Ion Sân-Giorgiu

Ion Sân-Giorgiu (also known as Sîn-Giorgiu, Sângiorgiu or Sîngiorgiu; 1893–1950) was a Romanian modernist poet, dramatist, essayist, literary and art critic, also known as a journalist, academic, and fascist politician. He was notably the author of works on the Sturm und Drang phenomenon and the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. During his early years, he was influenced by Expressionism and contributed to the literary magazine "Gândirea"; he progressively moved towards support for the Iron Guard (the Legionary Movement), edited the far right journal "Chemarea Vremii", and spent his last years a member of Horia Sima's government in exile.

Biography

Born in Botoşani, Sân-Giorgiu was educated in Germany. [Grigorescu, p.377] He debuted as a traditionalist poet, affiliated with the group formed around "Sămănătorul" magazine. [Lovinescu, p.66-67, 307] According to literary historian Eugen Lovinescu, he was, with A. Mândru and George Vâlsan, one of the best-known "Sămănătorul" poets in the Regat regions. [Lovinescu, p.66-67]

With time, Sân-Giorgiu moved towards modernist literature. In 1921, he contributed a serialized column on "Dramatic Expressionism" to "Adevărul Literar şi Artistic", later published as a single volume. [Grigorescu, p.377-378] Sân-Giorgiu's views on Expressionism and modernism, like those of "Gândirea" itself, oscillated: in early 1923, he commented negatively in regard to the tendencies of younger poets to "discard metaphors", but later authored reviews and essays welcoming the trend. [Grigorescu, p.377-378] At the time, Sân-Giorgiu notably contributed essays on the literature of Georg Kaiser and Walter Hasenclever to "Gândirea". [Grigorescu, p.387] His 1922 play "Masca" ("The Mask"), which followed Expressionist guidelines, [Grigorescu, p.377, 388, 424-425; Lovinescu, p.307] was among the series of avant-garde productions staged by Victor Ion Popa during the interwar period. [Grigorescu, p.424-425]

During the early 1930s, he seconded Victor Eftimiu inside the Romanian PEN Club (of which he was General Secretary). [ro icon Barbu Cioculescu, [http://www.penromania.org/conferinta-sinaia-2001.asp "PEN Clubul român între cele două războaie mondiale"] , at the Romanian PEN Club site; retrieved March 2, 2007] A frequenter of Casa Capşa restaurant, Sân-Giorgiu was, according to the art collector Krikor Zambaccian, involved in a dispute with poet N. Davidescu which eventually turned violent. [ro icon Krikor Zambaccian, [http://destinatii.liternet.ro/articol/121/Krikor-H-Zambaccian/Capsa.html "Destinaţii culturale. Capşa"] , published and hosted by LiterNet; retrieved September 23, 2008] By that time, he was again discarding modernist approaches to literature, and returning to traditionalist techniques and subjects. [Lovinescu, p.307]

A member of the fascist National Christian Party and afterwards rallied to the authoritarian group created by King Carol II (the National Renaissance Front), Sân-Giorgiu was an official journalist under the latter's regime. [Ornea, p.419] Initially, he was opposed to antisemitism, defining it as "an act of poverty of a failed intellectual or a cheap opportunity of self-assertion" and "a stupid ferment of anarchic agitation". [ [http://www.romanianjewish.org/en/fedrom_02.html "Romanian Intellectuals about the Jews"] , at the Romanian Jewish Community site; retrieved September 23, 2008]

Nevertheless, as an Iron Guard sympathizer, he soon changed his position. In November 1940, after the Guard established its government (the National Legionary State), Sân-Giorgiu expressed his new thoughts on the Romanian Jewish community and racial policies in a column for "Chemarea Vremii":

