Paul Georgescu (; November 7, 1923 – October 15, 1989) was a Romanian literary critic, journalist, fiction writer and communist political figure. Remembered as both a main participant in the imposition of Socialist Realism in its Romanian form and a patron of dissenting modernist and postmodern literature, he began his career in politics during World War II, when he sided with the anti-fascist groups and the underground Romanian Communist Party in opposition to the Axis-aligned Ion Antonescu regime. During the first twenty years of Communist Romania, Georgescu assisted Leonte Răutu in exercising Stalinist control over local literature, but also published young nonconformist authors, beginning with Nichita Stănescu and Matei Călinescu, in his Gazeta Literară. Sidelined over his own incompatibility with the Socialist Realist dogma, and returning to public life during the 1960s liberalization enforced by Nicolae Ceaușescu, he became openly adverse to Ceaușescu's variety of national communism and clandestinely cultivated the prohibited ideology of Trotskyism.
During the final part of his life, Paul Georgescu became especially known as an experimental novelist, among the first postmodernists on the local scene, and, although physically impaired, one of the most prolific Romanian authors of the late 20th century. His main works of the time, including the critically acclaimed Vara baroc ("Baroque in Summer"), deal with urban and suburban life on the Bărăgan Plain, creatively parodying the work of 19th and early 20th century writers. While admired for his contribution to fiction and his lifelong promotion of anti-dogmatic literature, Georgescu remains controversial for his political affiliations and his early participation in censorship.
Biography
Early life and World War II Georgescu was born in Țăndărei, a commune on the Bărăgan (presently included in Ialomița County). Both his parents were middle-class ethnic Romanians, Radu Cosaşu, "Paulgeorgescianul 'Mda' " , in Dilema Veche, Vol. II, Nr. 94, November 2005 his father having set up practice as a physician.Horia Gârbea, Trecute vieţi de fanți și de birlici, Cartea Românească, Bucharest, 2008, p.94. From early on, he was alarmed by the rise of fascist groups, primarily the Iron Guard, adopting a Marxist perspective in reaction.Manea, p.206-207
Involved in anti-fascist circles during World War II, the future writer is believed to have joined the then-illegal Romanian Communist Party (PCR) as an adolescent, and reportedly fought against the Nazi-supported Ion Antonescu regime (see Romania during World War II).Manea, p.202, 206 Iulia Arsintescu, "Un scriitor uitat (?) şi o faptă bună (!)", at Editura LiterNet, May 15, 2003; retrieved February 18, 2009 Dan C. Mihăilescu, "Descumpănit și fără plăcere", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 295, November 2005 Although affiliated with a party which followed a Stalinist and pro-Soviet line, the young activist may have been appreciative of Trotskyism, and this sympathy is known to have surfaced in his later years. Ștefan Agopian, "La România Literară (XIV)" , in Academia Cațavencu, July 22, 2009Călinescu & Vianu, p.150; Manea, p.210 Georgescu was a political prisoner of the Antonescu regime, said to have been because he had given shelter to a Soviet spy. He was, according to legend, sentenced to death by the authorities before turning nineteen, but managed to evade execution.Manea, p.202 His later friend and fellow author Radu Cosaşu writes that "[Paul Georgescu] had been in danger of a court-martial".
During the early stages of Soviet occupation, and before the official establishment of Communist Romania, Paul Georgescu took an active part in communization at a cultural level in general, and the establishment of a local Socialist Realist trend in particular. Researcher Ana Selejan thus lists him in the "first generation of creators, tailors and propagandists of the new literary order."Selajan, p.154. Selejan's list also includes Maria Banuş, Aurel Baranga, Radu Boureanu, Marcel Breslaşu, Dan Deşliu, Geo Dumitrescu, Miron-Radu Paraschivescu, Traian Şelmaru, Cicerone Theodorescu and Ion Vitner.
Political preeminence In the 1950s, Georgescu became an activist of the PCR Central Committee's Agitprop section, an office which reportedly led literary circles to perceive him as the éminence grise of chief ideologues Leonte Răutu and Iosif Chişinevschi. Valeriu Râpeanu, "Cea dintâi zi la Capşa", in Magazin Istoric, June 2001 Valeriu Râpeanu, "Ce roman, viaţa lui Zaharia Stancu", in Magazin Istoric, September 1998 After a restructuring of the education system, he also advanced hierarchically to the position of lecturer at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Letters. A member of the newly created Writers' Union of Romania, Georgescu was first elected to the head bureau of its Prose Section in October 1952.Selejan, p.148-149, 353 He was also rapporteur at the 1956 Writers' Union Congress, during which the Communist Party, using Stalinist rhetoric, condemned the cultural aspects of De-Stalinization as "formalism" and "vulgar sociologism".F. Mihăilescu, p.96-112 His texts, offering endorsement to the Romanian Socialist Realist current, were published as Încercări critice ("Critical Essays", 1957 and 1958). In March 1954, he was co-founder of Gazeta Literară, inaugurated as a Romanian equivalent to the Soviet Union's Literaturnaya Gazeta.Dimisianu & Elvin, p.94 The new publication was initially led by aging writer Zaharia Stancu, whose disagreements with the PCR leadership made the latter withdraw him from public life and assign him the honorary position of magazine director. Georgescu, who took over for Stancu as editor, published articles in the other venues of the Socialist Realist press: Contemporanul, Viaţa Românească and the PCR platform Scînteia. With Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Sergiu Fărcăşan and Petru Dumitriu, he contributed the sporadic literary chronicles at Scînteia (beginning 1953).Selejan, p.193-194
