Virgil Nemoianu (, born March 12, 1940) is a
Romanian-American
Romanian Americans are Americans who have Romanian ancestry. According to the 2017 American Community Survey, 478,278 Americans indicated Romanian as their first or second ancestry, however other sources provide higher estimates, which are most ...
essayist, literary critic, and philosopher of culture. He is generally described as a specialist in "
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 ...
" but this is a somewhat limiting label, only partially covering the wider range of his activities and accomplishments. His thinking places him at the intersection of
neo-Platonism
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ide ...
and
neo-Kantianism
In late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the "thin ...
, which he turned into an instrument meant to qualify, channel, and tame the
asperities
In materials science, asperity, defined as "unevenness of surface, roughness, ruggedness" (from the Latin ''asper''—"rough"), has implications (for example) in physics and seismology. Smooth surfaces, even those polished to a mirror finish, ar ...
, as well as what he regarded the impatient accelerations and even absurdities of
modernity
Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...
and
post-modernity
Postmodernity (post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist ''after'' modernity. Some schools of thought hold that modernity ended in the late 20th century – in the ...
. He chose early on to write within the intellectual horizons outlined by
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
and
Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
and has continued to do so throughout his life.
Early life and work
Nemoianu was born on March 12, 1940, 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 ...
,
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 ...
. His father was a lawyer. Of his two grandfathers one was a colonel in the military and conservative statesman, the other a medical doctor. The origin of both sides of the family was the
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
(a southwestern province of Romania), where Virgil Nemoianu spent his elementary school years and all summers until he was 20). These early years and the influence of his grandparents marked all his life with a deep commitment to Central Europe, its values, and its archaic and "idyllic" customs. In 1949 Nemoianu returned to Bucharest, graduated from the elite Titu Maiorescu High School in 1956 and obtained a college degree in
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
and literature from 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 Princel ...
in 1961. Many of his elder relatives (including his father) suffered longer or shorter periods of imprisonment at the hands of the Communist dictatorship. One uncle died in jail, another was executed.
Upon university graduation he was hired as a sub-editor at a Bucharest academic publishing house and subsequently at the weeklies ''
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 ...
'' and ''
Lumea''. In 1964 he joined the English Department of the University of Bucharest, first as an instructor, and soon after as an assistant professor. He visited
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
,
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
, and
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
. He gained permission to travel to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
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 ...
and obtained a doctorate in
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 ...
from the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
in 1971.
The publications of his early, "Romanian", years (c. 1961 – c. 1974) already indicate his ideological orientation. He drew from the traditions of Romanian thinking and criticism (
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu (; 15 February 1840 – 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the ''Junimea'' Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half 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 u ...
,
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...
, and
Lucian Blaga
Lucian Blaga (; 9 May 1895 – 6 May 1961) was a Romanian philosopher, poet, playwright, poetry translator and novelist. He was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period.
Biography
Blaga was born on 9 May 1895 ...
), and even more strongly from the
aesthetic humanist doctrines of the "
Sibiu Literary Circle The Sibiu Literary Circle ( ro, Cercul literar de la Sibiu) was a literary group created during World War II in Sibiu to promote the modernist liberal ideas of Eugen Lovinescu.
The group was formed around Lucian Blaga and other intellectuals fr ...
" as articulated by
Ion Negoiţescu,
Ştefan Augustin Doinaş and others of the same group. These first publications dealt almost equally with Romanian, European, and comparative literature. Among them there was a book-length essay on structuralism (accompanied by an anthology), a selection of texts by
Walter Pater
Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, art critic and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of the Re ...
,
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...
and
T. S. Eliot, and two volumes of collected articles (1971 and 1973).
Career in the West
Once he obtained his doctorate, Nemoianu taught at the Universities of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
and
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
(1973–1974),
California at Berkeley (1975–1978),
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
(1978–1979), and
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
(1979-2016), as well as, in a visiting capacity, at the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
(spring 1995). At the Catholic University of America he has been, successively, associate professor (1979–1985), ordinary professor (1985–1993), and
William J. Byron Distinguished Professor of Literature and Ordinary Professor of Philosophy (since 1993). There, he also held the positions of Director of the Comparative Literature Program (1979–1994) and Associate Academic Vice-president for Graduate Studies (1989–1991).
In 1993 he was elected a member of the
European Academy of Sciences and Arts
The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 37 Nobel Prize laure ...
