Șerban Cioculescu (; 7 September 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist who was born in Drobeta-Turnu Severin and died in Bucharest. He held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, as well as membership of the Romanian Academy and chairmanship of its Library. Often described as one of the most representative Romanian critics of the interwar period, he took part in the cultural debates of the age, and, as a left-wing sympathizer who supported secularism, was involved in extended polemics with the traditionalist, far right and nationalist press venues. From early on in his career, Cioculescu was also noted for his selective approach to literary modernism and the avant-garde, preferring to place his cultural references with Neoclassicism.
Acclaimed for his research into the work and biographies of writers Ion Luca Caragiale and Tudor Arghezi, and considered one of the leading experts on these subjects, he was primarily a literary columnist. Throughout his lifetime, Cioculescu worked with prominent Romanian press venues, among them Adevărul, Curentul, Dreptatea, Gazeta Literară and România Literară. Marginalized by fascist governments during World War II and persecuted by the communist regime up to the 1960s, Cioculescu later developed an ambiguous relationship with the national communist authorities, returning to the cultural mainstream and regaining his influence over the literary scene. It was during the latter interval that Cioculescu provoked several controversies, primarily by speaking out against the rebellious Onirist writers and the innovative poetry of Nichita Stănescu.
Cioculescu had a complex relationship with the critics of his generation, between a lifelong friendship with Vladimir Streinu and a fluctuating rivalry with George Călinescu. He was brother to essayist, critic and victim of the communist regime Radu Cioculescu, and father to writer Barbu Cioculescu.
Biography
Early years As he was to recall later in life, Șerban Cioculescu was a sickly and inhibited child, who enjoyed spending his time in the family garden. Simona Cioculescu, "Amintirile lui Șerban Cioculescu", in România Literară, Nr. 24/2007 Simona Cioculescu, "Printre uriași", in Ziarul Financiar, 19 October 2007 Al. Săndulescu, "Mâncătorul de cărți", in România Literară, Nr. 11/2008 Born in Bucharest, he was the second son of engineer N. Cioculescu, and the younger brother (by one year) of Radu, who later made himself known for both his original literary works and his translations from Marcel Proust. Iulian Băicuș, "Marcel Proust și românii", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 70, June 2001 Both parents died when the brothers were still young children: their father in 1912, their mother in 1914. They were assigned to the care of his grandparents, who reputedly favored a severe approach to education. According to Cioculescu, although objectionable, his grandmother's stern nature ultimately contributed to fortifying his internal self, given that "happiness has no educational virtues."
Cioculescu's primary education was completed at the Schewitz-Thierrin boarding school, which left him with other similarly unpleasant memories. He later graduated from the Traian High School in Turnu Severin, a Danube port in western Romania. He subsequently attended Bucharest University's Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, where he specialized in the study of the French language. Cioculescu had among his professors critics Mihail Dragomirescu and Ovid Densusianu, comparatist Charles Drouhet, as well as historians Nicolae Iorga and Vasile Pârvan. He made himself known early on by speaking out his mind during Dragomirescu's lectures, and taking distance from his teacher's opinions.Călinescu, p.914 It was during one of Dragomirescu's classes that Cioculescu first met Vladimir Streinu, who became his best friend. He was also acquainted to and fell in love with his female colleague Maria (Mioara) Iovițoiu, whom he soon after married.
Cioculescu made his press debut in 1923, when he began publishing reviews in the literary supplement of Facla, the magazine created and led by socialist writer N. D. Cocea. As he later recalled, Cocea encouraged him to pursue this activity further, telling him: "I believe you have the fabric of a critic." Over the following years, he had numerous articles and regular columns published in several venues, including the left-wing daily Adevărul and Camil Petrescu's weekly Săptămâna Muncii Intelectuale și Artistice. He was also a frequenter of Sburătorul circle, established by his older colleague, literary theorist Eugen Lovinescu.
He underwent further training in France (1926–1928), studying at the University of Paris' École Pratique des Hautes Etudes and the Collège de France. Alex. Ștefănescu, "Șerban Cioculescu", in Convorbiri Literare, August 2004 Planning to write his Ph.D. on the life and work of French man of letters Ferdinand Brunetière, he had initially applied for a state scholarship, but lost it when the state police, Siguranța Statului, having caught rumor that he held suspicious left-wing ideas, opened a file on him. Instead, he relied on money inherited from his maternal family, the Millotens, to finance both his trip and studies and provide for his pregnant wife. Their son, Barbu Cioculescu, was born before the end of their sojourn, an event which increased the family's expenses. During the same period, Cioculescu frequented other Romanian students in Paris—sociologist Mircea VulcănescuEliade (1990), p.132 and linguist Alexandru Graur.
