1920s, Sergiu Dan and his friend Romulus Dianu were in Bucharest
. It was there that Dan joined the literary circle of novelist Camil Petrescu
, and took part in the regular literary disputes at Casa Capşa
and Corso restaurants. By 1928, he had fallen out with Petrescu: ridiculing the "noocratic
" philosophical project outlined by Petrescu, and calling its author "insane" and "poltroonish". He later expressed regret for the incident, noting that he had been especially amused by Petrescu's eccentric decision to store his philosophical manuscript in the Vatican Library
.
Dan and Dianu were also co-opted by Ion Vinea on his various journalistic ventures, beginning with the left-wing and modernist literary review Contimporanul
, where they published avant-garde prose and poetry with a political subtext. His texts were featured in various other venues: Vremea, Revista Fundaţiilor Regale, Universul Literar (the literary supplement of Universul
daily) and Bilete de Papagal
(the satirical newspaper of poet Tudor Arghezi
). During the period, Dan underwent formal training in Economics
, graduating from the Bucharest Commercial School. With Dianu (who was also making his debut), Dan co-authored a romanticized biography
of the 19th century poet-storyteller Anton Pann
: Viaţa minunată a lui Anton Pann ("The Wonderful Life of Anton Pann"; Editura Cultura Naţională, 1929)—this collaborative fiction
piece was reissued in 1935 as Nastratin şi timpul său ("Nasreddin
and His Time"). In this context, Dan also joined the Sburătorul
club, formed around the eponymous magazine of literary theorist Eugen Lovinescu
, as one of the Jewish writers whom Lovinescu welcomed into his movement.
During his period at Contimporanul, Dan embarked on a conflict with the Surrealist
and far left
ist group at unu
, the magazine of poet Saşa Pană
. This controversy reflected the major discrepancies between Contimporanul and other avant-garde venues. By 1930, Sergiu's brother Mihail Dan had left Bilete de Papagal and had become involved with unu, of which he was later editor in chief. However, documents first made public in 2008 show that he was secretly an informant
for the Kingdom of Romania
's intelligence agency, Siguranţa Statului, with a mission to supervise unus ongoing flirtations with communism
. He had for long been suspected of this by the literary society at Sburătorul. Also in 1930, shortly after the forceful return of Romanian King
Carol II
to the throne, Sergiu Dan was working, as political editor, on the staff of Dreptatea
, the platform of the National Peasants' Party
(PNŢ). According to the later account of communist journalist Petre Pandrea, Dan and Vinea together stole the original draft of an article by PNŢ economist Virgil Madgearu
, and forged it in such manner as to make it seem that Madgearu was an anti-Carlist; they then sold a copy to Madgearu's rival, the corporatist
theorist Mihail Manoilescu
, who presented a copy to the monarch, only to be ridiculed once the forgery was uncovered. Pandrea claimed that, between them, Dan and Vinea made off with 150,000 lei
from the affair, whereas their victim Manoilescu was permanently disgraced.
Sergiu Dan's actual editorial debut came in 1931, when Editura Cugetarea published his novel Dragoste şi moarte în provincie ("Love and Death in the Provinces"). In 1932, Dan and dramatist George Mihail Zamfirescu shared the annual prize of the Romanian Writers' Society, of which they both became members. In 1932, Sergiu Dan joined the staff of Vinea's gazette Facla, with novelist Ion Călugăru
, poet N. Davidescu, writer-director Sandu Eliad, and professional journalists Nicolae Carandino
and Henric Streitman.
Dan resumed his writing career with Arsenic, published by Cultura Naţională in 1934, and Surorile Veniamin ("The Veniamin Sisters", Editura Vatra, 1935). The former volume received another cultural prize, granted by literary critics at the Eforie
festival of 1934. During 1934, Dan was one of 46 intellectuals who signed an appeal in favor of normalizing relations between Romania and its communist enemy to the east, the Soviet Union
—the basis for a cultural and political assiciation, Amicii URSS
, which was secretly maneuvered by the outlawed Romanian Communist Party
.
, when authoritarian
and fascist
regimes took over (see Romania during World War II
). Initially, he was expelled from the Writers' Society. Under the National Legionary State
, some authors sympathetic to the ruling Iron Guard
celebrated a revolution against modernist literature. In their magazine Gândirea
, Dan was referred to as an exponent of "Judaic morbidity".
Later, the new dictatorial government of Conducător
Ion Antonescu
listed Dan as one of the Jewish authors specifically banned, on a special inventory with nation-wide circulation. Dan was also among the Jewish men and women who were deported to concentration camps in Romanian-administered Transnistria
(see Holocaust in Romania); he was eventually released and could return to Bucharest, where he was under treatment with the Jewish physician and fellow writer Emil Dorian, before the August 1944 Coup
overturned Antonescu.
Dealing with his Transnistrian deportation, the 1945 novel Unde începe noaptea was published by Editura Naţionala Mecu in 1945. The book, written as a response to early signs of Holocaust denial
, was reportedly taken out of circulation for unknown reasons; it was later suggested that it clashed with the Communist Party agenda, at a time when Romania was undergoing fast communization. Two years later, Naţionala Mecu released another one of Dan's war-themed novels, Roza şi ceilalţi ("Roza and the Others").
After 1948, Sergiu Dan's political views collided with the agenda set by the Romanian communist regime
, and he was eventually arrested. Reportedly, Dan had first attracted political persecution upon himself when, in 1947, he spoke out as a defense witness at the trial of his friend, the PNŢ journalist Nicolae Carandino. The Securitate
secret police confiscated his works in progress, which reputedly formed part of a special secret archive. The conditions of Dan's new detainment were characterized by literary historian Henri Zalis as "savage". He was notably held, with many other public figures of various backgrounds, at Aiud prison
. Petre Pandrea, himself imprisoned there after an inner-party purge, later included Dan on his list of writers, humorously titled the "Writers' Union of Aiud"—in contrast to the communist-controlled Writers' Union of Romania
. Dianu, who had worked with Vinea and controversial journalist Pamfil Şeicaru during the war years, was also in custody by 1950, as one of the journalists charged with having tarnished "the world's luminous transformation on the path toward the justest regime in the history of mankind".
