Horia Gârbea

Horia-Răzvan Gârbea or Gîrbea (; born August 10, 1962) is a Romanian playwright, poet, essayist, novelist and critic, also known as an academic, engineer and journalist. Known for his work in experimental theater and his Postmodernist contributions to Romanian literature, he is a member of the Writers' Union of Romania (USR), its public relations executive and the head of its Bucharest chapter. Also recognized for his contribution to Romanian humor and his essays, he has published regularly in journals such as Contemporanul, Luceafărul, Ramuri, and Săptămâna Financiară. His career in the media also covers screenwriting for Romanian television stations and the popularization of contract bridge. The author of several scientific works on engineering, Gârbea is also a faculty member at the University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.

The recipient of several national awards for literature, he received critical attention for plays, short stories and novels which merge intertextuality and parody with neorealistic elements. In his work for the Romanian stage, Gârbea has primarily reworked motifs from Anton Chekhov, Ion Luca Caragiale, Gustave Flaubert, Costache Negruzzi, and various other of his predecessors, addressing contemporary realities. He is also the other of tragicomedies with themes borrowed the 1989 Revolution and his country's post-1989 history. The latter focus is complemented by his works in novel and short prose, which often take the form of political fiction or satire aimed at his writer colleagues. Such contributions have consolidated Gârbea's success with the general public, but have divided critical opinion on the issue of their ultimate literary value.

Biography

Early life and career Born in Bucharest, Horia Gârbea is the grandson of Titus Gârbea, a Land Forces general and diplomat of the Kingdom of Romania. He recalls that his grandfather's passion for literature was passed onto him from an early age, when he first heard him reciting poems by Dante Aligheri. At around age 17, as one of the adolescent guests on a Romanian Television talk show hosted by author Mircea Sîntimbreanu, he stated his intention of having two books published by the year 2000 (he recalls: "[Sîntimbreanu], who was a witty but skeptical man, did not encourage me"). He graduated from the Agronomical Science University's Department of Landscaping and Environmental Engineering (1986). A member of the teaching staff at his alma mater since 1987, Gârbea later moved on to the Universitas circle, founded and led by critic Mircea Martin. Another one of his plays, Stăpânul tăcerii ("The Master of Silence"), was staged in 1994 by Pitești's Alexandru Davila Theater.

Gârbea returned to drama with the 1999 book Decembrie, în direct ("December, Live Broadcast"). It received the Writers' Union Prize for Theater. In 2001, he published an anthology of texts for the stage: titled Cine l-a ucis pe Marx? ("Who Killed Marx?"), it was a recipient of the Romanian Academy's Ion Luca Caragiale Award with a three-year delay. Also in 2001, his short story collection ("Enigmas in Our City") saw print. These were followed the next year by Rață cu portocale ("Duck à l'Orange"), a volume of essays, and, in 2003, by two other books: Vacanță în infern ("A Holiday in Hell"; literary criticism, 2 vols.) The former was shortlisted for the USR Award. Active as a theater critic and chronicler, he later had permanent columns in Luceafărul (1990–1995, and again 1998–2001), ArtPanorama (1997–1998), Scena (1998–2001), Monitorul de Iași (1998–1999), Contemporanul (1999–2001), Săptămâna Financiară (after 2005) His articles were also published by other venues, among them Convorbiri Literare, Cuvântul, România Literară and Ziarul Financiar. He was also among the first Romanian authors to publish fiction in the new wave of lifestyle magazines, being an early contributor to the local version of Playboy (together with George Cușnarencu, Răzvan Petrescu, and Jean Lorin Sterian). Between 2002 and 2003, he published several works related to his field of expertise in engineering: ("Structures and Constructions with Dynamic Insulation", 2002), Structuri şi construcţii – noţiuni şi calcule de fiabilitate ("Structures and Constructions—Notions and Calculations in Reliability", 2002), Structuri și construcții – curs universitar ("Structures and Constructions—University Lecture", 2003; revised edition 2004). Their experience in the Far East produced the collective travel account Drumul spre Nghe An ("The Road to Nghe An"), published the same year. A month later, during the Romanian Comedy Festival, his play Leonida XXI was staged by the Comedy Theater.