"Legionary Romania has solved the Jewish Question. That which the Oct. Goga-presided government has only attempted, the Legion has managed to achieve in less than three months. The Jews have been removed not just from the state apparatus, but also from the industry [and] commerce, where cooperative and neat Legionary organizations are striving and succeeding in taking their place. [...] We have a duty to pose overtly and without delay the problem of liquidating this miserable ghetto that is currently forming itself. It is time to ask: What do we do with them? Because to leave them free to multiply like rabbits, to consume our goods, to hate us and produce nothing in return, that cannot be. In Legionary Romania there is no room for drones. [...] It would serve Jews to know that we are not the passive bearers of a social rot, but the national surgeons of a national cancer. Hence I ask our own: what do we do with them? And I ask the Jews to reply honestly: what do you do?" [Sân-Giorgiu, in Ornea, p.419]

During the same year, Sân-Giorgiu's newspaper published influential essays by Mihail Manoilescu, which advocated corporatism and called for its implementation in the National Legionary State. [Ornea, p.282-283] He survived the fall of the Iron Guard government (the Legionary Rebellion), but left Romania after Ion Antonescu's regime and Romania's alliance to the Axis Powers both crumbled in autumn 1944 ("see Soviet occupation of Romania").ro icon William Totok, [http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?art=1799&nr=2005-06-10 "Cultura romanească în Germania. Jurnalul lui Mihail Sebastian tradus în limba germană"] , in "22", No.796, June 2005] He joined Sima's Vienna-based Legionary cabinet, holding a nominal office as Minister of Education. The justice system in Communist Romania tried him "in absentia", and sentenced him to death.ro icon Iulia Popovici, [http://www.ziua.net/display.php?id=232645&data=2008-02-04 "Vintilă Corbul înapoi acasă"] , in "Ziua", February 4, 2008] The writer died in exile.

Sân-Giorgiu's daughter, Ioana, stayed behind in Romania. She later married Vintilă Corbul, a genre fiction author, screenwriter and former lawyer, who had faced political persecution in the 1950s. Ioana Sân-Giorgiu died of cancer in 1969; ten years later, Corbul defected and restarted his writing career in France (where he died in 2008).

Work

Sân-Giorgiu's early "Sămănătorist" works, influenced by Panait Cerna and Mihai Eminescu, were though by Lovinescu to be "lacking in originality". [Lovinescu, p.67] As he gradually moved towards modernism, Lovinescu notes, the poet displayed "abuse of imagery", "the perkiness of free forms", "egocentrism" and "tumultuous sensualism." [Lovinescu, p.67]

The earliest of his plays were characterized by Lovinescu as "Expressionist travesties, which do away with observation and even with talent, being content with ideas and theories". [Lovinescu, p.307] "Masca" showed the interactions between three amorous couples, all of whom are masked. One of the pairs, a female billionaire and her male artist lover, find themselves on the verge of an existential crisis as their masks are removed, and is on the verge of splitting up. [Lovinescu, p.307] According to Lovinescu: "It's fortunate that the author-theorist would intervene to put [their masks] up again, thus enabling them to go on lying to one another." [Lovinescu, p.307] In the 1925 drama "Femeia cu două suflete" ("The Woman with Two Souls"), Expressionism is toned down, but still present, particularly in the author's refusal to specify the setting and the characters' background—in reference to this aspect, Lovinescu writes: "Nothing [in it] is [...] seen, individualized, localized; everything is reduced to a possible subject." [Lovinescu, p.307] The plot deals with a forceful "ménage à trois" situation: the female singer Mona, obsessively loved by the sculptor Dionis, accepts the advances of Fink, a theater manager, and, overwhelmed by shame, decides to kill herself. [Lovinescu, p.307]

By 1926, having discarded Expressionism and returned to a traditional style, Sân-Giorgiu wrote a series of satirical plays, among which was "Banchetul" ("The Banquet"). [Lovinescu, p.307] Lovinescu notes that they owed inspiration to 19th century author Ion Luca Caragiale. [Lovinescu, p.307]

Notes

References

*Dan Grigorescu, "Istoria unei generaţii pierdute: expresioniştii", Editura Eminescu, Bucharest, 1980. OCLC|7463753
*Eugen Lovinescu, "Istoria literaturii române contemporane", Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1989. ISBN 973-21-0159-8
*Z. Ornea, "Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească", Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995, p.457. ISBN 973-9155-43-X