Dan was eventually released around 1955, when, according to Zalis (a personal witness to the events, alongside novelist Zaharia Stancu
), he confided to fellow members of the official Writers' Union about his time in prison. The Union later exposed Dan to sessions of "self-criticism", forcing him to comply with the demands of Socialist realism
(see Socialist realism in Romania
). His later bibliography includes: Taina stolnicesei ("The Stolnik
Woman's Secret"), published by Editura de stat pentru literatură şi artă (ESPLA) in 1958 and Tase cel Mare ("Tase the Great"), Editura pentru literatură, 1964.
In 1970, Editura Minerva
republished Roza şi ceilalţi and Arsenic, while Cartea Românească printed his last volume, Dintr-un jurnal de noapte ("From a Nightly Diary"). That year, in protest against communist censorship
, Dan refused to accept the Meritul Cultural medal. He also concentrated on his translator's activity, being noted for his rendition of Madame Bovary
and Salammbô
, the classical works of French
novelist Gustave Flaubert
. His overall contribution also covers Romanian-language versions of works by Louis Aragon
, Michel Droit
, Maurice Druon
, Anatole France
, Boris Polevoy
, Elsa Triolet
and Voltaire
. In 1973, he was interviewed by the young literary critics Ileana Corbea and Nicolae Florescu for the volume Biografii posibile ("Possible Biographies").
. Those fragments published by Contimporanul
in the 1920s have been included by researcher Paul Cernat in a special group of "iconoclastic" and absurdist
short prose (with those of Dianu, F. Brunea-Fox, Filip Corsa or Sandu Tudor). His experimental prose
fragment Rocambole was a parody
of Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail
's 19th century series
(and literary conventions in general): although only covering half a page, it carried the subtitle "grand adventure novel
", and showed its eponymous anti-hero
as an incest
uous kleptomania
c. The inspiration behind this format, similar to those employed by Dianu and the others, was the avant-garde hero Urmuz
. According to Cernat, the Contimporanul writers borrowed Urmuz's manner of toying with the expectations of traditional readers, but were less interested than him in preserving an implicit social message. Cernat illustrates this conclusion with Dan's free verse
"diary-poem", published in Issue 71 of Contimporanul, a sample of "cynical libertinism" and "absolute aesthetic freedom":
A triple issue of Contimporanul (96-97-98 for 1931) featured Dan and Dianu's text for the stage, Comedie în patru acte ("A Comedy in Four Acts"). Cernat finds that it is a "timid" version of Futurist
writings by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
, comparable to similar contributions by Al. L. Zissu.
Dan's style became more personal during his affiliation with Sburătorul
and his earliest novels, although, Henri Zalis notes, he was more eclectic than other Sburătorists. Researcher and critic Ovid Crohmălniceanu finds that Sergiu Dan was one of the psychological novel
ists who, following Sburătoruls critique of social determinism
and praise of the liberated urban intellectual, focused primarily (and, in Crohmălniceanu's opinion, excessively) on the refined "erotic obsessions" of exceptional individuals. He therefore places Dan in a group of Sburătorists which also includes Felix Aderca
, Isaia Răcăciuni, Mihail Celerianu and Dan Petraşincu. In his 1941 synthesis of Romanian literature
, academic George Călinescu
described the post-1931 novels written separately by Dianu and Dan as rather similar, with the exception that Dan's were the products of "a more organized industry"; both authors, he argues, remained "highly conventional" in applying to Romania the genre fiction
equivalent of Hollywood films
.
Overall, Crohmălniceanu notes, Sergiu Dan had an "offhand narrative style, moving around with ease, the same as [fellow novelist] Cezar Petrescu
, in quite varied environments. A certain analytical lucidity [of his] betrays [...] an additional interest for the mystery of psychological mechanisms within his heroes' actions". The shock value of avant-garde and libertinism is preserved in some of Dan's 1930s novels. Călinescu wrote that his characters generally lack "even the slightest notion of virtue", their "flimsy mentality" being the reason why Dan's novels always resemble "comedies". However, according to Crohmălniceanu, Dan's "sharp intelligence", "delicate observation" and love of aphorism
compensated for "the lack of any prolonged moral discretion."
While the Anton Pann
narrative earned appreciation for freely mixing picturesque
elements into a historical novel
framework, Dan's solo debut with Dragoste şi moarte... takes direct inspiration from Gustave Flaubert
. The book is seen by Ovid Crohmălniceanu as "a good reconstruction of a particular human ambiance, with a suggestion regarding the forms of Bovarysme
that envelop [the provincial] setting." The more complex Arsenic can be read, according to Crohmălniceanu, as both a thriller populated with "dubious" figures and, "under careful reading", a study "on the petty cowardice of existence." The protagonist is a physician who renounces his professional standard, assists his friend, the simple giant Bibi, in plotting the murder of a common enemy, and then lives to regret his deed, while, at the same time, he betrays Bibi's confidence by pursing an affair with his wife Ana; Ana however cheats on both men with the president of an insurance company. Călinescu remarks that the novel was constructed with an "intelligent" rhythm of suspense
and humor, noting the "fantasy" invested in the secondary plots and characters: the colonel who dies obsessing about fodder
, his bourgeois daughters, or the coroner
who constructs absurd theories about criminal behavior. Arsenic received high praise from Crohmălniceanu: "The book is written with much confidence, it displays remarkable intellectual detachment, fine Voltairian
irony and an ingenious, irreproachable, counterpoint
construction."
