Mircea Zaciu
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Mircea Zaciu (August 27, 1928–March 21, 2000) was a
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n critic, literary historian and prose writer.


Biography

Born into a
Greek-Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite: ** The Albanian Greek Catholic Church ** The Belarusian Gr ...
family in
Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...
, Ion Pop
"Prezența lui Mircea Zaciu"
in ''Tribuna'', nr. 143-144, September 2008
his parents were Adrian Zaciu, a lawyer, and his wife Otilia (''née'' Muth), a high school secretary. The family had peasant origins in the
Coaș Coas is a commune in Maramureș County, Romania. It is composed of two villages, Coaș and Întrerâuri. These were part of Săcălășeni Săcălășeni () is a commune in Maramureș County, Romania. It is made up of three villages: Coruia (''K ...
area, and was possibly Aromanian at its roots. He attended primary school in
Satu Mare Satu Mare (; ; ; or ) is a city with a population of 102,400 (2011). It is the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania, as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvania ...
from 1935 to 1939, followed by one year at Mihai Eminescu High School in the same city. Following the
Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all of Maramureș and part of Cri ...
, when the area was ceded to
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
, the family took refuge in Arad. There, he took years two through six at Moise Nicoară High School. He attended the final two years and graduated from Emanuil Gojdu High School in Oradea, by then back under Romanian administration. From 1947 to 1951, he attended the Romanian language and literature section of the literature faculty at the
University of Cluj A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, earning a degree in 1952. Meanwhile, he took up but abandoned the study of law. Beginning in his fourth year, Zaciu worked as an associate instructor at the Romanian literature department, under the supervision of Dumitru Popovici. He rose to teaching assistant (1952), assistant professor (1952-1962), associate professor (1962-1972), and full professor (1972-1990). From 1990, he was consulting professor, abandoning this role in 1997; during this period, he was thesis adviser, having twice previously been denied the position. He served as dean of the Cluj philology faculty from 1962 to 1966, and earned a doctorate in Romanian philology in 1967. From 1967 to 1970, he lectured at the universities of
Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
,
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
and
Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...
, teaching Romanian language and literature. In 1970, his contract was not renewed and he was fired from the position of chairman within the contemporary Romanian literature and literary theory department, a post he had held since 1967. He was received into the
Romanian Writers' Union The Writers' Union of Romania (), founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The Writers' Union of Romania was created by the communist regime by taking ...
in 1956, forming part of its leadership for three successive terms, and again from 1990 to 1995. Through this organization, he was able to take part in conferences and colloquia in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Iraq, Denmark, and Finland. He moved to Germany in 1990, but spent lengthy periods in Romania, and from that time was honorary director of ''Vatra'' magazine, based in
Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș (, ; ; German language, German: ''Neumarkt am Mieresch'') is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the list of cities and towns in Romania, 16th-largest city in Romania, with 116,033 ...
. In 1997, he was elected an honorary member of the
Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...
. He died in
Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...
.


