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Entries Tagged as '“Blouse Roumaine”'

Romanian Literature in Exile (I): Rodica Iulian (France), b. Romania 1931

October 19th, 2011 · Comments Off on Romanian Literature in Exile (I): Rodica Iulian (France), b. Romania 1931 · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Uncategorized

Rodica Iulian’s novels, written in French, reflect the dilemma of the exile torn between her perceived ‘duty’ towards her native culture and the desire to establish new roots in its adoptive country. In the process of establishing herself as a writer in the West, she would reposition Romanian literature as part of the canon of European literature. In this context, Rodica Iulian’s novels reveal the misunderstandings between the Romanian perceptions and expectations of the newly experienced contacts with the French culture. (One of the above quotations is such an example, when, as late as 2001, one detects a whiff of the nightmares experienced some two decades earlier, by Iulian witnessing Ceausescu’s bulldozers, flattening the historical centre of Bucharest.)

Blouse Roumaine – An Anthology of Romanian Women

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Architect Octavian Ciupitu, “Curierul Romanesc”, Sweden, September 2009 – Book Review

October 26th, 2010 · Comments Off on Architect Octavian Ciupitu, “Curierul Romanesc”, Sweden, September 2009 – Book Review · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

an extract from the book “La Apa Vavilonului” (At Babel’s river), volume 2 (2001) by Monica Lovinescu (1923-2008), journalist, political analyst, radio broadcaster, anti-communist and Human rights Activist exiled in Paris:

In Romania dissidence was an exception. Our resistance was present when it did not exist in the other satellite countries and it ended just as it started with our neighbouring countries. We fought and died in the Carpathian mountains, as the West was blind and deaf, basking in its victory and forgetting its hostages. From the prisons where our élite was destroyed in the 1960s emerged only the shadows of our earlier determination. Three successive waves of terror – 1948, 1952 and 1958 – had drained the collective organism. We caved into, a near-total silence. We sacrificed ourselves for nothing. With this sense of utter uselessness most of the survivors emerged from the jails, some of whom, while “free”, remained at the beck and call of the Securitate..

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Confluente culturale Anglo-Romane – Romancele la Londra

November 28th, 2009 · Comments Off on Confluente culturale Anglo-Romane – Romancele la Londra · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, quotations

CONFLUENTE CULTURALE ANGLO-ROMANE (I) – ROMANCELE LA LONDRA Hotelul Savoy, din Strand, in inima cartierului Westend, era uneori resedinta Martei Bibescu cand trecea pe la Londra si care consemna in jurnalul ei: Regele mi-a intrerupt visarea cu un mesaj de bun-venit – dar refuz sa fiu deranjata. Personajul acesta era George al V-lea, varul reginei […]

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Poem (LXVI): Smaranda BRAESCU (1887–1948), Pioneer Pilot, World Parachute-jumping Champion, anti-Communist Fighter

October 22nd, 2009 · 5 Comments · PEOPLE, Poetry

Biographical Note: Winner’s Glory: ” My life means nothing if I’m keeping it for myself. I dedicate my life to my country, and I want to live it in glory. I will only come back as a winner.” (Smaranda Bràescu addressing American lournalists in 1931, in New York, before she beat the World record at […]

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Herta Müller – the Journey to the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature:

October 19th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE

THE VILLAGE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST:

Herta Muller.05 Herta Müller (born in 1953) is an unusual choice for a Nobel prize for several reasons, some of which create, of necessity, controversy and heated debates not just in Germany, her adoptive country, but in Romania too – her country of birth.

Müller is ‘unusual’ because she is only the 12th female to get the Nobel for Literature in the last one hundred years: She also happens to come from a small and much troubled German ethnic minority from the province of Banat known as Suabian Germans (Schwaben Deutsche).

Furthermore, not since the Nobel Prize was given to Solzhenytsyn that such an accolade had been awarded to a writer who focussed on the repression under dictatorship in Eastern Europe and for this reason alone this event is significant.

ceausescu-china-1971196601- Finally, from the Romanian perspective, Müller comes from a country which lives badly the complex of being a ‘small country’ (like Belgium, or Ireland, or perhaps even the Basque Country – Euskal Herria), little understood and much misunderstood. At least through her literary output Müller could change this perception: being nominated for the Nobel Prize, puts Romania on the map in a very different way from the past stereotypes, of vampires, orphanages, human trafficking, trampling on human rights and more. Today and for the past twenty years since the end of Nicolae Ceausescu, the cobbler-dictator, dubbed by its sycophants ‘the Genius of the Carpathians’ (oh, yes…) modern Romania finds itself at the horns of a dilemma: that is not so much HOW TO CONFRONT one’s historic past and assume it, but rather HOW TO BURY this past. In this context Müller is a trouble-maker because she puts the finger on it and confronts headlong those in a position to make a CHANGE. yet are lacking the moral fibre to carry it out: Müller is the girl who kicked the hornet’s nest!

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“Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”: what the Readers say:

September 3rd, 2009 · 2 Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, Reviews, Translations

Constantin Roman invites us for a walk, during which he enjoins past and present alike, in a brisk coming and going of the narrative. It is a narrative that cannot suddenly end, but rather one which compels us to start all over again and revisit. It is a truly wonderful gift, a very happy surprise indeed of an inherently original book, which haunts us like the persistent music of those Romanian women’s voices.” (French Government Adviser, Paris)

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Romanian Royals – Queen Anna de Romania, Pss. of Denmark and of Bourbon-Parma

May 12th, 2009 · Comments Off on Romanian Royals – Queen Anna de Romania, Pss. of Denmark and of Bourbon-Parma · Diary, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Uncategorized

Queen Anne of Romania, Princess of Denmark and of Bourbon-Parma – a descendant of the princes of Moldavia HM Queen Anne de Romania, Princess of Denmark and of Bourbon-Parme ——————————————– http://www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html Regina Anna de Romania, Printesa de Danemarca si de Bourbon-Parma se trage, asa cum spune numele, din Bourboni, care au fost regii Frantei si […]

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Romanian-Jewish Topics (Part I)

May 10th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, quotations

Romanian-Jewish Topics (Part One of Two): Quotations from an Alternative Anthology: “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women” Presented and edited by Constantin Roman, Preface by Catherine Durandin, published by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London), 2009 1,100 pages, 160 biographies, 600 quotations, 4,000 references, credits, discography and URLs , 6 Indexes http://www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html […]

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ROMANIAN-JEWISH TOPICS: (Part two of two)

May 10th, 2009 · Comments Off on ROMANIAN-JEWISH TOPICS: (Part two of two) · Books, PEOPLE, quotations, Translations

ROMANIAN-JEWISH TOPICS: (PART TWO OF TWO) (continued from Part ONE) Quotations from an Alternative Anthology: “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women” Presented and edited by Constantin Roman, Preface by Catherine Durandin, published by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London), 2009 1,100 pages, 160 biographies, 600 quotations, 4,000 references, performances & exhibition credit, […]

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Pourquoi Matisse?

May 6th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Books, Communist Prisons, Diaspora, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Reviews, Translations

Après la chute de Ceausescu, l’image de la Blouse roumaine retrouva graduellement sa place, lentement, comme le réveil après un cauchemar surréaliste : est-ce que la transition existe ? Est-ce pour de vrai ? Le passé va-t-il se répéter ? Dans ce sens, une mise en garde fut émise par le porte-parole du Parlement polonais lorsqu’il déclara : « Il ne faut que quelques semaines aux Empires pour s’écrouler, mais la mentalité impérialiste a besoin de plusieurs générations avant de disparaître. »

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