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Quote by Dumitru Tepeneag

“At one point I had a very complicated plan to use the game of chess as a generating structure for writing. I prepared for a long time. I finally wrote two chapters and stopped. It was too complicated and too difficult to write. And who would've read 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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“There is no one 'best set-up', there are many - you can get to mate in endless ways. And - don't forget! - in chess, like in literature, "the other" (the reader, the adversary, the partner, etc.) has to be a collaborator, has to work with you to get to the final goal. We depend on them! But they also depend on us.”

Way Literature Goal Forget Depends Reader Finals Partners Chess Endless Etc Mates Adversaries Collaborators

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“The literary game is the abyss of human society itself: interactive, playful and tragic. We can't live alone. For me, Robinson [Crusoe] is either a false myth or else he represents the denial of human society. We can't play by ourselves. In literature, it's even more complicated, because one has to play with an indeterminate number of players simultaneously and every game is different. The other player can abandon your game at any time...to go play chess.”

Humans Different Play Literature Games Numbers Player Complicated Myth Chess Denial Tragic Abandon Abyss Human Society Interactive Robinson Crusoe

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“Since adolescence I've had a passion for Romantic Fantastique literature, which continued with Expressionism and culminated with the genius of Kafka. It's that German thread of the metaphysic - they were looking for the beyond in dreams.”

Dream Passion Literature Genius Thread Adolescence Expressionism

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“On the other hand, Surrealism has been a part of Romanian literature since forever. Even before Tzara, who was originally Romanian, we had Urmuz, who was a surrealist before the term even existed. During Breton's era too, there was a very active Romanian Surrealist group (Ghérasim Luca, Gellu Naum, etc.) closely related to the French. They had to quit their activities as soon as the Soviet communists took over.”

Has Beens Hands Literature Term Forever Groups Activity Active Quitting Eras Related Etc Communist Soviet Surrealism Surrealist

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“Our Onirisme movement was a synthesis between the Romantic Fantastique and Surrealism. Dimov and I rejected automatic writing. We loved surrealist painters: Chirico, Magritte, Tanguy and especially Brauner (also a Romanian), who never respected the laws that Breton imposed in his manifests.”

Writing Law Movement Painter Rejected Surrealism Synthesis Surrealist Magritte

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“Where is automatism in the work of Chirico or Tanguy? Even Dali had to renounce it in order to be able to organize the space of the canvas according to the combined laws of dreams and pictorial aesthetics.”

Dream Able Law Order Space Canvas Organize Aesthetics Renounce Pictorial

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“We could say that Romanian Onirisme was born from painting and not from surrealist literature. The visual is primordial. Dimov said, 'Dreams are not a source, but a canon, a legislative model.'”

Said Dream Literature Born Painting Source Models Visuals Canon Surrealist

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“We don't recount our dreams; we construct them with the materials of reality. We aren't looking for God, psychic truth or authenticity, but for esthetic effect. That's why I baptized our movement Structural, or Esthetic, Onirism. Dreams and music were our models.”

Dream Reality Effects Movement Materials Models Authenticity Constructs Psychics Our Dreams Baptized

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“The East was no longer a threat to the western world, and when there's nothing to fear we turn our backs, we look elsewhere. Eastern literature is still the poor relative that everyone wants to forget, the Cinderella who hasn't (yet) found her prince.”

World Want Looks Stills Turns Found Literature Forget Poor Threat Western East Relative Elsewhere Eastern Western World

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag

“Seine et Danube was launched in 2003 with the help of Romanian authorities who had finally realized the necessity of promoting literature and Romanian culture in general. Along with focusing on the literature of the countries the Danube traversed (with an emphasis on Romania), we printed work that interested us from the banks of the Seine: French and French-Romanian authors like Cioran and Fondane. We dedicated our last edition to surrealism and Esthetic Onirisme.”

Country Helping Lasts Culture Literature Authority Dedicated Emphasis Promoting Printed Surrealism Romania Danube

Author:Dumitru Tepeneag