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Quote by Dumitru Tepeneag

“Vain Art of the Fugue was the only one of my novels to be met with relative public recognition: it was nominated for the Prix Médicis by Alain Robbe-Grillet. Milan Kundera pocketed the prize instead and the public never clamored to buy it.”

Quote by Dumitru Tepeneag

Author

Dumitru Tepeneag

Dumitru Tepeneag is a renowned Romanian novelist known for his unique literary style and profound social criticism. His works often blend elements of surrealism, magical realism, and postmodernism, exploring the relationships between individuals and society, reality, and fantasy. more

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“I had severed relations with the Romanian exiles who had become politically conservative and even extremely right wing; I was giving chess lessons to earn a living. Luckily we spoke quite a bit of French at home so it wasn't too difficult for me to write in my adopted language.”

Giving Writing Home Language Bits Difficult Lessons Relation Wings Conservative Chess Spokes Adopted Exile Right Wing

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“As my editor had no desire to frighten readers with the Romanian pages, he had them translated and published the whole thing in French in 1984. It was only years later, in Romania, that I was able to publish the book as I wrote it.”

Years Book Whole Able Desire Reader Pages Editors Publish Romania

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“It's true that in Romanian I feel more relaxed, as if I'm wearing slippers...but I came to this decision primarily for other reasons: I had only published three collections of texts in Romania. Even before my exile I was prohibited from publishing, I was ignored and forgotten. In going back to Romanian I had the opportunity to take my revenge.”

Ifs Feels Reason Three Opportunity Decision Forgotten Revenge Collections Publishing Ignored Relaxed Exile Slippers Romania

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“For me, literature is the daughter of music: a bit heavy and more level headed than its mother. Literature submits to the same principles of successive perception, which allows it to build progressively.”

Mother Literature Bits Levels Principles Perception Daughter Heavy Submit Level Headed

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“The narrative image has more dimensions than the painted image - literature is more complex than painting. Initially, this complexity represents a disadvantage, because the reader has to concentrate much more than when they're looking at a canvas. It gives the author, on the other hand, the opportunity to feel like a creator: they can offer their readers a world in which there's room for everyone, as every reader has their own reading and vision.”

World Giving Feels Hands Reading Literature Opportunity Rooms Vision Painting Reader Offers Complexes Creator Narrative Complexity Dimensions Canvas Disadvantages

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“It's not the subject of narration that interests me, but the structure. That's why I stay in touch with my old works, which I reread regularly. I don't hesitate to take up previously used images or even whole scenes.”

Whole Used Interest Subjects Scene Structure Narration

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“Many images of animals, mammals or birds, resurface regularly in my narratives. They are not symbols, but chromatic benchmarks. For me, music has always been the perfect construction - an inaccessible ideal.”

Perfect Animal Bird Ideals Symbols Narrative Construction Mammals Inaccessible

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“In Necessary Marriage, I tried to repeat entire phrases without the reader noticing. My work doesn't have the rigor of music, but I hope it alludes to it.”

Reader Phrases Repeats Noticing Rigor

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“But music doesn't sum up my approach to literature - even in Vain Art of the Fugue. To 'fugue' I had to invent 'trap-words,' or words that would force the narrator to turn around and start his path anew.”

Art Turns Literature Force Path Approach Vain Traps Narrators Fugue

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“The reader's impression is one of a dream - the only thing that's left upon waking is the memory of a melody at the end of a concert.”

Ends Dream Left Memories Reader Impression Melody Concerts Waking

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag