Sami Damian (sometimes referred to as S. Damian or Samy Damian (born Samuel Druckmann, 18 July 1930, Alba Iulia,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

- 1 August 2012) was a Romanian-born Jewish literary critic and essayist.

Biography

Studies

S. Damian studied at the Jewish "Cultura Max Aziel" middle school in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, then at the "Mihai Eminescu" Literature and Literary Criticism School in Bucharest (1950-1955), and at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest (diploma received in 1972).

Literary activity

S. Damian made his debut around 1955/1956 with literary criticism written in the spirit of that age's

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

tism. He worked for a while as a copy editor for

Contemporanul ''Contemporanul'' (The Contemporary) is a Romanian literary magazine published in Iaşi, Romania from 1881 to 1891. It was sponsored by the socialist circle of the city. A new magazine ''Contimporanul ''Contimporanul'' (antiquated spelling of ...

, Gazeta literară,

România literară ''România Literară'' is a cultural and literary magazine from Romania. In its original edition, it was founded on 1 January 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași until 3 December 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared on ...

and Luceafărul. Marginalised for a period of time, he was sent to West Germany in the mid-1970s to teach Romanian language and literature at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

, after which he

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

. He would continue to teach there until 1995. After the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

, he published several books of literary criticism, essays, etc. He married Simona Timaru-Druckmann in 1996. In 1998

Ion Negoițescu Ion Negoiţescu (; also known as Nego; August 10, 1921 – February 6, 1993) was a Romanian literary historian, critic, poet, novelist and memoirist, one of the leading members of the Sibiu Literary Circle. A rebellious and eccentric figure, Nego ...

's book ''Dialoguri după tăcere. Scrisori către S. Damian'' ("Dialogues after silence. Letters to S. Damian") was published. He had a twin brother, Marcel.

Books

* ''Generalitatea și individualitatea ideii operei literare'' (The Generality and Individuality of the Idea of Literary Work), 1955 * ''Încercări de analiză literară'' (Attempts at Literary Analysis), 1956 * ''Direcții și tendințe în proza nouă'' (Directions and Tendencies in the New Prose), 1963 * ''Intrarea în castel'' (Entering the Castle), București, 1970 * ''G. Călinescu romancier. Eseu despre măștile jocului'' (G. Calinescu, Novelist. An Essay on the Game Masks), 1971 * ''Scufița Roșie nu mai merge în pădure'' (Litte Red Riding Hood Does Not Go Into the Woods Anymore), 1994 * ''Fals tratat despre psihologia succesului'' (False Treatise on the Psychology of Success), 1972; ediția București, 1995 * ''Duelul invizibil'' (The Invisible Duel), 1996 * ''Replici din burta lupului'' (Replies From the Wolf's Belly), București, 1997 * ''Aruncând mănușa'' (Throwing the Gauntlet), București, 1999 * ''Pivnițe, mansarde, nu puține trepte'' (Basements, Attics, Not Few Stairs), 2002 * ''Aripile lui Icar'' (The Wings of Icarus), 2004 * ''Trepte în sus, trepte în jos'' (Stairs Up, Stairs Down), 2006 * ''Păr de aur, păr de cenușă'' (Hair of Gold, Hair of Ashes), 2007 * ''Nu toți copacii s-au înălțat la cer'' (Not All the Trees Have Grown to the Sky), 2010 * ''Zbor aproape de pământ'' (Flying Close to the Ground), 2008

Awards

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 ...

Award, 1970

References

Article in România literară by Gelu Ionescu

Article in România literară about ''Pivnițe, mansarde, nu puține trepte''

Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Damian, S. 1930 births 2012 deaths People from Alba Iulia Romanian essayists Romanian literary critics Jewish Romanian writers Romanian expatriates in Germany Romanian defectors