A sziget
The Island

Summary/Abstract: Poet and playwright Gellu Naum (1915-2001) is the most significant representative of late Romanian surrealist literature. Born in Bucharest, he also studied philosophy there and he came close to André Breton’s group of French surrealists during his Parisian studies. After the communist change he supported himself mainly from translations. After volumes of poetry, he published new significant volume, Athanor (1968), and the novel Zenobia (1985), which gain him international recognition. The well-deserved appreciation as a writer came only after 1990. In our spring issue we publish Imre József Balázs’s translation of his play, The Island (Insula) a playful-ironic rewriting of the Robinson Crusoe story about the loneliness of human existence. A deserted island full with people: this image could summarize Naum’s play, which can be read also as a family story with unexpected, yet typical turns of situation. Ada Milea created a theatrical concert in a remarkable performance based on Naum’s text at the Cluj-Napoca National Theatre in 2011.

• Details
• Contents