Mihail Sebastian
| Mihail Sebastian | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Iosef Mendel Hechter October 18, 1907 Brăila |
| Died | May 29, 1945 (aged 38) Bucharest |
| Pen name | Mihail Sebastian, Victor Mincu |
| Occupation | playwright, essayist, journalist, novelist, lawyer |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Genre | drama, autobiography, novel |
| Subject | fiction, cultural history, political history |
| Literary movement |
Modernism Criterion |
Mihail Sebastian (Romanian pronunciation: [mihaˈil sebastiˈan]; born Iosif Mendel Hechter; October 18, 1907 – May 29, 1945) was a Romanian playwright, essayist, journalist and novelist.
Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group Criterion which included such luminaries as Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade and Eugène Ionesco. Sebastian published several novels, including Accidentul ("The Accident") and Oraşul cu salcâmi ("The Acacia Tree City"), heavily influenced by French novelists such as Marcel Proust and Jules Renard.
Although initially an apolitical movement, Criterion came under the increasing influence of Nae Ionescu's own brand of philosophy, called Trăirism, which mixed jingoistic nationalism, existentialism and Christian mysticism, as well as that of the fascist and anti-Semitic paramilitary organization known as the Iron Guard.
As a Jew, Sebastian came to be regarded as an outsider within the group, even by his friends. In 1934 he published another novel, De două mii de ani (For Two Thousand Years), about what it meant to be a Jew in Romania, and asked Nae Ionescu, who at the time was still friendly with Sebastian, to write the preface. Ionescu agreed, generating uproar by inserting paragraphs both antisemitic and against the very nature of the book they introduced.
Sebastian "decided to take the only intelligent revenge" and publish the preface, which only heightened the controversy. Sebastian's decision to include the preface prompted criticism from the Jewish community (notable Jewish satirist Ludovic Halevy, for instance, referred to Sebastian as "Ionescu's lap dog"), as well as the far-right circles patronized by Ionescu and the Iron Guard. The anti-semitic daily newspaper Sfarmă Piatră (literally "Breaking Rocks") denounced Sebastian as a "Zionist agent and traitor", despite the fact that Sebastian vocally declared himself to be a proud Romanian with no interest in emigrating from his Romanian homeland.
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