In Surorile Veniamin, Dan's political novel, the narrative follows the symmetrical lives of two sisters: Felicia, who rejects social conformity and braves a life of poverty; and Maria, who works in the thriving oil industry and then becomes a kept woman. The plot is complicated by Felicia's affair with agitator Mihai Vasiliu, a Romanian Communist Party
member who is pursued by Siguranţa Statului agents, and who hides in Maria's apartment. Călinescu rated the more "serious" book as inferior to the "flighty verve" of Arsenic. Crohmălniceanu believes the book displays qualities similar to Arsenics, but notes that Vasiliu's ultimate arrest, which leaves both sisters unconsoled, leads the outcome into a "disappointingly inconsistent" solution.
and of Ion Antonescu
's regime, with additional detail on the January 1941 Pogrom
. The book carries a motto
from the freethinker
Léon Bloy
: "Only Jewish tears are the heaviest. Theirs is the weight of many centuries." Centered on Jewish industrialist David Bainer, the narrative progesses over the slow degeneration into racial antisemitism, culminating in deportation.
Crohmălniceanu noted: "In grave pitch, the author manages, against previous expectations, to write a book as yet unparalleled in our literature, about Nazi extermination camps". Literary critic John Neubauer and his co-authors listed Sergiu Dan among the few East-Central Europe
an authors to have been caught up in wartime "carnage" and survived (their list also includes, for Romania, political prisoner Tudor Arghezi
and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel
). They describe Unde începe... as "a documentary novel
about life in the concentration camp", one of the first-generation East-Central European books to deal with the World War II tragedy. The category places Dan among Yugoslavs
Vladimir Dedijer
, Vladimir Nazor
and Viktor Novak
; Czechoslovaks
Ján Bodenek, Jan Drda
, Miloš Krno and Jozef Horák; Polish
Kazimierz Brandys
, Hungarian
Ernő Szép and Bulgaria
n Iordan Velchev. This view is contrasted by poet and critic Boris Marian, who finds that the narrative, which displays "impressive realism" and "alert style", is not documentary, but rather personal; according to him, although briefly showing communists at work, Unde începe... goes against its time by not presenting them in an ideal light. According to Henri Zalis, Dan's account forms "an ample novella
" about "the inferno of a Nazi camp".
In Roza şi ceilalţi, the libertine daughter of a Jewish tailor is persuaded by her coreligionists into accepting the sexual advances of a Nazi German
officer. Called a "tragic buffoonery" by George Călinescu (in an updated version of his 1941 overview), the narrative culminates with the German retreat, after which Roza, branded a collaborator, is tortured and raped by her own community.
Essentially an anti-communist, Dan refused to comply with the requirements imposed on literature by the Socialist realist establishment
during the late 1940s. However, giving in to political pressure after his return from jail, he produced Tase cel Mare: called an "accessible" and "simplistic" novel by Zalis, it is thematically linked to the world depicted in Surorile Veniamin.
". The antisemitic rhyme went as follows:
During the antisemitic censoring and deportation of Sergiu Dan, George Călinescu ignored political command with his literary profiles of Dan and other Jewish Romanian writers. This was reportedly acknowledged by Dan, who spoke to Emil Dorian about the Antonescu regime's attempt to circulate an alternative, antisemitic, Romanian literature tract, overseen by Ion Petrovici
. Călinescu's defiance outraged the Romanian fascist
press. One such fascist tribune, Porunca Vremii, called for the critic to be punished for his attack on "the cleanliness of the Romanian soul", reassessing that writers such as Dan had no part to play in Romanian culture
. The same was stated in Gândirea
, who argued that, in reviewing Dan and the others, Călinescu had betrayed the "Romanian blood that was shed under the pointy claw of the Talmud
".
After renewed communist censorship
, Sergiu Dan's work was again given consideration in Communist Romania after the 1960s liberalization
episode, but, researcher Radu Ioanid notes, his references to the Holocaust were uncomfortable subjects for the national communist
apparatus. Ioanid speaks about "selective censorship" on Romanian Holocaust literature, with Dan being one of the few authors whose works on the topic were still publishable. Some other such exceptions are Camil Baltazar
, Maria Banuş, Aurel Baranga, F. Brunea-Fox, Eusebiu Camilar, Georgeta Horodincă, Alexandru Ivasiuc
, Norman Manea
, Saşa Pană
and Titus Popovici. A reprint of Unde începe noaptea was however not considered, even though Carandino, himself released from prison, brought the issue to the attention of communist President
Nicolae Ceauşescu
.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
, remained largely unknown to the Romanian public. Boris Marian wrote in 2006: "more gifted, we believe, than one of his better-known colleagues, [Sergiu Dan] is a name rarely mentioned nowadays." Henri Zalis took special care to republish and reevaluate the early work of Sergiu Dan and other Jewish Romanians, a conscious effort to reduce the impact of antisemitic or communist repression. According to fellow critic Ovidiu Morar, this reevaluation of the political aspect was groundbreaking, and "worthy of appreciation". Cultural journalist Iulia Deleanu also noted that, in his treatment of Dan and other persecuted Jewish writers of that generation, Zalis acted as a "diagnostician". Of Dan's contribution, Zalis noted: "[it] must not be forgotten [since] it speaks of an experienced tragedy, one that is inseparable from the history of [his] century. A history that belongs to us, once it is no longer overlooked." During Bookfest 2006, Zalis and Editura Hasefer, the Jewish Romanian publishing house, released a critical edition of Unde începe noaptea.
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 novelist, journalist, Holocaust survivor and 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
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...
. Dan, the friend and collaborator of Romulus Dianu, was noted during 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....
as a contributor to Romania's 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....
and modernist
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
scene, collaborating with poet Ion Vinea on Contimporanul
Contimporanul
Contimporanul was a Romanian avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 and 1932...
review and Facla newspaper. He was also affiliated with the rival literary club, Sburătorul
Sburatorul
Sburătorul was a Romanian modernist literary magazine and literary society, established in Bucharest in April 1919. Led by Eugen Lovinescu, the circle was instrumental in developing new trends and styles in Romanian literature, ranging from a new wave of Romanian Symbolism to an urban-themed...
, and noted for criticizing the 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...
sympathies of other avant-garde writers. His main works of the 1930s include contributions to the psychological novel
Psychological novel
A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action...
