Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Cristina A. Bejan

   Pages 1-24

3. Nae Ionescu, the Young Generation, ‘The Spiritual Itinerary’ and Education Abroad, 1927–1932

   • Cristina A. Bejan

   Pages 25-57

4. The Criterion Association of Arts, Literature and Philosophy: Beginnings and Birth in Bucharest, 1932

   • Cristina A. Bejan

   Pages 59-84

5. The Criterion Association’s Activity of 1932: ‘Idols’ Symposia, Politics, Culture

   • Cristina A. Bejan

   Pages 85-132

6. Criterion Activity of 1933–1935: Politics, Exhibition, Symposia, Music and the Publication

   • Cristina A. Bejan

   Pages 133-176

7. 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

8. Rhinocerization: Political Activity and Allegiances of the Young Generation, 1935–1941

   • Cristina A. Bejan

   Pages 211-252

9. The Fate of the Young Generation and the Legacy of Criterion

   • Cristina A. Bejan

   Pages 253-276

10. Conclusion

    • Cristina A. Bejan

    Pages 277-279

11. Back Matter

    Pages 281-323

    PDF

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.

• communism in Romania
• Young Generation
• Iron Guard
• interwar Bucharest
• interwar Romania
• Legionary Movement
• Romanian fascism
• Romanian intellectuals
• Mircea Eliade
• Emil Cioran
• Petru Comarnescu
• Mihail Sebastian
• Eugène Ionescu
• Nae Ionescu

“A gripping analysis not only of Romanian culture but also of Romanian politics. In a time when many interwar ideas seem to have rematerialized, this book could not be more necessary or timely.” (Marius Turda, author of Modernism and Eugenics and co-author of Historicizing Race)

“Bejan’s meticulous study joins a handful of books that recognize that the quest for a dynamic new modernity animated both modernism and fascism. Incorporating extensive research in secret police archives, this book casts important new light on the unique ideological texture of Romanian fascism.” (Roger Griffin, author of Modernism and Fascism and The Nature of Fascism)

“A fascinating narrative. Superbly researched, it offers a new perspective on Romania’s (and Eastern Europe’s) interwar major political and cultural tensions. Nothing was simple with the Criterion Association, which was engaged in an excruciating search for existential authenticity. This book wonderfully reveals these agonizing complexities.” (From the foreword by Vladimir Tismaneanu, author of The Devil in History)

“Why did writers such as Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade succumb to the lure of the Iron Guard? And what of those figures, such as Eugène Ionesco, who resisted? These are some of the questions addressed in this unique, persuasively argued study.” (Dennis Deletant, author of Romania under Communism: Paradox and Degeneration)

• Duke University, Durham, USA

  Cristina A. Bejan

Cristina A. Bejan is an Oxford DPhil and a Rhodes and Fulbright scholar. She has held fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Georgetown University and the Woodrow Wilson Center.

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