Lidia Vianu

Lidia Vianu (born 7 July 1947 in Bucharest) is a Romanian academic, writer, and translator. She is a professor in the English department of the University of Bucharest, a writer of fiction and poetry, and a translator both from English into Romanian, and from Romanian into English.

Lidia Vianu
Born (1947-07-07) 7 July 1947[1]
Bucharest[1]
CitizenshipRomania[1]
EducationUniversity of Bucharest, 1970[1]
Occupation
Years active1970–present
Known forContemporary British literature (mainly T.S. Eliot and James Joyce)[2][3]
Notable work
Joyce Lexicography, 130 volumes[3]
AwardsPoetry Society biennial Prize for Poetry in Translation, 2005[2][4][5][6]

Biography

Her mother, Beatrice Vianu (born Steiner), was an editor, and her father, Theodor Vianu, was a doctor.[1] She attended both high school (1961–1965) and university (1965–1970) in Bucharest. She graduated from the department of English at the University of Bucharest. She defended her doctoral dissertation in 1978, with a thesis titled Philosophical Lyricism in the works of T.S. Eliot and Paul Valéry. After the fall of communism, she was granted two Fulbright Scholarships, and taught in the United States, at State University of New York – Binghamton (1991–1992) and University of California, Berkeley (1997–1998). She became a professor in the University of Department English department in 1998.[1][5][6]

Vianu learned English from Leon Levițchi, Dan Duțescu, and C. George Sandulescu.[7][8][9] She published English with a Key (Romanian: Engleza cu cheie), a handbook that aims to teach English to Romanians through translation.[10]

Vianu founded the Centre for the Translation and Interpretation of the Contemporary Text at the University of Bucharest.[11]

Work

As an academic, Vianu is the author of numerous essays, anthologies, interviews, and books of literary criticism. Most of them were written in English, while some were also published in Romanian. Her major subjects in English Studies are T.S. Eliot (T.S. Eliot, An Author for All Seasons), James Joyce, and contemporary British poets and novelists.[2][3]

As a writer, she published Censorship in Romania (selection, interviews, translations) at Central European University Press,[12] a novel, and three volumes of poetry.[13]

She has published English translations of Eugen Simion's The Return of the Author,[1] Marin Sorescu'sThe Bridge,[14][15] Mircea Dinescu's The Barbarians’ Return (with Adam Sorkin), Ion Mureşan's The Book of Winter and Other Poems, Mircea Ivănescu's Lines poems poetry, and Ioan Es. Pop's No Way Out of Hadesburg and Other Poems.[13]

She also published a large number of translated books in Romania. Vianu and Sorkin's translation of Marin Sorescu's The Bridge (Bloodaxe Books, 2004), was awarded the Prize of Poetry Society, London, 2005.[4][16][17]

Selected works

Literary criticism
  • Scenarii lirice moderne (De la T.S. Eliot la Paul Valéry), Ed. Universității București, 1983[1]
  • T. S. Eliot: An Author for All Seasons, Bucharest: Ed. Paideia, 1997[1]
  • Censorship in Romania, Central European University Press, 1998[1]
  • British Literary Desperadoes at the Turn of the Millennium, Bucharest: Ed. ALL, 1999[1]
  • Alan Brownjohn and the Desperado Age, Ed. Universității București, 2003[1]
  • The Desperado Age: British Literature at the Start of the Third Millennium, Ed. Universității București, 2004[1]
  • Desperado Essay-Interviews, Ed. Universității București, 2006[1]

Translations
  • Joseph Conrad: Oglinda mării, Timișoara: Ed. Amarcord, 1994[1]
  • Eugen Simion: The Return of the Author, translated into English for Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, 1996 (Nominated for the Scaglione Translation Prize, 1997)[1]
  • Marin Sorescu: The Bridge, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin for Bloodaxe Books, 2004[1][5]
  • Mircea Ivănescu, Lines Poems Poetry, University of Plymouth Press, 2009, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin
  • Ioan Es Pop, No Way Out of Hadesburg and Other Poems, University of Plymouth Press, 2010, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin
  • Ion Mureșan, The Book of Winter and Other Poems, University of Plymouth Press, 2011, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin
  • Hilary Elfick: A Single Instinct. Unicul instinct. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
  • Anne Stewart. Let It Come to Us All. Să vină pentru noi toți. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
  • Mircea Dinescu, The Barbarians' Return, Bloodaxe Books, 2018[2][5]

Handbooks of English
  • English with a Key, Timișoara: Ed. de Vest, 1993
  • Student la engleză, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 2016
  • Admiterea la engleză, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 2016

Fiction
  • Prizonieră în oglindă, Galați: Ed. Porto Franco, 1993

Poetry
  • 1, 2, 3, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 1997[1]
  • Moderato 7, Editura Orient-Occident, 1998[1]
  • Foarte, Bucharest: Ed. Cartea Românească, 2001[1]
  • The Wall, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 2016[18]

References
  1. Academia Română (2009). Dicționarul General al Literaturii Române. MetroLinks (in Romanian). Ț/Z. Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic. ISBN 978-973-637-190-5. Retrieved 5 July 2020. extras online: Lidia Vianu|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180630185638/http://www.metrolinks.ro/lidia-vianu/ |archive-date=30 June 2018}}
  2. "Lidia Vianu". Bloodaxe Books. Bloodaxe Books LTD. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  3. Voinescu, Radu (23 October 2009). "Lidia Vianu: "Unicul meu regret e că se apropie vremea când nu voi mai putea preda"" [Lidia Vianu: "My only regret is that the time passes by and I will no longer be able to teach"]. LiterNet (in Romanian). Diagonale. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  4. Hardy, Alan (11 December 2007). "Marin Sorescu: The Bridge". New Hope International Review. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  5. Lidia Vianu Blackbird. Retrieved 5 July 2020
  6. "Lidia Vianu". Project MUSE. The Massachusetts Review. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  7. Serea, Claudia; Kleinman, Loren. "Lidia Vianu, translated from the Romanian by Mircea Filimon". National Translation Month. The National Translation Month. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  8. Sârbu, Cristina (26 April 2011). "Lidia Vianu". Radio România Actualități (in Romanian). Radio România. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  9. Ieronim, Ioana (19 February 2010). "Aș lua-o de la început și aș face totul mult mai bine..." [I would make things better by starting anew...]. LiterNet (in Romanian). Ziarul de Duminică. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  10. Lazu, Robert (25 February 2006). "Limba engleză pentru toţi" [English for everyone]. Adevărul literar și artistic (in Romanian). Bucharest.
  11. "Lidia Vianu". Words without Borders. Words without Borders. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  12. Bowen, Zack (1998). "Lidia Vianu's "Censorship in Romania"". CEU Press. Central European University. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  13. Sorkin, Adam J. (2002). "The paradox of the fortunate fall: censorship and poetry in communist Romania". The Literary Review. Michigan.
  14. Marin Sorescu, The Bridge, by Marin Sorescu in The Penniless Press, 20/2004, UK
  15. Alan Brownjohn, "The Bridge, by Marin Sorescu" in TLS 18 June 2004, p. 36
  16. Milne, W.S. (2006). "Translation Round-up (Marin Sorescu. The Bridge)". Agenda. Translation as Metamorphosis. 40 (4): 57–58.
  17. Piette, Adam (2005). "Marin Sorescu – The Bridge". Translation and Literature, UK (14).
  18. Lidia Vianu, The Wall", mttlc.ro. Retrieved 18 November 2019
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