(Academia Artia et Scientiarium Europae) and in 2003 he was granted the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the
Babeş-Bolyai University in
Cluj-Napoca
; hu, kincses város)
, official_name=Cluj-Napoca
, native_name=
, image_skyline=
, subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status
, subdivision_name2 ...
and in 2010 by the
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (Romanian: ''Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza"''; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in Iași, Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former Academia Mih ...
in
Iaşi, and was invited by the
Central European University
Central European University (CEU) is a private research university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the United States, with campuses in Vienna and Budapest. The university is known for its highly intensive programs in the social sciences and ...
in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
to offer the distinguished cycle of "
René Wellek
René Wellek (August 22, 1903 – November 10, 1995) was a Czech- American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a vastly erudite and ...
lectures" (2004).
Over the years, Virgil Nemoianu has received numerous grants and fellowships from foundations such as
Humboldt,
Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
,
DAAD,
NEH
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
,
USIA
Usia is a village in Kamsaar, Uttar Pradesh, India. It lies southeast of Ghazipur and east of Dildarnagar, close to the Bihar State border.USIA is a historical village of ghazipur as well as uttar pradesh, it was founded by 1. Barbal khan 2. ...
, Taft,
Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; Presumption of death, declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first women in aviation, female aviator to fly solo acro ...
,
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
Regents' Fellowship,
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (german: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled ...
and the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
Center. Among his awards are the
Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
Medal (1998), the "Harry Levin" Award of the American Comparative Literature Association (1986), the
ARA
ARA may refer to:
Media and the arts
* American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences
* '' Artistička Radna Akcija'', compilation album released in former Yugoslavia
* Associate of the Royal Academy, denoting membership in the British Royal Aca ...
Prize for Literature (1989), the Catholic University of America Excellence Award for Research (1987), the Award for Memoir-Writing of the
Writers' Union of Romania
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 ...
(1995) and the Award for Life-Long Achievement of the
Romanian Cultural Foundation The Romanian Cultural Foundation ( ro, Fundaţia Culturală Română) is a Romanian non-governmental organization created in 1990 by writer Augustin Buzura, with the objective of stimulating cultural, artistic and scientific creations, promoting Rom ...
(1997). Special issues of the Romanian monthlies ''
Vatra'' (1999 and 2010), ''
Familia'' (2001) and ''
Revista 22
''Revista 22'' (''22 Magazine'') is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture.
History and profile
''Revista 22'' was started in 1990. The first edition of the magazine was print ...
'' (March 2010) were devoted to Nemoianu's life and work. Articles about him have appeared in 8 encyclopedic works. The Romanian president awarded Nemoianu the country's highest civilian award the
Order of the Star of Romania
The Order of the Star of Romania (Romanian: ''Ordinul Steaua României'') is Romania's highest civil Order and second highest State decoration after the defunct Order of Michael the Brave. It is awarded by the President of Romania. It has five r ...
(Steaua României) in the rank of commander (2010).
Active in his profession, Virgil Nemoianu has been a member of the
Writers' Union of Romania
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 ...
, the
International Comparative Literature Association
The International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) (French: Association Internationale de Littérature Comparée—AILC) is an international organization for international research in comparative literature.
Founded in 1954, ICLA pro ...
(where he was secretary-general from 1994 to 2000 and vice-president from 2000 to 2005), the
Association of Literary Scholars and Critics (where he was conference organizer in 2002 and member of the executive board from 2002 to 2005), the
Goethe Society of North America The Goethe Society of North America (GSNA) was founded in December 1979 in San Francisco as a non-profit organization dedicated to the encouragement of research on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and his age.
The Goethe Society has allied ...
, the
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) is an academic society for humanities research related to the "long" eighteenth century, from the later seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries. ASECS was established in 1969, ...
, the
Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...
(where he was twice divisional executive committee member and president, in 1986–1991, for Comparative Romantic and 19th Century Studies and from 1994 to 1999 for European Literary Relations), the
American Conference on Romanticism (where he was executive board member from 1997 to 2000), Committee Member of the
American Council for Learned Societies
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
(1991–1992) and others. He has been contributing editor or board member on more than 20 scholarly or literary journals in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has been a
consultant
A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization.
Consulting servic ...
,
evaluator
In computer science, an interpreter is a computer program that directly executes instructions written in a programming or scripting language, without requiring them previously to have been compiled into a machine language program. An interprete ...
and/or
referent
A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, ...
for over 100 institutions, colleges, foundations, and scholarly or political centers (for many of these several times), doctoral director for 19 young scholars, and doctoral committee member for another two dozen. He has participated in three dozen scholarly conferences, some of which he organized himself and in others of which he chaired sessions, in North America, Africa, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. Over the years he has delivered approximately 75 invited public lectures, papers at scholarly conferences, and keynote addresses. Nemoianu has written articles and/or co-ordinated sections for a number of encyclopedias, including, among others the ''Ungar Encyclopedia of 20th century Literature'' (1980, 1992, 2001), ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
'' (1976, 1977, 1978), ''The New Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1980s) ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'' (1993), ''Encyclopedia of the Essay'' (1997). So far he has published – in several languages and in a variety of countries – a total of over 650 scholarly articles, reviews, columns, interviews and occasional pieces.