Work

Zaciu's first published work was a short biography of
Duiliu Zamfirescu Duiliu Zamfirescu (; 30 October 1858 – 3 June 1922) was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a whi ...
that appeared in ''Ecoul'' newspaper in 1944. His first prose fiction ran in ''
Flacăra ''Flacăra'' (Romanian for "The Flame") is a weekly literary magazine published in Bucharest, Romania. History and profile ''Flacăra'' was started in 1911. The first issue was published on 22 October 1911. The founder was Constantin Banu and t ...
'' magazine in 1948, at the beginning of the
communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...
, while his first book-length fictional work was the 1954 ''Amiaza unei revoluții''. His debut non-fiction volume was ''Masca geniului'' (1967), which featured criticism and literary history. A number of further critical essays and studies, as well as works of literary history, appeared in book form: ''Ion Agârbiceanu'' (1964; second edition, revised and enlarged, 1972), ''Glose'' (1970), ''Colaje'' (1972), ''Ordinea și aventura'' (1973), ''Bivuac'' (1974), ''Lecturi și zile'' (1975), ''Alte lecturi și alte zile'' (1976), ''Lancea lui Ahile'' (1980), ''Cu cărțile pe masă'' (1981), ''Viaticum'' (1983), ''Clasici și contemporani'' (selections from previous books, 1994), ''Scrisori nimănui'' (1996), ''Ca o imensă scenă, Transilvania'' (1996; selection of prior essays about Transylvanian literature). ''Teritorii'' (1976) recorded his travel impressions; his massive diary, covering the period 1979–1989, was published in four volumes as ''Jurnal'' (I, 1993; II, 1995; III, 1996; IV, 1998); three theater plays appeared in the volume ''Sechestrul'' (1972). These were written in collaboration with Vasile Rebreanu; the two had previously worked on the screenplay for the 1965 film ''Gaudeamus igitur''. Ion Buzași
"Dialog epistolar"
in ''România Literară'', nr. 24/2004
He prepared and prefaced numerous editions of classical and contemporary Romanian authors, also putting together an anthology of Romanian short prose, ''Cu bilet circular'' (1974). Together with
Marian Papahagi Marian may refer to: People * Marian (given name), a list of people with the given name * Marian (surname), a list of people so named Places * Marian, Iran (disambiguation) * Marian, Queensland, a town in Australia * Marian, a village in toe com ...
and
Aurel Sasu Aurel may refer to: Places * Aurel, Drôme, France * Aurel, Vaucluse, France Other uses * Aurel (given name) * Aurel Awards, a Slovak music award * AuRel, a dragon in E. E. Knight's ''Age of Fire'' series See also * Aurell Aurell is a surna ...
, he initiated and coordinated a dictionary of Romanian writers, ''Scriitori români. Mic dicționar'' (1978). Expanded as ''Dicționarul scriitorilor români'', with two volumes ready for printing in 1984, the revised work was banned the following year by the communist censors. The first volume was published only in 1995, after the
Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...
, with the last appearing in 2002. Zaciu coordinated the "Restituiri" collection of Editura Dacia from Cluj; after 80 titles were published from 1972 to 1985, the series was suppressed for hidden reasons. He conceived and edited the volumes ''Ceasuri de seară cu Ion Agârbiceanu'' (1982) and ''Liviu Rebreanu după un veac'' (1985). He was awarded a number of prizes: the Academy prize for literary history (1975), the Cluj writers' association prize (1970), the Writers' Union prize for literary criticism (1976; 1981), the Octav Șuluțiu Prize of '' Familia'' magazine (1992), the Bihor scientists' society prize (1993), the Satu Mare cultural prize (1994) and the Writers' Union prize for memoirs (1993). As the writers' dictionary coordinator, he won five awards in 1995: the national book salon prize, the Oradea book salon prize, the ''Flacăra'' magazine prize, the
Bacău Bacău ( ; , ; ; ) is the main city in Bacău County, Romania. With a population of 136,087 (as of 2021 census), Bacău is the 14th largest city in Romania. The city is situated in the historical region of Moldavia, at the foothills of the ...
excellence prize and the Writers' Union Opera Magna prize. ''Mircea Zaciu, Interviuri'', a volume of some forty interviews the author gave starting in 1972, was published in 2007.
Ovidiu Pecican Ovidiu Coriolan Pecican (born January 8, 1959) is a Romanian historian, essayist, novelist, short-story writer, literary critic, poet, playwright, and journalist of partly Serbian origin. He is especially known for his political writings on disp ...

"Un drum prin melancolie"
, in ''Apostrof'', nr. 3, 2008


Assessment

Following his monograph on the work of
Ion Agârbiceanu Ion Agârbiceanu (first name also Ioan, last name also Agărbiceanu and Agîrbiceanu; 12 September 1882 – 28 May 1963) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian writer, journalist, politician, theologian and Greek-Catholic priest. Born among the ...
, Zaciu's criticism exclusively took the form of studies, essays and literary reviews, illustrating the author's interest both for the writings of previous centuries and for contemporary works. As a literary historian, he was devoted to an "active sentiment for tradition", analyzing older works for elements that would be taken up by later writers. His essays, invariably researched with care, had a marked ability to evoke the socio-literary environment of the period they describe, and to draw characters. In his writings, the archival sensibilities of the Cluj critical school merged with the example of
George Călinescu George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899 – 12 March 1965) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the most important Romani ...
; in his vision, literary history became a ''sui generis'' "novel" in which an era, a number of representative figures and "scenes" came alive. When writing about current literature, Zaciu reacted promptly, with assured verdicts and sometimes veering decidedly into polemics. He cherished precision and his criticism was sometimes colored by emotion, overall balancing the cool polemicist. In his need to be an active presence in ongoing developments, Zaciu mirrored the earlier example of
Eugen Lovinescu Eugen Lovinescu (; 31 October 1881 – 16 July 1943) 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 ...
. His talent for fiction was less developed, but a fine example of his prose can be found in ''Teritorii'', the journalistic account of his German stay, together with impressions of Paris during the turbulent year 1968 as well as London. The publication of his journal was a literary event; it detailed moments, emotional states and events from the final years of the
Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ;  – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...
dictatorship, which he dubbed the "Satanic decade". The diary is a valuable document for reconstituting the somber and hopeless atmosphere of those years, with special attention devoted to the writers' milieu. In often memorable sketches, he recorded its main figures and the public disguises they wore.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. II, pp. 853-54. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaciu, Mircea 1928 births 2000 deaths People from Oradea Romanian Greek-Catholics Babeș-Bolyai University alumni Academic staff of Babeș-Bolyai University Honorary members of the Romanian Academy Romanian literary critics Romanian literary historians Romanian novelists Romanian anthologists Romanian travel writers 20th-century Romanian essayists 20th-century Romanian screenwriters 20th-century Romanian diarists Emanuil Gojdu National College alumni Moise Nicoară National College alumni