Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania: The Criterion Association

Description

In 1930s Bucharest, some of the country’s most brilliant young intellectuals converged to form the Criterion Association. Bound by friendship and the dream of a new, modern Romania, their members included historian Mircea Eliade, critic Petru Comarnescu, Jewish playwright Mihail Sebastian and a host of other philosophers and artists. Together, they built a vibrant cultural scene that flourished for a few short years, before fascism and scandal splintered their ranks. Cristina A. Bejan asks how the far-right Iron Guard came to eclipse the appeal of liberalism for so many of Romania’s intellectual elite, drawing on diaries, memoirs and other writings to examine the collision of culture and extremism in the interwar years. The first English-language study of Criterion and the most thorough to date in any language, this book grapples with the complexities of Romanian intellectual life in the moments before collapse. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxix Introduction (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 1-24 Nae Ionescu, the Young Generation, ‘The Spiritual Itinerary’ and Education Abroad, 1927–1932 (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 25-57 The Criterion Association of Arts, Literature and Philosophy: Beginnings and Birth in Bucharest, 1932 (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 59-84 The Criterion Association’s Activity of 1932: ‘Idols’ Symposia, Politics, Culture (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 85-132 Criterion Activity of 1933–1935: Politics, Exhibition, Symposia, Music and the Publication (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 133-176 The Dissolution of the Criterion Association, 1934–1935: The Credinţa Scandal, Male Friendship, Sexuality and Freedom of the Press (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 177-209 Rhinocerization: Political Activity and Allegiances of the Young Generation, 1935–1941 (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 211-252 The Fate of the Young Generation and the Legacy of Criterion (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 253-276 Conclusion (Cristina A. Bejan)....Pages 277-279 Back Matter ....Pages 281-323