Also in 2005, Gârbea and the Writers' Union were involved in a polemic with Paul Goma, a novelist and former dissident who lived in France. This came after Viața Românească, a literary magazine managed by the Union, republished fragments from Goma's diary, which caused public outrage for its perceived antisemitism. Gârbea and USR president Nicolae Manolescu both intervened to sanction the publication. In an early interview with Gardianul daily, he spoke of the editorial staff as having displayed "negligence", and noted that replacing the panel of editors was one of the sanctions being considered, while also stating that he felt none of them were "100% responsible" for the incident. Printed the same year, his new drama volume, Divorț în direct ("Live Divorce"), was nominated for another USR award. In late 2007, he participated with fellow writers Doina Ruști and Liviu Ioan Stoiciu in a children's literature project initiated by Editura Paralela 45, which involved rewriting a series of fairy tales in Romanian folklore and Christian mythology. Titled Basme și povești mistice românești repovestite ("Retold Romanian Fairy Tales and Mystical Stories"), it was illustrated with reproductions of children-made Romanian Orthodox icons. In spring, he participated in the project Scriitori pe calea regală ("Writers on the Royal Road"), organized by the former King of Romania Michael I, the Royal House, the USR, and various other venues for the benefit of award-winning writers. The same year, Gârbea visited Azerbaijan, invited by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, and published some of his impressions in Revista 22. His larger travel writing, published by the same foundation as Azerbaijan – The Living Flame (in English, Romanian, German), was officially launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair (October 2010). In April 2011, Gârbea and fellow writer Ruxandra Cesereanu were in Israel, attending the Nisan Poetry Festival in Maghar.

Work

Cultural context and Postmodernist reinterpretations Committed to Postmodernism, Gârbea debuted as a member of the Optzeciști group of writers, most of whom reached their creative peak after 1980: together with Mircea Cărtărescu, Traian T. Coșovei, Florin Iaru, Doru Mareș, Radu G. Țeposu, and Ion Stratan, he was part of the Optzeciști nucleus inside Cenaclul de luni. This also reflects Gârbea's own positioning: according to his own statement, the move from one generation group to the other coincided with his leaving Cenaclul de luni and joining Universitas. Others in this group are, according to his definition, Radu Macrinici, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina Nelega, Saviana Stănescu, Matei Vișniec, and Vlad Zografi. Speaking in 2009, Gârbea himself recalled his stylistic discovery of the 1980s: "It still seemed to me that being a writer meant having visions and struggling to communicate them so that others may have them too. [...] I could not write prose, but I enjoyed writing drama because I had invented something very fun to do: old characters in new situations." Critic Dumitru Ungureanu sees this cultural echo as having been filtered by the style of Radu Albala, one of the authors to have been most inspired by the "matein" narratives, and concludes that the lineage places Gârbea on the same level as Cărtărescu and Florin Șlapac.

In Nelega's view, Gârbea, "one of the truly alive writers of his time", was among the few debuting local playwrights to have their works staged by prominent Romanian directors—Alexandru Darie, Alexandru Hausvater, and Gavril Pinte. Also according to Mihăilescu, Cărtărescu may have had his rival Gârbea in mind when reproaching Manolescu that he had insisted on writers who were not at all worthy of recognition. Soviany singles out the text as an answer to claims that parody is always inferior to its models, by identifying its original motifs in a new statement about theater itself: "[the play], which is without doubt ascribable to the formula of 'apocalyptic' theater, draws its substance from mixing intertextual parody with an eschatologic vision, suggesting the regression (of world and literature) into the primordial mud. Putting to use [...] the deluge myth, the dramatist this time imagines an apocalypse of fiction (of the theater), during which the characters [...] are slowly being swallowed by the mud flows of subterranean waters, which could imply that literature (fiction) unavoidably secretes its own death, so that writing (being written) and dying end up being perfect synonyms." turns its attention to Romania's political scene, showing the stormy encounter between a matron, a female secretary and a politician. The play was notably used as teaching material for student actors training at the Caragiale Academy under Mircea Albulescu, who called it "extremely interesting". Alex. Ștefănescu, who writes that such portrayals caused "great agitation in the literary world", cites the author's own mock-disclaimer: "The identification of some characters with real person constitutes an abuse of interpretation which the author intends to fight off with any legal means."