Debut Shortly after his return from Paris, Cioculescu established himself as a presence on the literary scene, and began frequenting the informal and bohemian literary club formed around Casa Capșa restaurant. One of his earliest polemics was carried with his colleague Perpessicius by means of Adevărul journal: Cioculescu found his adversary's aesthetic relativism and rejection of "sectarianism" to be incompatible with the mission of critic.Paul Cernat, Avangarda românească și complexul periferiei: primul val, Cartea Românească, Bucharest, 2007, p.316. Between 1928 and 1929, Cioculescu and Streinu were on the staff of Kalende, a literary magazine published in Pitești, Argeș County. After a short interval during which he worked as a schoolteacher in Găești town (where he was notably a contributor to the short-lived modernist review Cristalul), Dumitru Hîncu, "Anii '30 – O revistă 'juvenilă'... și 'matură' ", in România Literară, Nr. 5/2007 Cioculescu entered the civil service, becoming an inspector of Romanian schools. This was the alleged start of a documented lifelong rivalry between Cioculescu and literary historian George Călinescu: the inspector reportedly chose to intervene during an Italian-language class Călinescu was giving to high school students, and managed instead to infuriate him.
Between 1928 and 1937, when the newspaper was banned, Cioculescu was, with Felix Aderca and Lovinescu, one of the main literary columnists of Adevărul, writing studies on novels by Camil Petrescu, Liviu Rebreanu and Mihail Sadoveanu. Florentina Tone, "Scriitorii de la Adevĕrul" , in Adevărul, 30 December 2008 His contributions also included polemical pieces on generically cultural subjects, such as a 1929 essay on the Romanians, their process of ethnogenesis and the links with the Roman Empire (titled Latinitatea noastră, "Our Latinness"). In 1934, another one of his essays was published by the state-sponsored literary review Revista Fundațiilor Regale. It was an overview of diverse novels and novelists to have made themselves remarked during the previous year: Mircea Eliade, Gib Mihăescu, Cezar Petrescu, Gala Galaction, Constantin Stere, Ionel Teodoreanu, Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște, Damian Stănoiu and George Mihail Zamfirescu, alongside Dragomirescu, Lovinescu, Camil Petrescu, Rebreanu and Sadoveanu. Claudia Daboveanu, Valeriu Râpeanu, "Scriitorul periferiei românești", in Jurnalul Național, 28 July 2009
His earliest contribution to publishing was a 1935 volume covering the final part of Ion Luca Caragiale's life, as reflected by the correspondence between the writer and literary critic Paul Zarifopol. His interest in the 19th-century author also covered the unpublished notes of his recently deceased son, novelist Mateiu Caragiale. He studied and partly transcribed Mateiu's notes, some of which reportedly made hostile claims about his father—both the notes and a large portion of his rendition (borrowed by Cioculescu himself to Mateiu's half-sister Ecaterina) mysteriously disappeared over the following decade. Paul Cernat, "Spre Ion Iovan, prin Mateiu Caragiale", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 153, February 2003 Paul Cernat, "De la Barbu Cioculescu citire", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 319, May 2006
Cioculescu and the "new generation" controversies At the time, he also made the acquaintance of Mircea Eliade, a rebellious essayist and modernist novelist who exercised his influence over a large part of Romanian public opinion, and who called for a spiritual revolution. Literary historians Z. Ornea and Nicolae Manolescu both note that, although Cioculescu and his group were very close to Eliade in terms of chronology, the difference in attitude made them seem and be referred to as the "old generation".Ornea (1995), p.162-163 Nicolae Manolescu, "Mircea Eliade, 13 martie 1907 – 22 aprilie 1986", in România Literară, Nr. 13/2007 Cioculescu reviewed Eliade's Itinerariu spiritual ("Spiritual Itinerary") collection for Viața Literară magazine. According to Eliade himself, this was done "critically but with great sympathy", while Italian researcher Emanuela Costantini defined the entire debate as having been carried out in "rather tame tones".Emanuela Costantini, Nae Ionescu, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran. Antiliberalismo nazionalista alla periferia d'Europa, Morlacchi Editore, Perugia, 2005, p.107. This opinion is partly shared by Manolescu, who views Cioculescu's original reaction as "somewhat benevolent", while the subsequent articles on the subject featured a more polemical nature. Cioculescu acknowledged Eliade's "impressive erudition" and status as "column leader" of a generation concerned with Romanian Orthodox spirituality and mysticism, but contended that Eliade's manner was "occasionally plethoric, poetically inebriating itself through abuse". Ion Hadârcă, "Mircea Eliade la începuturi" , in Revista Sud-Est, Nr. 1/2007
While the two figures continued to criticize each other in writing over theoretical aspects, Cioculescu admired Eliade the novelist. In 1932, the former was among the jury members granting the Editura Cultura Națională annual prize for literature, and was instrumental in assigning the distinction to Eliade's Bengal Nights novel.Eliade (1990), p.238, 249 In late autumn, he attended a session of Eliade's group Criterion, which was at the time a platform organizing public debates around intellectuals of various hues, and was admitting speakers from the far left, the far right, and various moderate fields in between. The conference, which discussed the attitudes of French novelist and Marxist essayist André Gide, was interrupted by members of the fascist and antisemitic National-Christian Defense League, who heckled the speakers and threatened them with violence.Ornea (1995), p.150, 152–153 The incident was reported by the League's newspaper Asaltul, which praised the affiliates for standing up against Gide's communism and homosexuality, and accused Cioculescu, Vulcănescu and sociologist Mihai Ralea of representing both pro-Soviet sentiment and pacifism.Ornea (1995), p.152-153 Cioculescu also offered a good review to Eliade's novel Întoarcerea din rai ("Return from Paradise"), first published in 1934.