Conferences
Ana Blandiana: The Centennial, an Exercise of Exorcism
16 lei
On Sunday, December 2nd, 2018, from 11.00 a.m., in the NTB Painting Hall, Ana Blandiana shall hold the conference entitled The Centennial, an Exercise of Exorcism.
About the Conference
We are the descendants of everything that happened in this last century, starting with the miraculous effort which gave meaning to the previous millennia. We are the descendants of Romanians who accomplished Great Romania and we are the descendants of Romanians who imprisoned and buried these in the Sighet Cemetery of the Poor. The Centennial is not a celebration, it is the occasion forcing us and giving us the chance to opt for whom we want to pursue, to whom we want to further resemble, which are the role models we wish to follow. But this implies first of all the knowledge of the content of the 100 years and accepting the history they comprise. Ana Blandiana
About Ana Blandiana
Originating from Timişoara, Ana Blandiana was born in 1942. Her name at birth was Otilia Valeria Coman, and after the marriage to writer Romulus Rusan it became Otilia Valeria Rusan. The close ones call her Doina, but the "nickname" which brought her fame is the pseudonym Ana Blandiana. (The poet composed it by taking over the melodic name of the village - Blandiana, from Alba County – where her mother was born and deriving a first name from it as well.)
After attending the courses of the Faculty of Philology of the Cluj University (1962-1967), Ana Blandiana settles down in Bucharest, where she works as an editor at the Student Life and Amphitheatre (1968-1974), librarian at the "N. Grigorescu" Institute of Bucharest (1975-1977), editor at the Writers’ Guild (1977-1979).
Before even being a student, she celebrates her debut with the poem Originality in the Tribune magazine of Cluj (1959). From 1960-1963, she is forbidden to publish, due to political reasons. Starting with 1964, her signature may be encountered again in the literary press, especially in The Contemporary, where she is entrusted with a weekly column of notations (Antijournal). Still in 1964, she publishes her first book of verse, First Person Plural, drawing the attention of the literary critics. Thus, when she settles in Bucharest, she is no longer a stranger. In 1969, she receives moreover the Poetry Prize of the Writers’ Guild (the first from a long list of prizes: the Poetry Prize of the Romanian Academy, 1970, Bucharest, the Prose Award of the Writers’ Guild of Bucharest, the International Herder Prize, Vienna, 1982, the "Opera omnia" Prize, 1994, the National Poetry Prize, 1997, the Poetry Prize of the Writers’ Guild, 2000 etc.).
The poetry books published every two-three years (which are translated abroad), the countless literary criticism articles dedicated to her, the publishing activity (her column Atlas from Literary Romania becomes a weekly event), the journeys abroad (starting with the 6-month scholarship to the USA in 1973-1974), the certainty with which she makes her prose debut (The Four Seasons, 1977) confer to Ana Blandiana an unusual prestige.
Disobedient as a responsible character, not as a recalcitrant one, Ana Blandiana reads at her encounters with the audience at the height of Ceauşescu’s dictatorship poems-manifestos thrilling the audience: "It shall come,/ It cannot be otherwise,/ It shall come/ That day/ Adjourned for centuries,/ It shall come/ It draws near,/ It can also be heard/ Its pulse beating/ Between the horizons,/ It shall come,/ It can be felt in the air,/ it can no longer be late,/ Do not doubt, it shall come/ That day/ Blinding as a sword/ Vibrating in the light." (Dies ille, dies irae). In 1985, a series of her poems charged with political dynamite, published in the Amphitheatre magazine, alarms the authorities. And in 1988, after she publishes the verse volume Occurrences on My Street, with numerous sarcastic references to the regime, she is forbidden, as a punishment, to publish in Romania.
The wave of the revolution from December 1989 brings her to the heterogeneous leading team of the country, the National Council of the National Salvation Front. Earlier than other intellectuals, Ana Blandiana leaves the group. She sets up and leads the Civic Alliance Foundation, to which a great part of the Romanian civil society adheres, creates in Sighet, with superhuman efforts and sacrifices, joined by her husband, Romulus Rusan, the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance, and leads the Romanian PEN Club. She plays a key role in imposing politician Emil Constantinescu as Romanian President in the time frame 1996-2000, but she does not refrain from criticising his lack of firmness in promoting democratic values.
Biography by Alex Ștefănescu
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
