Octav Botez (born Panaite-Octavian Botez; May 15, 1884–September 25, 1943) 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 literary critic and historian. Born in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

, his father Panait was a general in the

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces () is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. Since 2007, full professionalization and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Land Forces. The Romanian Land Forc ...

, his mother was Smaranda (''née'' Nastasachi) and his brother was Eugeniu Botez. He attended primary school in the Sărărie neighborhood, followed by the

National College National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

and then the literature faculty of the

University of Iași The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in , Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former was converted to a university, the University of , as it was named ...

, where he studied between 1901 and 1906. His first published work appeared in 1904 in

Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol (; March 23, 1847 – February 27, 1920) was a Romanian historian, philosopher, professor, economist, sociologist, and author. Among his many major accomplishments, he is credited with authoring the first major synthes ...

's ''Arhiva'' review. He passed a qualifying examination in 1909 for French and philosophy, and taught high school from 1909 to 1913. In 1923, he earned a doctorate in philosophy, with a thesis on Xenopol as theoretician and philosopher of history, and was granted the title of

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

in 1930. In 1927, Botez joined the faculty of his alma mater as an associate professor. In 1936, following the death of

Garabet Ibrăileanu Garabet Ibrăileanu (; May 23, 1871 – March 11, 1936) was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, University of Iași professor (1908–1934), and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, fo ...

, he became a full professor in the department of modern Romanian literary history, holding the position until his own death. His articles appeared in ''Arhiva'' as well as in other Iași magazines, particularly ''

Viața Românească ''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues. ...

''; he belonged to the intellectual circle associated with the latter publication. His reviews there were gathered into his 1923 debut volume, ''Pe marginea cărților'', but he only occasionally penned criticism, instead preferring to focus on problems of literary historiography, as exemplified in his posthumous ''Figuri și note istorico-literare'' (1944).Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 199. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. He died in Iași in 1943. A street there now bears his name.

Bibliography

*''Pe marginea cărților'' (1923). Iași *''Alexandru Xenopol, gânditor'' (1925). Iași *''În jurul teoriei genurilor literare'' (1930). Iași *''Naturalismul în opera lui Delavrancea'' (1936). Bucharest *''Alexandru Xenopol, teoretician și filosof al istoriei'' (1928). Bucharest: Casa Școalelor *''Titu Maiorescu și locul lui în cultura românească'' (1940). Iași: Brawo *''Figuri și note istorico-literare'' (1944). Bucharest: Casa Școalelor

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botez, Octav 1884 births 1943 deaths Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni Academic staff of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Romanian schoolteachers Romanian literary critics Romanian literary historians