Sorin Alexandrescu (born 18 August 1937) is a Romanian-born academic, literary critic,

semiotician Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...

, linguist, essayist, and translator. Born 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 ...

as the son of Constantin, a magistrate, and Ileana,

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...

's sister, he graduated from the "Mihai Viteazu" High School in his hometown (1955), and after that, from the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest (1959). After teaching

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princ ...

, where he was considered to be a structuralist, he was sent in 1969 by the Romanian authorities to teach Romanian language and literature at universities in Amsterdam and Groningen. In 1974 he decided to defect. In 1976, he founded the ''International Journal of Roumanian Studies''. During the

1989 Romanian Revolution 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 returned to Romania as a correspondent for a Dutch newspaper. In 1998, he was named presidential adviser for culture. In 2001, he settled permanently in Romania again. That same year, he was one of the founders of the so-called ''Centrul de Excelență în Studiul Imaginii'' at the

, together with Dan Grigorescu, Mihai Zamfir, Laura Mesina, Vlad Alexandrescu, Vasile Morar and Zoe Petre.

Books

* ''The Logic of Personages'', 1973 * ''Logique du personnage: reflexions sur l'univers faulknerien'', (1974) * ''Dimitrie Cantemir: Roemeens historicus en politicus 1673-1723'', Bussum 1975 * ''Transformational grammar and the Rumanian language'', 1977 * ''Richard Rorty'', 1995 * ''Figurative of the Art. Beginning and End. 20th Century in Romania'', 1998 * ''Paradoxul român'', 1998 * ''Identitate în ruptură. Mentalitati românești postbelice'', 2000 * ''La modernité a l'Est. 13 aperçus sur la literature roumaine'', 2000

References

External links

Articles by Sorin Alexandrescu
in ''Observator cultural''
Centrul Cultural Pitești

Solomon Marcus, ''Observator cultural'' - numărul 126, iulie 2002

Carmen Mușat, ''Observator cultural'' - numărul 338, septembrie 2006 ''Interviews''

Raluca Alexandrescu, ''Observator cultural'' - numărul 52, februarie 2001

Raluca Alexandrescu, ''Observator cultural'' - numărul 53, februarie 2001

Carmen Mușat, ''Observator cultural'' - numărul 547, octombrie 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandrescu, Sorin 1937 births University of Bucharest alumni Romanian literary critics Dutch academics Romanian translators Romanian essayists Linguists from Romania Linguists from the Netherlands Romanian expatriates in the Netherlands Romanian defectors Communication scholars Structuralists University of Bucharest faculty Living people 20th-century translators 20th-century essayists