In May 2011 he was invested with the Royal Award "Nihil Sine Deo".
In 2015 he was elected Honorary Member of the Romanian National Academy. A 10-volume collection of his works is in the process of publication by Spandugino Publishers in Bucharest (beginning with 2014; 8 volumes have appeared. Volumes 7-8 received the award of "Best Book of the Year" by the weekly "Romania Literara").
Main ideas and orientations
Nemoianu's chief fields of research interest and accomplishment are European
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, the
intellectual history
Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...
of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and
aesthetic theory.
After 1971 he wrote first on the 18th century, and soon mostly on the early 19th century. He was also active as a collaborator to
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
, the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
and the Romanian Section of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
on Romanian issues, an activity continued in the 1990s through (mostly political) articles in the Romanian media.
There are four central concepts in Nemoianu's writings. The first is the autonomy and importance of the aesthetic in
human existence
The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and ana ...
. The beautiful is a key faculty of the
human mind
The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...
, no less than a basic attribute of
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
; its
perception
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...
is present from the beginning of
humanization in all societies and civilizations, large and small, known to us. Nemoianu has argued constantly, though in different contexts and using different examples, that without a sense and grasp of the beautiful, human life would be radically impoverished and perhaps its very survival might be endangered. (This can be seen most prominently in books published in 1989, 2006 and 2009.)
The second is that the best context for social and political activity and functioning is a moderate
conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
, based upon
natural reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...
,
common sense
''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political argu ...
,
free enterprise
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
, and respect for
tradition
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
. (This view is most clearly expressed in volumes that came out in 1977, 1989, 1999, and 2001). His political philosophy draws heavily on
Burke
Burke is an Anglo-Norman Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (–1206) had the surname ''de Burgh'' which was gaelicised ...
,
Tocqueville
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his works ...
, and
Oakeshott.
The third was an emphasis on the powerful connection between the fields of the religious and the cultural (as illustrated primarily in books that came out in 1992 and in 1997). Throughout his career, Nemoianu has tried to show the compatibility between the
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
and the
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
branches of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. His intellectual guides in this regard were
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar (12 August 1905 – 26 June 1988) was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered an important Catholic theologian of the 20th century. He was announced as his choice to become a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, ...
,
Henri de Lubac
Henri-Marie Joseph Sonier de Lubac (; 20 February 1896 – 4 September 1991), better known as Henri de Lubac, was a French Jesuit priest and cardinal who is considered one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. His writin ...
and
Romano Guardini
Romano Guardini (17 February 1885 – 1 October 1968) was a German Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in the 20th century.
Life and work
Guardini was born in Verona, I ...
, as well as a number of Orthodox theologians and thinkers.
The fourth is that the "
Romantic age
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
" (or simply the period 1770–1848) was a fundamental turning point in human history, the period in which durable images and
thinking models were devised as a response to the
consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
of a globalization of human affairs and an acceleration of history; Nemoianu repeatedly used an examination of this age as an analogy to contemporary events (particularly in books published in 1984, 2004, and 2006). He also expanded the use of the period concept of "
Biedermeier
The ''Biedermeier'' period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in ...
" for later Romanticism in Europe as a whole and emphasized its vast importance for later historical and cultural developments. The use of "Biedermeier" as a fundamental period instrument helped the author integrate East-Central with Western European culture. Nemoianu tried to merge his aesthetic, religious, philosophical and political view in a volume devoted to the contemporary age (2010).
General observations
Virgil Nemoianu has written in both English and Romanian. His essays have been translated into
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
,
Hungarian,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, and
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
, among other languages. A few of his works are somewhat literary in their structure, specifically a collection of
aphorism
An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
s and fantastic descriptions (1968), a volume of memoirs (1994), and travel notes (2006). He has also published (either alone or in collaboration) translations of both poetry and prose.
Nemoianu has been married to Anca (''née'' Ţifescu) since 1969. Anca Nemoianu received a PHD from the University of California, Berkeley (1986) and teaches linguistics. They have one son, Virgil Martin Nemoianu, born 1974, who is now associate professor in the Philosophy Department of Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA.
Publications
Scholarly books in English
* ''Micro-Harmony. The Growth and Uses of the Idyllic Model in Literature'' (1977)
* ''The Taming of Romanticism. European Literature and the Age of Biedermeier'' (1984); Romanian transl. 1998, 2004.