, thriller and political novel genres, received with critical acclaim.
Of 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....
origin, Sergiu Dan was the subject of antisemitic defamation, and, during 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...
, was deported to Transnistria
Transnistria (World War II)
Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian administered territory, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944...
. After his return home, Dan spoke about his experiences in the book Unde începe noaptea ("Where Night Begins"), which endures one of the few Romanian contributions to Holocaust literature, and has for long been censored by dictatorial regimes. The writer's political stance also clashed with the post-1948 communist establishment, and, during the 1950s, he was interned at Aiud prison
Aiud prison
Aiud prison is a prison complex in Aiud, central Transylvania, Romania.It is infamous for its political inmates, especially during the reign of Romania's by Nazi allies and later communists...
. Dan was eventually forced to adapt his writing style to the aesthetic requirements of Romanian Socialist realism
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
, and spent the final decades of his life in relative obscurity. His work was rediscovered and reassessed following the 1989 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...
.
Early decades
The future writer was born in the town of Piatra NeamţPiatra Neamt
Piatra Neamț , , ; is the capital city of Neamţ County, in the historical region of Moldavia, eastern Romania. Because of its privileged location in the Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is considered one of the most picturesque cities in Romania...
, in Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
region, the son of Simon Rotman. His first steps in cultural journalism happened before 1926, when he was affiliated with the newspaper Cugetul Românesc; his earliest poems were published in cultural magazines such as Chemarea and Flacăra
Flacăra
Flacăra is a weekly magazine published in Bucharest, Romania, originally as a literary periodical....
, and a debut novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
, Iudita şi Holofern ("Judith and Holofernes
Holofernes
In the deuterocanonical Book of Judith Holofernes was an invading general of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar dispatched Holofernes to take vengeance on the nations of the west that had withheld their assistance to his reign...
"), saw print in 1927. Sergiu Dan's brother, Mihail Dan, was also a journalist, known for his translations from 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....
author Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
.
In the late 1920s, Sergiu Dan and his friend Romulus Dianu were 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....
. It was there that Dan joined the literary circle of novelist 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 :...
, and took part in the regular literary disputes at Casa Capşa
Casa Capsa
Casa Capşa is a historic restaurant in Bucharest, Romania, first established in 1852. At various times it has also included a hotel; most recently, it reopened as a 61-room hotel 17 June 2003....
and Corso restaurants. By 1928, he had fallen out with Petrescu: ridiculing the "noocratic
Noocracy
Noocracy, or "aristocracy of the wise", as defined by Plato, is a social and political system that is "based on the priority of human mind", according to Vladimir Vernadsky. It was also further developed in the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin....
" philosophical project outlined by Petrescu, and calling its author "insane" and "poltroonish". He later expressed regret for the incident, noting that he had been especially amused by Petrescu's eccentric decision to store his philosophical manuscript in the Vatican Library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
.
Dan and Dianu were also co-opted by Ion Vinea on his various journalistic ventures, beginning with the left-wing and modernist literary review Contimporanul
Contimporanul
Contimporanul was a Romanian avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 and 1932...
, where they published avant-garde prose and poetry with a political subtext. His texts were featured in various other venues: Vremea, Revista Fundaţiilor Regale, Universul Literar (the literary supplement of Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
daily) and 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...
(the satirical newspaper of poet 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...
). During the period, Dan underwent formal training in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, graduating from the Bucharest Commercial School. With Dianu (who was also making his debut), Dan co-authored a romanticized biography
Biographical novel
The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional and usually entertaining account of a person's life. This kind of novel concentrates on the experiences a person had during his lifetime, the people he met and the incidents which occurred are detailed and sometimes...
of the 19th century poet-storyteller Anton Pann
Anton Pann
Anton Pann , was an Ottoman-born Wallachian composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language poet, also noted for his activities as a printer, translator, and schoolteacher...
: Viaţa minunată a lui Anton Pann ("The Wonderful Life of Anton Pann"; Editura Cultura Naţională, 1929)—this collaborative fiction
Collaborative fiction
Collaborative fiction is a form of writing by a group of authors who share creative control of a story.Collaborative fiction can occur for commercial gain, as part of education, or recreationally - many collaboratively written works have been the subject of a large degree of academic research.-...
piece was reissued in 1935 as Nastratin şi timpul său ("Nasreddin
Nasreddin
Nasreddin was a Seljuq satirical Sufi figure, sometimes believed to have lived during the Middle Ages and considered a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes. He appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a fool or...
and His Time"). In this context, Dan also joined the Sburătorul
Sburatorul
Sburătorul was a Romanian modernist literary magazine and literary society, established in Bucharest in April 1919. Led by Eugen Lovinescu, the circle was instrumental in developing new trends and styles in Romanian literature, ranging from a new wave of Romanian Symbolism to an urban-themed...
club, formed around the eponymous magazine of literary theorist Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the Sburătorul literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the uncle of Horia Lovinescu, Vasile Lovinescu, and Anton Holban...
, as one of the Jewish writers whom Lovinescu welcomed into his movement.
During his period at Contimporanul, Dan embarked on a conflict with the Surrealist
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 far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
ist group at 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....
, the magazine of poet Saşa Pană
Sasa Pana
Saşa Pană was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, and short story writer.-Biography:...
. This controversy reflected the major discrepancies between Contimporanul and other avant-garde venues. By 1930, Sergiu's brother Mihail Dan had left Bilete de Papagal and had become involved with unu, of which he was later editor in chief. However, documents first made public in 2008 show that he was secretly an informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
for 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...
's intelligence agency, Siguranţa Statului, with a mission to supervise unus ongoing flirtations with communism
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...
. He had for long been suspected of this by the literary society at Sburătorul. Also in 1930, shortly after the forceful return of Romanian 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...
to the throne, Sergiu Dan was working, as political editor, on the staff of Dreptatea
Dreptatea
Dreptatea was a Romanian newspaper that appeared between 17 October 1927 and 17 July 1947, as a newspaper of the National Peasants' Party. It was re-founded on February 5, 1990 as a publication of the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party ....
