Geo Bogza
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| Born: | February 6, 1908 Blejoi |
|---|---|
| Died: | September 14, 1993 |
| Occupation: | poet, essayist, journalist |
| Nationality: | Romanian |
| Writing period: | 1904–1944 |
| Genres: | lyric poetry, free verse, reportage, satire |
| Literary movement: | Avant-garde Surrealism Socialist realism |
Geo Bogza (February 6, 1908-September 14, 1993) was a Romanian avant-garde theorist, poet, and reporter, known for his left-wing and communist political convictions;[1] he was the older brother of Radu Tudoran, himself a known writer.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Blejoi, he attended school in Ploieşti and trained as a sailor in Galaţi and then in Constanţa until 1925. He returned to his native Prahova, lived in Buştenari, and eventually settled in Bucharest, where, in 1928, he made his debut in poetry, writing for Saşa Pană's unu (also known as Unu), editing a short-lived Surrealist and anti-bourgeois magazine that drew inspiration from Urmuz (and was titled after him), and publishing in Tudor Arghezi's Bilete de Papagal. In time, he became a noted contributor to the leftist and socialist press, and one of the most respected Romanian authors of reportage prose. During that period, he established a friendship and collaboration with the photographer Iosif Bernea, won the praise of Stephan Roll and Ilarie Voronca,[2] and was criticized by George Călinescu (who accused him of "suffering from priapism",[3] based on Bogza's irreverent tone and erotic imagery).
His work was at the center of scandals in the 1930s: he was first arrested on charges of having produced pornography in 1930, for his Sex Diary, and was temporarily held in Văcăreşti prison, until being acquitted[4] (at the time, he responded to the hostile atmosphere by publishing an article in unu which included the words "ACADEMICS, SHAVE YOUR BRAINS!");[5] he was taken into custody for a second time, in 1933, for his Offensive Poem — in which he depicted a sexual encounter with a servant girl — and was sentenced to six days in jail; in 1937, at the same time as H. Bonciu, Bogza again served time for Offensive Poem, after the matter was brought up by Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voineşti on behalf of the Romanian Academy.[6] Writing for Azi, a review edited by Zaharia Stancu, Bogza dismissed the accusation as a cover-up for an increase in authoritarianism as King Carol II was attempting to compete with the fascist Iron Guard.[7] The latter's press welcomed the move, and, using strong anti-Semitic language, instigated the authorities to intervene in similar cases of alleged obscenity — which it viewed as characteristic of both Surrealism and the Jewish-Romanian authors with whom Bogza associated himself.[8]
Later in that year, he was sent to Spain as a war correspondent in the Civil War, supporting the Republican side.
After World War II and the establishment of a communist regime, Bogza adopted and included in his works the themes of Socialist Realism;[9] he was awarded several honors.[10] During the 1950s, he traveled extensively to the Soviet Union and Latin America, writing several works on topics such as Decolonization.[11] In 1955, he became a full member of the Romanian Academy.
Bogza was, however, skeptical about the goals of the Romanian Communist Party, and his support for it was much reduced in time. His brother, an anti-communist who had risked a prison sentence in the late 1940s after attempting to flee the country, was condemned by the communist press, and lived in relative obscurity.[12] Despite his official status, Bogza himself was critical of the adoption of nationalist themes in official discourse after the ascendancy of Nicolae Ceauşescu in the 1960s — among others, he wrote a piece entitled Bau Bau (Romanian for "Bogeyman"), telling of how his parents encouraged him to fear things watching him from outside his window as a means of ensuring he behaved himself while they were absent — it was generally interpreted as an allegory of Ceauşescu's anti-Soviet policies (which attempted to prevent opposition by, among other things, alluding to the threat of Soviet intervention).[13]
In late March 1989, Bogza, together with Octavian Paler, Alexandru Paleologu, Ştefan Augustin Doinaş, Dan Hăulică, Mihail Şora, and Andrei Pleşu, signed the Letter of the Seven, addressed to Dumitru Radu Popescu (head of the Romanian Writers' Union) in protest over Mircea Dinescu's house arrest by the Securitate.[14]
[edit] Selected works
[edit] Collected poems
- Jurnal de sex ("Sex Diary"), 1929
- Poemul invectivă ("Offensive Poem" or "Contemptuous Poem"), 1933
- Ioana Maria: 17 poeme ("Ioana Maria: 17 Poems"), 1937
- Cântec de revoltă, de dragoste şi de moarte ("Song of Revolt, Love and Death"), 1947
- Orion, 1976
[edit] Collected journalism
- Cartea Oltului ("The Book of the Olt"), 1945
- Ţări de piatră, de foc, de pământ, 1939
- Ţara de piatră ("Land of Stone"), 1946
- Oameni şi carbuni în Valea Jiului ("Men and Coal in the Jiu Valley"), 1947
- Trei călătorii în inima ţării ("Three Journies into the Heart of the Land"), 1951
- Tablou Geografic ("Geographical Survey"), 1954
- Meridiane sovietice ("Soviet Meridians"), 1956
- Statui în lună ("Statues on the Moon"), 1977
[edit] Novella
- Sfârşitul lui Iacob Onisia ("The End of Iacob Onisia"), 1949
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ornea, p.455; Tismăneanu, p.150
- ^ Şontică
- ^ Călinescu, in Şontică
- ^ Şontică
- ^ Bogza, in Şontică (capitals as used in the original)
- ^ Ornea, p.450; Şontică
- ^ Ornea, p.450-451
- ^ Ornea, p.451, 457
- ^ Hammond, p.70, 72
- ^ Frunză, p.252
- ^ Bogza, "Congresul..."; Hammond, p.72
- ^ Turconi
- ^ Frunză, p.460
- ^ Pollack et al., p.157
[edit] References
- (Romanian) Geo Bogza, "Congresul de la Santiago", published in Jurnalul Naţional, October 8, 2006
- Victor Frunză, Istoria stalinismului în România, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1990
- Andrew Hammond, The Balkans and the West, Ashgate Publishing, 2004 ISBN 0-7546-3234-2
- Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Ed. Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995 ISBN 973-9155-43-X
- Detlef Pollack, Jan Wielgohs, Dissent and Opposition in Communist Eastern Europe, Ashgate Publishing, 2004 ISBN 0-7546-3790-5
- (Romanian) Daniela Şontică, "Între poezie şi închisoare" (with a transcript of a 1933 scandalous poem), in Jurnalul Naţional, October 10, 2005
- Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, 2003 ISBN 0-520-23747-1
- Diana Turconi, "Oraşul siluetelor de fum II", in Revista 22, March 2006
[edit] External links
- Early poems by Bogza, translated by Julian Semilian, in Exquisite Corpse
- Opening of a photographic exhibition by Iosif Berman, "The Man with a Thousand Eyes", on the Romanian Jewish Community site
- (Romanian) Overview of Bogza's work
Categories: 1908 births | 1993 deaths | Censorship in Romania | Obscenity controversies | Romanian Academy | Romanian communists | Romanian dissidents | Romanian poets | Romanian journalists | Romanian short story writers | Romanian surrealist writers | Romanian travel writers | Socialist realism | People of the Spanish Civil War