* ''Theory of the Secondary. Literature, Progress and Reaction'' (1989); Romanian transl. 1997
* ''The Triumph of Imperfection. The Silver Age of Sociocultural Moderation in Early 19th Century Europe'' (2006)
* ''Imperfection and Defeat. The Function of Aesthetic Imagination in Human Society'' (2006)
* ''Postmodernism and Cultural Identities. Conflicts and Coexistence (2010)
Scholarly books (in English) edited or co-ordinated
* ''The Hospitable Canon. Essays on Literary Play, Scholarly Choice, and Popular Pressures'' (1991; with Robert Royal)
* ''Play, Literature, Religion. Essays in Cultural Intertextuality'' (1992; with Robert Royal)
[A. K. Nardo in "Canadian Review of Comparative Literature",20 (Sept-Dec. 1993), 3-4: 505-7]
* ''Non-Fictional Romantic Prose. Expanding Borders'' (2004; with Steven Sondrup)
* Two issues each of ''Stanford Literature Review'' (1980s) and ''RNL/CWR'' (1990s) – guest editor.
Books of literary, philosophical and cultural criticism (in Romanian)
* ''Structuralism'' (''Structuralismul''), 1967
* ''The calm of values'' (''Calmul valorilor''), 1971
* ''The useful and the pleasant'' (''Utilul si plăcutul''), 1973
* ''The smile of abundance. Lyrical knowledge and ideological models in Ştefan Aug. Doinaş's work'', 1994
* ''The games of divinity. Thought, Freedom and Religion at the millennium's end'', 2000
* ''Romania and her liberalisms'' (''România şi liberalismele ei'') - 1999
* ''Tradition and Freedom'' (''Tradiţie şi libertate''), 2001
* ''Calm wisdom. Dialogues in Cyberspace with Robert Lazu'' (''Înţelepciunea calmă. Dialoguri în cyberspace cu Robert Lazu''), 2002
* ''Romania as Seen by Us. Conversation in Berlin with Sorin Antohi'' (''România noastră. Convorbiri berlineze cu Sorin Antohi''), 2008, 2009
Editing. Translations into Romanian
* ''Literary Essays. Pater, Chesterton, Eliot'' (''Eseuri literare. Pater, Chesterton, Eliot''). (1966). Selection, introduction, translation, notes.
* ''Lyric portraits.
Ion Pillat
Ion Pillat (31 March 1891 – 17 April 1945) was a distinguished Romanian poet. He is best known for his volume ''Pe Argeș în sus'' (''Upstream on the Argeș'') and ''Poeme într-un vers'' (''One-line poems'').
His maternal grandfather wa ...
'' (''Portrete lirice. Ion Pillat'') (1969) Editing and introduction.
* ''Poems.
Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951.
Biography and work
Family and beginnings
Go ...
'' (''Poeme. Gottfried Benn'') (1973) Introduction and translation (with Şt. A. Doinaş)
* ''Alibi and Other Poems. Şt. A. Doinaş'' (1973) Translation into English with Peter Jay
* ''The conversational essay from
Bacon
Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
to
Huxley'' (Eseul conversaţional englez de la Bacon la Huxley'') (1975) 2 vols. Selection and introduction
* ''The Eighth Day'' by
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' — a ...
(1976) Introduction and translation (with A. Nemoianu)
* ''Hyperion, The Death of Empedocles, Hymns and Odes by
Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Part ...
'' (''Hyperion. Moartea lui Empedocle. Imnuri şi ode de Friedrich Holderlin'') (1977). 2 vols. Translated into Romanian with Şt. A. Doinaş and I. Negoiţescu.
* ''
Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu (also known as Ion Desideriu Sârbu; June 28, 1919 – September 17, 1989) was a Romanian philosopher, novelist, essayist and dramatist.
Sîrbu was born in Petrila, Hunedoara. A university associate professor and theater c ...
Crossing the curtain'' (''I.D. Sîrbu. Traversarea cortinei'') (1994) introduction and edition of literary correspondence (with M. Ghica)
Literary works in Romanian
* ''Symptoms'' (''Simptome''), 1969
* ''Interior Archipelago, Memorialistic Essays 1940-1975'' (''Arhipelag interior. Eseuri memorialistice 1940-1975''), 1990
* ''As Stranger through Europe'' (''Străin prin Europa''), 2006
References
* Nicolae Manolescu - Istoria critică a literaturii române (Bucharest, Cartea Românească, 2008), pp. 1236–1239
* Ed. I. Boldea, "Nemoianu -70" (Piteşti: Editura Paralela 45" – forthcoming)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemoianu, Virgil
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