Ruxandra Cesereanu is one of the most important contemporary Romanian writers. She was born in Cluj on August 17, 1963. Over the last two decades, she has been writing poems and novels lauded with a number of literary honors. She is also a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at Babeş-Bolyai University and staff member of the Center for Imagination Studies at the Phantasma institute, serving as director of the creative writing workshops on poetry, prose and screenwriting.
Cesereanu's work differentiates itself from Romania poets by displaying strong influences from the Surrealist and Postmodernist traditions. Her experimental poetry uses psychoanalytic techniques to create collages, in which femininity and eroticism play large roles.
Her work is not only very personal but political. Cesereanu has experienced the uprising and fall of the Romanian communist regime. She has written about Romanian politics and is known for her politically activist work. Through her innovative style of poetry, she battles hegemony and oppression, without losing touch with the personal.
‘I no longer believe that the world can be saved by a poetry of the trivial’, the poet writes, ‘but neither can it be saved by a poetry of sentimentalism, of the diaphanously pathetic. There is, however, what I call poetry mixed with meta-poetry, in which belief in literature becomes a way of life’.
Cesereanu’s poetry has also been selected for inclusion in anthologies in English, German, Hungarian, French, Chinese, Armenian, Flemish, and Spanish. Her achievements have been noted in Who’s Who in Contemporary Woman’s Writing, edited by Jane Elridge Miller (Routledge, London and New York, 2001) and Harold B. Segel, The Columbia Literary History of Eastern Europe since 1945 (Columbia University Press, New York, 2008).
Bibliography
Poetry
Gradina deliciilor (Garden of delights). Echinox, Cluj, 1993
Zona via (Live zone). Editura Dacia, Cluj, 1993
Cadere deasupra orasului (Fall over the city). Transpress, 1994; awarded the Prize for Poetry of the Writers Association in Cluj
Oceanul Schizoidian (Schizoid Ocean). Brumar, Timișoara,1998
Venetia cu vene violete. Scrisorile unei curtezane (Venice with violet veins. Letters of a courtesan). Editura Dacia, Cluj, 2002
Kore-Persephone. Vinea, Bucharest, 2004; awarded the Prize for Poetry of the Writers Association in Cluj
coma. Vinea, Bucharest, 2008; awarded the Prize for Poetry of the Writers Association in Cluj
California (pe Somes) (California (upon Somesh)). Editura Charmide, Bistrița, 2014
Prose
Calatorie prin oglinzi (Voyage through looking glasses). Dacia, Cluj, 1989
Purgatoriile (The purgatories). Albatros, 1997
Tricephalos. Dacia, Cluj, 2002
Nebulon. Polirom, Iași, 2005; awarded the Prize for Prose of the Lions Club
Nasterea dorintelor lichide (Birth of liquid desires). Cartea Romaneasca, Bucharest, 2007
Angelus. Humanitas, Bucharest, 2010
Un singur cer deasupra lor (One sky above them all). Polirom, Iași, 2013
Co-authored
The body – the soul. Limited bibliophile edition of 20. With the artist Calin Stegerean. 1998
Submarinul iertat (Forgiven submarine). With Andrei Codrescu. Brumar, Timisoara, 2007
Tinutul celalalt (The otherland). With Marius Conkan. Cartea Romaneasca, Bucharest, 2011
In translation
Forgiven submarine. English. Trans. Andrei Codrescu. Black Widow Press, Boston, 2009
Schizoid ocean. English. Trans. Claudia Litvinchievici. esf publishers, Binghamton, 1997
Lunacies. English. Trans. Adam J. Sorkin, Claudia Litvinchievici and Ruxandra Cesereanu. Spuyten Duyvil / Meeting Eyes Bindery imprint, New York, 2004
Crusader-woman. English. Trans. Adam J. Sorkin, Claudia Litvinchievici, Madalina Mudure and Ruxandra Cesereanu. Black Widow Press, Boston, 2008
Angelus. English. Trans. Alistair Ian Blyth. Lavender Ink, New Orleans, 2015
Coma. Italian. Trans. Giovanni Magliocco. Aracne, Rome, 2012
Keresztesasszony. Hungarian. Trans. Visky Zsolt. Koinonia, 2007
Utoferfiak. Hungarian. Trans. Selyem Zsuzsa. Jelenkor Kiado, Pecs, 2009
Links
Faculty page at Babeş-Bolyai University
The Center for Imagination Studies at Phantasma