, the platform of the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
(PNŢ). According to the later account of communist journalist Petre Pandrea, Dan and Vinea together stole the original draft of an article by PNŢ economist Virgil Madgearu
Virgil Madgearu
Virgil Traian N. Madgearu was a Romanian economist, sociologist, and left-wing politician, prominent member and main theorist of the Peasants' Party and of its successor, the National Peasants' Party...
, and forged it in such manner as to make it seem that Madgearu was an anti-Carlist; they then sold a copy to Madgearu's rival, the corporatist
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
theorist Mihail Manoilescu
Mihail Manoilescu
Mihail Manoilescu was a Romanian journalist, engineer, economist, politician and memoirist, who served as Foreign Minister of Romania during the summer of 1940...
, who presented a copy to the monarch, only to be ridiculed once the forgery was uncovered. Pandrea claimed that, between them, Dan and Vinea made off with 150,000 lei
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
from the affair, whereas their victim Manoilescu was permanently disgraced.
Sergiu Dan's actual editorial debut came in 1931, when Editura Cugetarea published his novel Dragoste şi moarte în provincie ("Love and Death in the Provinces"). In 1932, Dan and dramatist George Mihail Zamfirescu shared the annual prize of the Romanian Writers' Society, of which they both became members. In 1932, Sergiu Dan joined the staff of Vinea's gazette Facla, with novelist Ion Călugăru
Ion Călugăru
Ion Călugăru was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and critic. As a figure on Romania's modernist scene throughout the early interwar period, he was noted for combining a picturesque perspective on the rural Jewish-Romanian community, to which he belonged, with traditionalist and...
, poet N. Davidescu, writer-director Sandu Eliad, and professional journalists Nicolae Carandino
Nicolae Carandino
Nicolae Carandino was a Romanian journalist, pamphleteer, translator, dramatist, and politician.He was born in Brăila into a family of intellectuals. After completing high school in Brăila in 1923, he went to college in Bucharest, graduating in 1926...
and Henric Streitman.
Dan resumed his writing career with Arsenic, published by Cultura Naţională in 1934, and Surorile Veniamin ("The Veniamin Sisters", Editura Vatra, 1935). The former volume received another cultural prize, granted by literary critics at the Eforie
Eforie
Eforie : Băile Movilă, Carmen-Sylva, Vasile Roaită) is a town and a holiday resort on the Black Sea shore, in Constanţa County, Romania. It is located about 14 kilometers south of Constanţa...
festival of 1934. During 1934, Dan was one of 46 intellectuals who signed an appeal in favor of normalizing relations between Romania and its communist enemy to the east, 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....
—the basis for a cultural and political assiciation, Amicii URSS
Amicii URSS
Amicii URSS was a cultural association in interwar Romania, uniting left-wing and anti-fascist intellectuals who advocated a détente between their country and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union Amicii URSS (Romanian for "[The] Friends of the Soviet Union"; , occasionally known as Prietenii URSS , which...
, which was secretly maneuvered by 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...
.
Between Transnistria and Aiud
Sergiu Dan became a victim of antisemitic repression during the early stages of World War IIWorld 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...
, when authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
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...
regimes took over (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...
). Initially, he was expelled from the Writers' Society. Under the National Legionary State
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
, some authors sympathetic to the ruling 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...
celebrated a revolution against modernist literature. In their magazine Gândirea
Gândirea
Gândirea , known during its early years as Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială , was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine.- Overview :Founded by Cezar Petrescu and D. I...
, Dan was referred to as an exponent of "Judaic morbidity".
Later, the new dictatorial government of Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
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...
listed Dan as one of the Jewish authors specifically banned, on a special inventory with nation-wide circulation. Dan was also among the Jewish men and women who were deported to concentration camps in Romanian-administered Transnistria
Transnistria (World War II)
Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian administered territory, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944...
(see Holocaust in Romania); he was eventually released and could return to Bucharest, where he was under treatment with the Jewish physician and fellow writer Emil Dorian, before the August 1944 Coup
King Michael's Coup
King Michael's Coup refers to the coup d'etat led by King Michael of Romania in 1944 against the pro-Nazi Romanian faction of Ion Antonescu, after the Axis front in Northeastern Romania collapsed under the Soviet offensive.-The coup:...
overturned Antonescu.
Dealing with his Transnistrian deportation, the 1945 novel Unde începe noaptea was published by Editura Naţionala Mecu in 1945. The book, written as a response to early signs of Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
, was reportedly taken out of circulation for unknown reasons; it was later suggested that it clashed with the Communist Party agenda, at a time when Romania was undergoing fast communization. Two years later, Naţionala Mecu released another one of Dan's war-themed novels, Roza şi ceilalţi ("Roza and the Others").
After 1948, Sergiu Dan's political views collided with the agenda set by the Romanian 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...
, and he was eventually arrested. Reportedly, Dan had first attracted political persecution upon himself when, in 1947, he spoke out as a defense witness at the trial of his friend, the PNŢ journalist Nicolae Carandino. 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...
secret police confiscated his works in progress, which reputedly formed part of a special secret archive. The conditions of Dan's new detainment were characterized by literary historian Henri Zalis as "savage". He was notably held, with many other public figures of various backgrounds, at Aiud prison
Aiud prison
Aiud prison is a prison complex in Aiud, central Transylvania, Romania.It is infamous for its political inmates, especially during the reign of Romania's by Nazi allies and later communists...
. Petre Pandrea, himself imprisoned there after an inner-party purge, later included Dan on his list of writers, humorously titled the "Writers' Union of Aiud"—in contrast to the communist-controlled Writers' Union of Romania
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...
. Dianu, who had worked with Vinea and controversial journalist Pamfil Şeicaru during the war years, was also in custody by 1950, as one of the journalists charged with having tarnished "the world's luminous transformation on the path toward the justest regime in the history of mankind".
Dan was eventually released around 1955, when, according to Zalis (a personal witness to the events, alongside novelist 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...
