The dissident writer Virgil Tanase, former director of the Romanian Cultural Center in Paris and the author of numerous novels and plays, died on Thursday, at the age of 79.
The writer Virgil Tanase would have turned 80 on July 16. Photo Facebook Writers’ Union
“The Romanian Writers’ Union announces deep sadness, on June 26, 2025, of the writer and director Virgil Tanase (…). Through the disappearance of Virgil Tanase Romanian literature and theatrical art suffer an irreparable loss “transmitted the Writers’ Union of Romania, in a Facebook poster.
Former Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi, also transmitted a message showing his regret on the disappearance of a “Intelligated fertile intellectual”.
“God rests the writer Virgil Tanase. In a Parisian literary exile dominated by frustrated veleitaries and sterile quotas, this Romanian bonom and cultivated managed to publish a lot of admirable books, at major publishers, with a successful public. I honestly liked the wonderful biographers, It offers, and I regret that I have not discovered the novels, theater or directorial creations so far. «left -handed man». In the conversations we had, in Paris, I simply discovered an interior fertile intellectual, which discreetly follows their vocation, beyond the anger of history and the masochism of memory toTalitar, “wrote Teodor Baconschi on his Facebook page.
A refined, cultivated man
A reaction also came from the general director of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Virgil Ştefan Niţulescu, who knew Virgil Tanase in Paris, when he was leading the Romanian Cultural Institute.
“I had the feeling that I was facing history. He was a refined, cultivated man. The evenings in which I had the opportunity to speak remained in my memory. God rest!“, Nitulescu said, according to Agerpres.
The writer and publicist Eugen Tudoran, in turn, lamented the news of Virgil Tanase’s death.
“A terrible news. On the way to the airport, I find out about the death of Virgil Tanase. Although I knew he was sick for a long time, the news puts me to the wall. It will take me some time to put on paper the thoughts about an excellent writer and theater man, about the rebellion ‘Ţonţu’, about his family and his family, He brought us together what made our roads break up, even though Viril remained a man that I loved beyond any misunderstanding.wrote Eugen Tudoran on Facebook.
Who was Virgil Tanase. His first novel, forbidden in Romania
Virgil Tanase was born in Galaţi on July 16, 1945.
He studied philology at the University of Bucharest (1963-1968) and the theater director at the “Il Caragiale” Theater Institute (1970-1974), recalls The Writers’ Union of Romania
He was part of the dream literary movement, constituted in 1964, later forbidden by the communist authorities. Virgil Tanase published in France his first novel, forbidden in Romania, Portrait d’Homme à la Faux Dans a Paysage Marin, Flammarion, 1976, then Apocalypse d’Ano A Bonne Family, Flammarion, 1980; (translated into Romanian as the apocalypse of a family teenager), Bucharest, 1992. He was imposed to leave with his family abroad and, at the beginning of 1978, settled in France, where he did not ask for political asylum, remaining a Romanian citizen and after obtaining the French nationality. In Paris, Virgil Tanase obtained a doctorate in the sociology and semiology of art (1979) under the leadership of Roland Barthes and carried out a large activity of writer, journalist and theater director. Since 1999 he has taught the history of civilizations at the International Institute of Image and Sound in Paris. Between 1993-1997 and 2001-2005 he was the director of the Romanian Cultural Center in Paris.
Virgil Tanase has published numerous novels and plays, some of them represented on stage in France and Romania. His novels appeared in French prestigious publishers such as Flammarion, Hachette, non Lieu. He staged theater spearcles in Romania and France.
For his literary activity, he received the Dramaturgy Prize of the Romanian Academy (1997), the Latin Union Literature Prize (2004), the Șerban Cioculescu Prize of the Museum of Romanian Literature for Memorial (2012). He was Dr. Honoris Causa of the Danube de Jos University, Galați. Virgil Tanase was conferred on the Order of Arts and Letters in France (1987) and the National Order “Faithful service“In the rank of knight (2002).
