Andreea Răsuceanu, one of the most appreciated contemporary writer in Romania, spoke in an interview for “Adevărul” about his passion for writing, about the favorite literary places in Bucharest, but also about the first book for children he wrote.
Andreea Răsuceanu, one of the most appreciated writer in Romania Photo Facebook
The writer and literary critic Andreea Răsuceanu published last year, at Humanitas Junior, his first book for children, entitled “The amazing journey of the cinnamon spirit”. A book that already enjoys success and appreciation among small readers.
Andreea Răsuceanu graduated from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest (1998-2002), the Romanian-English section. In 2009 he became a doctor in philology with the work “Mahalaua Mântulesei, the road to modernity”, within the Center of Excellence in Image Study (UB). Between 2010 and 2013 he benefited from a Posdru postdoctoral scholarship, including a six -month internship at Sorbonne – Paris 3 University, completed with the work “Bucharest Mircea Eliade. Elements of literary geography”.
His first book, “The two Mantulese”, appeared at the Publishing House, in 2009, being nominated for the Literary Romania awards, of the Writers’ Union of Romania and the big prometheus prizes. In 2013, the book “Bucharest of Mircea Eliade. Elements of literary geography” appeared at the Humanitas Publishing House, which was nominated for the prizes of the Writers’ Union of Romania and the awards of the Cultural Observatory magazine. He received the prize the young critic of 2013, within the Gala of Young Writers.
In 2018 he published the novel “A form of unknown life” (Humanitas Publishing House), for which he received the prize for prose of Ateneu magazine and the writer of January, designated by the Writers’ Union of Romania, and which was nominated for all the Romanian literary awards: “Sofia Nădejde” awards, the Cultural Prize, de Iași ”(short list), prize for prose of the Writers’ Union of Romania, etc. He was selected at the festival of the first novel in Chambéry (France).
How was your propensity for writing?
A first stage, necessary in the formation of any writer, is reading. I became a writer being an avid reader first, I have been reading passionately since I was a child. The libraries have always fascinated me, no matter where they were, in the houses of the family, of the acquaintances, I never left without borrowing a book. I started writing prose in high school, but they were just attempts, my main interest were still readings. Only in the faculty I started writing consistently and I started, with a short prose that appeared in the word word. At the same time, I gathered my texts and gave the critic Nicolae Manolescu, who was also a teacher, asking if I should publish them in a volume or not. His answer motivated me to continue to write-he told me that I write a mature prose, which seems to belong to an experienced, and scholar, which should be published immediately. I did not do this then, because my path took another direction and for ten years I was in charge of literary theory and criticism, but I continued to publish prose fragments in magazines and collective volumes, until 2018, when the novel appeared an unknown form. The wind followed, the breath and the Kármán line – the critics called the three novels “The village trilogy c.” – and now I write to a new novel, which has no connection with the trilogy. Throughout my entire career, however, the reading was a constant, I think, in addition to artistic intelligence and sensitivity, a solid culture is needed to be truly a writer.
Why did you clarify during the high school the desire to write?
The high school years represents a period of intellectual accumulations, perhaps decisive in the formation of a reader. But they are also the period of grace, of all the momentums and enthusiasm, when any event acquires catastrophic dimensions, everything is perceived in a hyperbolized way. The desire to write was born from here, from the meeting of passion for reading with a hyperbolized perception of the world and existential events. The first texts were closer to the fantastic, they were lively texts, loaded with symbols, but gradually I learned that the cultural references in a fiction must be camouflaged, only suggested, I do not believe in the prose loaded with references. The high school period, with the endless hours spent at the library and these writing exercises, meant, besides assimilating a literary culture, and forming literary taste, and both played an essential role in my now.
You wrote with Corina Ciocârlie a superb and unconventional “Dictionary of Bucharest literary places”. How much was emotion and how much was nostalgia in documenting for this volume?
The Dictionary of Bucharest literary places meant first of all a return to the literary works in which the most representative images of the capital are found. We tried to read and re -evaluate as many literary works, that the image of Bucharest would be contoured more precisely and larger, and I ended up inventory over two thousand literary places. Due to editorial reasons, we had to make a selection and we stopped at 167 stories of some places that the reader can find in the most important works in Romanian literature. On this virtual map of Bucharest, I wanted to be, as well represented, the center, and the periphery, and the 19th century Bucharest, and the one of the 20th century, and a daytime Bucharest, but also a night, an summer, but also a hibernating one, etc. There were, of course, nostalgia in this return to Romanian literature of all time, and a lot of emotion that accompanied the unexpected discoveries.