), he confided to fellow members of the official Writers' Union about his time in prison. The Union later exposed Dan to sessions of "self-criticism", forcing him to comply with the demands 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...
(see Socialist realism in Romania
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
). His later bibliography includes: Taina stolnicesei ("The Stolnik
Stolnik
Stolnik was a court office in Poland and Muscovy, responsible for serving the royal table.- Stolnik in Crown of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania : In Crown of Poland under the first Piast dukes and kings, this was a court office....
Woman's Secret"), published by Editura de stat pentru literatură şi artă (ESPLA) in 1958 and Tase cel Mare ("Tase the Great"), Editura pentru literatură, 1964.
In 1970, Editura Minerva
Editura Minerva
Editura Minerva is one of the largest publishing houses in Romania. Located in Bucharest, it is known, among other things, for publishing classic Romanian literature, children's books, and scientific books.-External links:**...
republished Roza şi ceilalţi and Arsenic, while Cartea Românească printed his last volume, Dintr-un jurnal de noapte ("From a Nightly Diary"). That year, in protest against communist censorship
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...
, Dan refused to accept the Meritul Cultural medal. He also concentrated on his translator's activity, being noted for his rendition of Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's first published novel and is considered his masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life...
and Salammbô
Salammbô
Salammbô may refer to:*Salammbô , the original novel by Gustave Flaubert*Salammbô , an unfinished opera, based on Flaubert's novel, on which Modest Mussorgsky worked between 1863 and 1866...
, the classical works of 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...
novelist Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
. His overall contribution also covers Romanian-language versions of works by Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
, Michel Droit
Michel Droit
Michel Droit was a French novelist and journalist. He was the father of the photographer Éric Droit .-Life:...
, Maurice Druon
Maurice Druon
Maurice Druon was a French novelist and a member of the Académie française.Born in Paris, France, Druon was the nephew of the writer Joseph Kessel, with whom he translated the Chant des Partisans, a French Resistance anthem of World War II, with music and words originally by Anna Marly.In 1948...
, Anatole France
Anatole France
Anatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
, Boris Polevoy
Boris Polevoy
Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy was a notable Soviet writer. He is the author of the book Story of a Real Man about a Soviet World War II fighter pilot Alexei Petrovich Maresiev ....
, Elsa Triolet
Elsa Triolet
Elsa Yur'evna Triolet was a French writer.-Biography:Born Ella Kagan into a Jewish family of a lawyer and a music teacher in Moscow, she and her sister, Lilya Brik received excellent educations; they were able to speak fluent German and French and play the piano...
and Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
. In 1973, he was interviewed by the young literary critics Ileana Corbea and Nicolae Florescu for the volume Biografii posibile ("Possible Biographies").
Early contributions
The earliest literary contributions by Sergiu Dan are generally small-scale narratives about provincial life, which often lead to a fiery and unexpected climaxClimax (narrative)
The Climax is the point in the story where the main character's point of view changes, or the most exciting/action filled part of the story. It also known has the main turning point in the story...
. Those fragments published by Contimporanul
Contimporanul
Contimporanul was a Romanian avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 and 1932...
in the 1920s have been included by researcher Paul Cernat in a special group of "iconoclastic" and absurdist
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
short prose (with those of Dianu, F. Brunea-Fox, Filip Corsa or Sandu Tudor). His experimental prose
Experimental literature
Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...
fragment Rocambole was a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail
Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail
Pierre Alexis, Viscount of Ponson du Terrail was a French writer. He was a prolific novelist, producing in the space of twenty years some seventy-three volumes, and is best remembered today for his creation of the fictional character of Rocambole.-Biography:He was born in Montmaur .Ponson du...
's 19th century series
Rocambole (character)
Rocambole is the creation of Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail, a 19th-century French writer. Rocambole is a fictional adventurer. His importance to the genres of adventure novels and crime fiction cannot be overestimated, as he represents the transition from the old-fashioned Gothic novel to modern...
(and literary conventions in general): although only covering half a page, it carried the subtitle "grand adventure novel
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
", and showed its eponymous anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
as an incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
uous kleptomania
Kleptomania
Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
c. The inspiration behind this format, similar to those employed by Dianu and the others, was the avant-garde hero 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...
. According to Cernat, the Contimporanul writers borrowed Urmuz's manner of toying with the expectations of traditional readers, but were less interested than him in preserving an implicit social message. Cernat illustrates this conclusion with Dan's free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
"diary-poem", published in Issue 71 of Contimporanul, a sample of "cynical libertinism" and "absolute aesthetic freedom":
mai plăcut: moartea pentru rochie decât pentru steag |
more pleasant: a death for the skirt than for the flag |
A triple issue of Contimporanul (96-97-98 for 1931) featured Dan and Dianu's text for the stage, Comedie în patru acte ("A Comedy in Four Acts"). Cernat finds that it is a "timid" version of Futurist
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
writings by 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:...
, comparable to similar contributions by Al. L. Zissu.
Dan's style became more personal during his affiliation with Sburătorul
Sburatorul
Sburătorul was a Romanian modernist literary magazine and literary society, established in Bucharest in April 1919. Led by Eugen Lovinescu, the circle was instrumental in developing new trends and styles in Romanian literature, ranging from a new wave of Romanian Symbolism to an urban-themed...
and his earliest novels, although, Henri Zalis notes, he was more eclectic than other Sburătorists. Researcher and critic Ovid Crohmălniceanu finds that Sergiu Dan was one of the psychological novel
Psychological novel
A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action...
ists who, following Sburătoruls critique of social determinism
Social determinism
Social determinism is the hypothesis that social interactions and constructs alone determine individual behavior ....
and praise of the liberated urban intellectual, focused primarily (and, in Crohmălniceanu's opinion, excessively) on the refined "erotic obsessions" of exceptional individuals. He therefore places Dan in a group of Sburătorists which also includes Felix Aderca
Felix Aderca
Felix Aderca or F. Aderca Aderca, also known as Zelicu Froim Adercu or Froim Aderca; March 13, 1891 – December 12, 1962) was a Romanian novelist, playwright, poet, journalist and critic, noted as a representative of rebellious modernism in the context of Romanian literature...
