Onirism was a

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

most popular during the 1960s, in the wake of popular uprisings in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. One of the techniques it employed was

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged sp ...

School of thought

The onirist school of thought formed in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

in 1964 around a nucleus composed of Dumitru Țepeneag and Leonid Dimov (writers who were members of the Luceafărul literary circle – named for the literary magazine ''Luceafărul'', edited at the time by

Eugen Barbu Eugen Barbu (; 20 February 1924 – 7 September 1993) was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended tha ...

). There Țepeneag, Barbu and Dimov met Virgil Mazilescu, Vintilă Ivănceanu and Iulian Neacșu. After Eugen Barbu was replaced as a leader of the circle by the ex-avant-garde writer

Miron Radu Paraschivescu __NOTOC__ Miron Radu Paraschivescu (; 2 October 1911 – 17 February 1971) was a Romanian poet, essayist, journalist, and translator. Born in Zimnicea, Teleorman County, he went to high school in Ploiești, after which he studied fine arts, first ...

, Paraschivescu published a poetry-and-prose supplement to the magazine ''Ramuri'' called ''Povestea vorbei''; his goal was a new avant-garde magazine uniting old and new oniric poets and writers. In 1966 Vintilă Ivănceanu, Dumitru Țepeneag, Leonid Dimov and Virgil Mazilescu would all publish in ''Povestea vorbei'' before the magazine was summarily banned by the

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

government. Beginning in 1968, the center of the oniric movement moved toward ''Luceafărul''; there (in addition to the above-mentioned poets and writers),

Emil Brumaru Emil Brumaru (; 25 December 1938 – 5 January 2019) was a Romanian writer and poet. He was renowned for his erotic poetry. Biography Born in Bahmutea, Bessarabia, Brumaru studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Iași before turnin ...

, Florin Gabrea, Sorin Titel, Daniel Turcea and others would publish. Although it was rooted in world oniric literature (especially

German Romanticism German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...

– considered by some critics to be a current related to

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

– and new French fiction), the group was quickly banned by Romanian

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

and Țepeneag was forced into exile in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Many onirist writings remaining in Romania have recently been collected into a book by Corin Braga, a conservator of the

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

of onirism. Onirism extends into Romanian

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

in the works of

Mircea Cărtărescu Mircea Cărtărescu (; born 1 June 1956) is a Romanian novelist, poet, short-story writer, literary critic, and essayist. Biography Born in Bucharest in 1956, he attended Cantemir Vodă National College during the early 1970s. During his sc ...

In medicine

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

, onirism refers to a mental state in which visual

hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming ( REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pse ...

s occur while fully awake. It is a

symptom Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...

of some

parasomnia Parasomnias are a category of sleep disorders that involve abnormal movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, and dreams that occur while falling asleep, sleeping, between sleep stages, or during arousal from sleep. Parasomnias are dissocia ...

s (such as REM sleep behavior disorder and breakdown syndromes), but is more often associated with

drug abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definitions ...

. Mahowald, M. W. and Schenck, C.H., "The REM sleep behavior disorder odyssey". ''Sleep Medicine Reviews''
(Portuguese). Retrieved 2011-04-03.

References

{{Reflist

School of thought

In medicine

References

Further reading