Paul Georgescu assumed a first-hand position in directing and promoting a young generation of writers during 1952, when he became one of the main lecturers at the newly founded School of Literature, a Writers' Union venture.Vasile, p.278-279 In 1954, Georgescu hired Valeriu Râpeanu, at the time a student and later known for his scholarly works on 19th century poet Mihai Eminescu, to a position at Gazeta Literară. Among the other essayists specialized in literary criticism who were promoted by Georgescu as head of the magazine were Gabriel Dimisianu, Ştefan Cazimir and Nicolae Velea (the latter of whom he also encouraged to become a short story writer).Dimisianu & Elvin, p.93 By 1957, he was also in touch with Matei Călinescu, future critic and novelist, whom he first employed as Gazeta Literară proofreader.Călinescu & Vianu, p.146-147 At that stage, Călinescu recalls, Georgescu developed a fondness for both him the young modernist poet Nichita Stănescu, as well as with their literary friends Cezar Baltag, Nicolae Breban, Grigore Hagiu, Modest Morariu and Petre Stoica.Călinescu & Vianu, p.149 Although the group soon after migrated toward Anatol E. Baconsky's Cluj-based rival magazine Steaua,Călinescu & Vianu, p.314 Georgescu is occasionally credited with having launched Stănescu by welcoming him among the prominent poets of his day.Călinescu & Vianu, p.149, 306; Dimisianu & Elvin, p.91, 93; Manea, p.215 Gabriela Adameşteanu, "Nu există cultură formată numai din genii" (interview with Ştefan Agopian), in Revista 22, Nr. 803, July 2005 Ovidiu Şimonca, " 'A fost o mare bucurie a mea să descopăr şi să inventez lumi'. Interviu cu Ştefan Agopian", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 310, March 2006 He is believed to have had a similar role in the careers of Matei CălinescuCălinescu & Vianu, p.336, 338; Dimisianu & Elvin, p.93-94 and Călinescu's Gazeta Literară companions,Călinescu & Vianu, p.306; Dimisianu & Elvin, p.91, 93-94 as well as in those of Ştefan Bănulescu and Marin Preda.
Conflicts with other sections of the Socialist Realist cultural establishment surfaced in the 1950s, when the tolerance of modernism by Gazeta Literară was officially condemned as "escapism" by Crohmălniceanu.Călinescu & Vianu, p.336-337 In 1957, he further upset communist decision-makers by agreeing to publish article Incomparabilul ("The Incomparable One") by Constantin Ţoiu, which lampooned his fellow Socialist Realist author Dumitriu. Ioana Macrea-Toma, "Constantin Ţoiu şi poetica amintirilor" , in Apostrof, Nr. 10/2005, republished by the Romanian Cultural Institute's România Culturală Eventually, ideological disagreements with the communist apparatus made his colleagues subject him to a censure vote, and Georgescu was removed from his position at Gazeta Literară. Călinescu, who records both his disgruntlement and the definition he gave to his new condition: scriitor la domiciliu ("writer in residence"). His editorial office at Gazeta Literară was assigned to Aurel Mihale, himself succeeded by Tiberiu Utan.Dimisianu & Elvin, p.95
1960s transition With the rise to power of Nicolae Ceauşescu and the onset of relative liberalization, Romanian Socialist Realism came to an end. During that stage, although hostile to the new leadership, Georgescu adapted to the requirements, a change exemplified by his 1967 collection of essays, Polivalenţa necesară ("The Necessary Plurality"), and by his 1968 novel Coborînd ("Descending"). In parallel, he published two collections of short stories: Vîrstele tinereţii ("The Ages of Youth", 1967) and 3 nuvele ("3 Novellas", 1973), the latter of which featured his acclaimed story Pilaf (named after the Oriental dish). Bedros Horasangian, "Pilaf", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 90, November 2001 Gazeta Literară was itself a victim of the liberalization climate, and, in 1968, was closed down to be replaced with România Literară, edited by Geo Dumitrescu.
Georgescu continued to play an important part in launching the careers of young writers. Beginning 1969, he helped novelist Norman Manea establish himself on the local scene.Manea, p.208-210, 216-217 Between 1976 and 1986, Georgescu was in correspondence with Ion Simuţ, an aspiring critic whom the educational system of the day had assigned to a schoolteacher's position in the remote commune of Ţeţchea, Bihor County.Daniel Cristea-Enache, "Paul Georgescu - Ion Simuţ. Manualul criticului literar", in Concert de deschidere, Editura LiterNet, 2004. (available online at the LiterNet site) He helped Simuţ publish his contributions in Bucharest journals, personally intervening with editors. He was in the meantime engaged in a rivalry with some main figures of the neorealist tendency, who were traditionally closer to the Ceauşescu regime: Preda, Eugen Barbu, Petru Dumitriu and Titus Popovici. During that time, he ended his collaboration with Scînteia and began contributing to România Liberă daily, which, under Octavian Paler's direction, took a certain distance from the official line.Manea, p.210, 216-217 According to Manea, Georgescu's contributions to România Literară, which also hosted writers diverging from the PCR-imposed course, were "never refused".Manea, p.216 He also published two other novels: Înainte de tăcere ("Before the Silence", 1975) and Doctorul Poenaru ("Doctor Poenaru", 1976), followed in 1977 by Revelion (titled after the common word for a New Year's Eve party). Ion Simuţ, "Vipie, zăpuşeală şi zăduf" , in România Literară, Nr. 29/2007
Final years