, Isaia Răcăciuni, Mihail Celerianu and Dan Petraşincu. In his 1941 synthesis of 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....
, academic George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
described the post-1931 novels written separately by Dianu and Dan as rather similar, with the exception that Dan's were the products of "a more organized industry"; both authors, he argues, remained "highly conventional" in applying to Romania the genre fiction
Genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
equivalent of Hollywood films
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
.
Overall, Crohmălniceanu notes, Sergiu Dan had an "offhand narrative style, moving around with ease, the same as [fellow novelist] Cezar Petrescu
Cezar Petrescu
Cezar Petrescu was a Romanian journalist, novelist and children's writer.He was inspired by the works of Honoré de Balzac, attempting to write a Romanian novel cycle that would mirror Balzac's La Comédie humaine...
, in quite varied environments. A certain analytical lucidity [of his] betrays [...] an additional interest for the mystery of psychological mechanisms within his heroes' actions". The shock value of avant-garde and libertinism is preserved in some of Dan's 1930s novels. Călinescu wrote that his characters generally lack "even the slightest notion of virtue", their "flimsy mentality" being the reason why Dan's novels always resemble "comedies". However, according to Crohmălniceanu, Dan's "sharp intelligence", "delicate observation" and love of aphorism
Aphorism
An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...
compensated for "the lack of any prolonged moral discretion."
While the Anton Pann
Anton Pann
Anton Pann , was an Ottoman-born Wallachian composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language poet, also noted for his activities as a printer, translator, and schoolteacher...
narrative earned appreciation for freely mixing picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
elements into a historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
framework, Dan's solo debut with Dragoste şi moarte... takes direct inspiration from Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
. The book is seen by Ovid Crohmălniceanu as "a good reconstruction of a particular human ambiance, with a suggestion regarding the forms of Bovarysme
Bovarysme
Bovarysme is a term derived from Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary . It denotes a tendency toward escapist daydreaming in which the dreamer imagines himself or herself to be a hero or heroine in a romance, whilst ignoring the everyday realities of the situation. The eponymous Madame Bovary is an...
that envelop [the provincial] setting." The more complex Arsenic can be read, according to Crohmălniceanu, as both a thriller populated with "dubious" figures and, "under careful reading", a study "on the petty cowardice of existence." The protagonist is a physician who renounces his professional standard, assists his friend, the simple giant Bibi, in plotting the murder of a common enemy, and then lives to regret his deed, while, at the same time, he betrays Bibi's confidence by pursing an affair with his wife Ana; Ana however cheats on both men with the president of an insurance company. Călinescu remarks that the novel was constructed with an "intelligent" rhythm of suspense
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
and humor, noting the "fantasy" invested in the secondary plots and characters: the colonel who dies obsessing about fodder
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
, his bourgeois daughters, or the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
who constructs absurd theories about criminal behavior. Arsenic received high praise from Crohmălniceanu: "The book is written with much confidence, it displays remarkable intellectual detachment, fine Voltairian
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
irony and an ingenious, irreproachable, counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
construction."
In Surorile Veniamin, Dan's political novel, the narrative follows the symmetrical lives of two sisters: Felicia, who rejects social conformity and braves a life of poverty; and Maria, who works in the thriving oil industry and then becomes a kept woman. The plot is complicated by Felicia's affair with agitator Mihai Vasiliu, a 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...
member who is pursued by Siguranţa Statului agents, and who hides in Maria's apartment. Călinescu rated the more "serious" book as inferior to the "flighty verve" of Arsenic. Crohmălniceanu believes the book displays qualities similar to Arsenics, but notes that Vasiliu's ultimate arrest, which leaves both sisters unconsoled, leads the outcome into a "disappointingly inconsistent" solution.
Unde începe noaptea and later works
With Unde începe noaptea, Sergiu Dan spoke about his own experience as a victim of NazismNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and 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...
's regime, with additional detail on the January 1941 Pogrom
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
. The book carries a motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
from the freethinker
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy , was a French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet.-Biography:Bloy was born in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, in the arondissement of Périgueux, Dordogne. He was the second of six sons of Voltairean freethinker and stern disciplinarian Jean Baptiste Bloy and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau,...
: "Only Jewish tears are the heaviest. Theirs is the weight of many centuries." Centered on Jewish industrialist David Bainer, the narrative progesses over the slow degeneration into racial antisemitism, culminating in deportation.
Crohmălniceanu noted: "In grave pitch, the author manages, against previous expectations, to write a book as yet unparalleled in our literature, about Nazi extermination camps". Literary critic John Neubauer and his co-authors listed Sergiu Dan among the few East-Central Europe
East-Central Europe
East-Central Europe – a term defining the countries located between German-speaking countries and Russia. Those lands are described as situated “between two”: between two worlds, between two stages, between two futures...
an authors to have been caught up in wartime "carnage" and survived (their list also includes, for Romania, political prisoner 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...
and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
). They describe Unde începe... as "a documentary novel
Non-fiction novel
The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events narrated woven together with fictitious allegations and using the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwise loosely-defined and flexible genre...
about life in the concentration camp", one of the first-generation East-Central European books to deal with the World War II tragedy. The category places Dan among Yugoslavs
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,...
Vladimir Dedijer
Vladimir Dedijer
Vladimir Dedijer was a Yugoslav partisan fighter, politician and historian.During World War II he was an editor of the Yugoslav Communist Party newspaper Borba, and member of the agitprop section to the General Staff.After the war he was a member of Yugoslav delegation on 1946 Paris peace...
