George Călinescu
| George Călinescu | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born | Gheorghe Vişan 19 June 1899 Bucharest |
| Died |
12 March 1965 (aged 65) Otopeni |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Subject | Romanian Literature History |
| Literary movement | Modernism |
George Călinescu (Romanian: [ˈd͡ʒe̯ord͡ʒe kəliˈnesku]; 19 June 1899, Iași – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the most important Romanian literary critics of all time, alongside Titu Maiorescu and Eugen Lovinescu, and is one of the outstanding figures of Romanian literature in the 20th century.
George Călinescu was born Gheorghe Vişan on 14 June 1899, the son of a housekeeper, Maria Vişan; the child was brought up by his mother's employers, Constantin Călinescu, a worker for Romanian State Railways, and his wife Maria, in their house in Bucharest. The Călinescu family, along with their housekeeper and the child, moved first to Botoşani, then to Iaşi, where Gheorghe Vişan, the future writer, matriculated at the Şcoala "Carol I." In 1907, Maria Vişan accepted the Călinescus' offer to formally adopt her son, who then took the name Gheorghe Călinescu. This was his real name until his death, but, because he used the pen name G. Călinescu, after his death an apochryphal, wrong, "George Călinescu" name was forged by the common use. As a child Călinescu did not know who his real mother was. Finding out that the housekeeper that he used to humiliate was his real mother caused him a psychological trauma. He tried to hide his real origins for the rest of his life.
, who taught Italian language and literature at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, exercised a seminal influence over Călinescu's development. Călinescu developed a strong friendship with Ortiz; years later, he would give Ortiz credit for helping him "seize" a literary education of extraordinary quality. Under Ortiz's guidance Călinescu made his first translations from Italian; during his student days he translated Giovanni Papini's autobiographical novel Un uomo finito and a novella from Boccaccio's Decameron. Again with Ortiz's help, he began work at the literary review Roma, the first issue appearing in January 1921, and travelled to Italy with his university colleagues. Călinescu's first book was written in Italian under the title Alcuni missionari catolici italiani nella Moldavia nei secoli XVII e XVIII, which appeared in 1925 and treated the Vatican's counter-reformationary propaganda efforts in Baroque Moldavia with heavy reliance on unpublished sources found in the Vatican Archives.
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