“Bucharest remains a central ax in my literature”
What are your favorite Bucharest literary places for you? What role does space play for you when writing a book?
Calea Victoriei, this spine of Bucharest, around which (while the Mogoșoaiei Bridge) increased the city. Dâmbovița, another ordinary axis of the capital, generating a spectacular literary imaginary. The North Station, non-Loc where nothing is fixed, everything flows, which contains a promise of distances, of the unknown that calls and fascinates. There are many, of course, the interested reader will find them in my novels, but also in the dictionary. Space plays a central role in my literature. Not only Bucharest, which remains a central ax, but also Galați (in the Kármán line), and especially the village C. Although they are a citadine, passionate about cities and their lives, my trilogy has come to have a rural space, the village of C., located somewhere between the Danube and the Prut. C. is a kind of matrix, of native space to which all the characters return, is, in a sense, an energies generating. The world of the village C. connects the destinies of the characters, but it is also a space located at the confluence with the magic, the fantastic, a land of the marshes, which seems to always change their edges, to turn, together with the people who live it. These are, in turn, Moldovan anti-union boyars, Italian immigrants arriving in the principalities in the mid-19th century, a monastery maid, two sisters who leave the C. and settled in Bucharest and Galați, around which the whole action of the trilogy (and to an Italian family is built. Then, in the wind, the spirit, the image of Bucharest from the last decade of communism occupies a central place. In a form of unknown life in the foreground is a Phanariot Bucharest, with the Mânăuleasa slum in the center. Space is always important in a literary work, it is always an indication of its depth message.
Andreea Resuceanu giving autographs on her first Facebook photo children’s book
You have recently published a children’s book, at Humanitas Junior, “The amazing trip of the cinnamon Spiriduș”. How was the creative process in the first children’s book compared to the novels written so far?
The story is written in two stages, but every time I wrote from a breath. If the novels require a period of documentation, then one of elaboration of the construction, of contouring the characters, here I wrote from a breath, with great joy. I wrote the story I would have liked to read when I was a child, I think. It is a story about friendship, readings, travelers, fantastic troops made in a enchanted tray. I wrote a first variant of the story almost ten years ago, for a collective volume. Then, when I discovered that she had become the subject of examination and theme of several creative writing workshops for children, I resumed and completed it, until I reached the form now, from the booklet at Humanitas Junior.
“The writing has always been a painful pleasure for me, “did you say five years ago in an interview for the truth. What kind of pleasure was the writing at the” amazing trip of the cinnamon Spiriduș “? Still painful?
It was a kind of return to that miraculous age of childhood, when imagination and everything it creates does not yet separate from reality, when everything you think seems possible. I wanted to write, in a metaphorical way, of course, about my relationship with books, about the feeling that they always take you to a new trip, I discovered this very early. I wrote with pleasure, I liked to imagine the cinnamon spirit in detail. When, at a recent meeting with the children, someone said that “everyone loves cinnamon”, I was very happy.
“The world can be too big and cold sometimes, ”says cinnamon in the book. How’s the world for you?
I thought about this phrase a lot, and used it to suggest small readers that when the world looks like a cold and hostile place, when they are sad, when they feel lonely or misunderstood, books are always the “place” where they can return. The world can sometimes be so, and especially for children this is difficult to manage. As for me, I try to talk about it in every book of mine. Most of the time the world seems fascinating, inexhaustible, I always discover something new about which I would like to write, but there are times when I find myself in the phrase above, and then I return to read or write, both have, for me, a therapeutic role.
Is it “the amazing journey of the cinnamon Spiriduș” and an indirect invitation to reading for children?
Certainly. However, a hidden one, in the form of the story of a spirits who like to read, eat bananas and drink cinnamon tea.
What does the Romanian literature need to sell well and to sell well?
I do not believe in recipes and magic formulas of vandality. I think a book, if it is well written and alive, true, if it also has an adequate promotion and quality graphic form, will be able to impose, both in us and foreign markets.