, Vladimir Nazor
Vladimir Nazor
Vladimir Nazor was the first head of state of modern Croatia. A member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia , he led the Croatian World War II wartime assembly, the ZAVNOH, and later served as the President of the Presidium of the People's Assembly of PR Croatia - the head of state of the People's...
and Viktor Novak
Viktor Novak
Viktor Novak is an author and historian who was once a Catholic priest, full member of Serbian Academy or Science and Arts, a honoray member of Jugoslav Academy of Science and Arts...
; Czechoslovaks
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
Ján Bodenek, Jan Drda
Jan Drda
Jan Drda was a Czech prose writer and playwright.He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia since 1945...
, Miloš Krno and Jozef Horák; Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Kazimierz Brandys
Kazimierz Brandys
Kazimierz Brandys was a Polish essayist and writer of film scripts.Brandys was born in Łódź. He was the brother of the writer Marian Brandys and husband of the translator Maria Zenowicz. He completed a law degree at the University of Warsaw. He was first published in 1935 as a theatrical critic,...
, Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Ernő Szép and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n Iordan Velchev. This view is contrasted by poet and critic Boris Marian, who finds that the narrative, which displays "impressive realism" and "alert style", is not documentary, but rather personal; according to him, although briefly showing communists at work, Unde începe... goes against its time by not presenting them in an ideal light. According to Henri Zalis, Dan's account forms "an ample novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
" about "the inferno of a Nazi camp".
In Roza şi ceilalţi, the libertine daughter of a Jewish tailor is persuaded by her coreligionists into accepting the sexual advances of a Nazi German
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...
officer. Called a "tragic buffoonery" by George Călinescu (in an updated version of his 1941 overview), the narrative culminates with the German retreat, after which Roza, branded a collaborator, is tortured and raped by her own community.
Essentially an anti-communist, Dan refused to comply with the requirements imposed on literature by the Socialist realist establishment
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
during the late 1940s. However, giving in to political pressure after his return from jail, he produced Tase cel Mare: called an "accessible" and "simplistic" novel by Zalis, it is thematically linked to the world depicted in Surorile Veniamin.
Legacy
Essayist and literary historian Barbu Cioculescu recalled that Dan, "an excellent writer and man of character", was vilified in the 1940s by a "wretched epigramEpigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
". The antisemitic rhyme went as follows:
După nume, Sergiu Dan N-ai zice că e jidan. După chip şi-obrăznicie Nu se poate să nu fie. |
With a name like Sergiu Dan You wouldn't think he'd be a kike. With his features and his sass He couldn't be anything but. |
During the antisemitic censoring and deportation of Sergiu Dan, George Călinescu ignored political command with his literary profiles of Dan and other Jewish Romanian writers. This was reportedly acknowledged by Dan, who spoke to Emil Dorian about the Antonescu regime's attempt to circulate an alternative, antisemitic, Romanian literature tract, overseen by Ion Petrovici
Ion Petrovici
Ion Petrovici , Romanian philosopher, essayist, memorialist, writer, orator, and politician, professor at University of Iaşi, member of the Romanian Academy, former Ministry of National Education, a leading figure in Romanian culture, was one of those scholars, men of art, culture, and science,...
. Călinescu's defiance outraged the Romanian 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...
press. One such fascist tribune, Porunca Vremii, called for the critic to be punished for his attack on "the cleanliness of the Romanian soul", reassessing that writers such as Dan had no part to play in 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...
. The same was stated in Gândirea
Gândirea
Gândirea , known during its early years as Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială , was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine.- Overview :Founded by Cezar Petrescu and D. I...
, who argued that, in reviewing Dan and the others, Călinescu had betrayed the "Romanian blood that was shed under the pointy claw of the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
".
After renewed communist censorship
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...
, Sergiu Dan's work was again given consideration in Communist Romania after the 1960s 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...
episode, but, researcher Radu Ioanid notes, his references to the Holocaust were uncomfortable subjects for the national communist
National communism
The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....
apparatus. Ioanid speaks about "selective censorship" on Romanian Holocaust literature, with Dan being one of the few authors whose works on the topic were still publishable. Some other such exceptions are Camil Baltazar
Camil Baltazar
Camil Baltazar was a Romanian-Jewish poet.-Selected works:*Vecernii, 1923*Flaute de mătase, 1923...
, Maria Banuş, Aurel Baranga, F. Brunea-Fox, Eusebiu Camilar, Georgeta Horodincă, Alexandru Ivasiuc
Alexandru Ivasiuc
Alexandru Ivasiuc was a Romanian novelist. He died in the 1977 Vrancea earthquake.-Life:He was born in Sighet, the son of a science professor. After the Second Vienna Award of 30 August 1940, the family was forced to flee to Bucharest, only returning to Sighet in 1951...
, Norman Manea
Norman Manea
Norman Manea is a Jewish Romanian writer and author of short fiction, novels, and essays about the Holocaust, daily life in a communist state, and exile. He is a Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer in residence at Bard College...
, Saşa Pană
Sasa Pana
Saşa Pană was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, and short story writer.-Biography:...
and Titus Popovici. A reprint of Unde începe noaptea was however not considered, even though Carandino, himself released from prison, brought the issue to the attention of communist President
President of Romania
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...
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...
.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, remained largely unknown to the Romanian public. Boris Marian wrote in 2006: "more gifted, we believe, than one of his better-known colleagues, [Sergiu Dan] is a name rarely mentioned nowadays." Henri Zalis took special care to republish and reevaluate the early work of Sergiu Dan and other Jewish Romanians, a conscious effort to reduce the impact of antisemitic or communist repression. According to fellow critic Ovidiu Morar, this reevaluation of the political aspect was groundbreaking, and "worthy of appreciation". Cultural journalist Iulia Deleanu also noted that, in his treatment of Dan and other persecuted Jewish writers of that generation, Zalis acted as a "diagnostician". Of Dan's contribution, Zalis noted: "[it] must not be forgotten [since] it speaks of an experienced tragedy, one that is inseparable from the history of [his] century. A history that belongs to us, once it is no longer overlooked." During Bookfest 2006, Zalis and Editura Hasefer, the Jewish Romanian publishing house, released a critical edition of Unde începe noaptea.