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Alice Voinescu

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Alice Voinescu
Voinescu in 1948
Born
Alice Steriadi

(1885-02-10)10 February 1885
Turnu-Severin,Kingdom of Romania
Died4 June 1961(1961-06-04)(aged 76)
Bucharest,Romanian People's Republic
Other namesAlice Steriadi Voinescu
Occupation(s)Writer, essayist, university professor, theatre critic, translator
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Bucharest
Paris-Sorbonne University
ThesisL'Interprétation de la doctrine de Kant par l'École de Marburg: Étude sur l'idéalisme critique(1913)
Doctoral advisorLucien Lévy-Bruhl
Academic work
InstitutionsConservatory of Music and Dramatic Art

Alice Voinescu(10 February 1885 – 4 June 1961) was aRomanianwriter, essayist, university professor, theatre critic, and translator.

She was the first Romanian woman to become a Doctor of Philosophy, which she did at theSorbonnein 1913 inParis.In 1922, she became a professor of theatrical history at what would become theRoyal Academy of Music and Dramatic Artsin Bucharest, where she taught for over two decades. In 1948, she was removed from her department and spent a year and seven months in prisons inJilavaandGhencea.After her detention, she was kept underhouse arrestin the village ofCosteștinearTârgu Frumosuntil 1954. Posthumously, her diary covering the interwar and communist period of Romania's history was discovered and published in 1997.

Early life

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Alice Steriadi was born on 10 February 1885 inTurnu-Severin,Kingdom of Romaniato Massinca (née Poenaru) and Sterie Steriadi. She was one of three daughters, born to the upper-middle-class family, headed by her father who was a Paris-educated lawyer. Her mother's family descended fromPetrache Poenaru,the noted educational reformer, and the couple provided a Western-European education for their daughters.[1]By the age of five, Steriadi was able to read bothRomanianandGermanand by age six, she was studyingFrench.[2]She studied at the Lyceum in Turnu-Severin before enrolling at theUniversity of Bucharest.[3]

After she graduated in 1908 from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy inBucharest,Steriadi went on an academic tour of Europe, studying first atLeipzig University,withTheodor LippsandJohannes Volkelt,who introduced her toHermann Cohen's work onImmanuel Kant.Next she went toMunichand by 1910 had arrived inParisto study atthe Sorbonne.During the spring of 1911,[3]Steriadi went toMarburg,Germany, where she audited classes given at theUniversity of Marburgwith Cohen. She continued her education in Paris at the Sorbonne, studying underLucien Lévy-Bruhl,earning a PhDmagna cum laudein philosophy in 1913, with her successful defence of her thesis,The Interpretation of Kant's Doctrine by the Marburg School: A Study in Critical Idealism(French:L'Interprétation de la doctrine de Kant par l'École de Marburg: Étude sur l'idéalisme critique).[4]

Steriadi was the first Romanian woman to earn a doctorate in philosophy and received offers to continue her education in the United States or stay in Paris to become a lecturer.[5]Instead, she returned to Romania in 1915 and married the lawyer Stelian Voinescu. The marriage would prove to be an unhappy union.[6]She joined the Christian Association of Women (Romanian:Asociația Creștină a Femeilor (ACF)), which was founded in 1919 by QueenMarie of Romaniato provide a variety of philanthropic programs in the interwar period. The organization was aimed at providing upper- and middle-class Romanian women with ways to provide moral and charitable guidance by adopting the orthodox characterization of women, as empathetic mothers able to shape the social fabric of society through their love and devotion.[7]

Career

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As there was no avenue for a woman to teach at theUniversity of Bucharestat that time, in 1922, Voinescu joined the faculty of theConservatory of Music and Dramatic Art,renamed as the Royal Conservatory in 1931. She lectured onaesthetics,theoryand thehistory of theatre.[8]She began broadcasting educational programs on the radio in 1924.[9]Between 1928 and 1939, Voinescu traveled annually to France to participate in conferences organized byPaul DesjardinsatPontigny Abbey.The meetings brought together international intellectuals to evaluate the future of Europe afterWorld War I.Among those she met there wereCharles du Bos,Roger Martin du Gard,André Gide,Paul Langevin,André Malraux,François Mauriac,andJacques Rivière.[10]At one of these meetings in 1929, du Gard questioned why she did not keep a journal. From that point on, Voinescu became adiarist,keeping careful record of the personalities and events she encountered day to day,[6]though often with long gaps between entries.[11]

Between 1932 and 1942 she made a series of radio presentations evaluating women's place in Romanian society. Some of the topics includedDirections in Women's Education,The Psychology of Today’s Working Women,The Psychology of Today’s Youth,which considered whether intellect and femininity were at odds. Voinescu believed that education improved women's ability to be agents of empathy and the moral caregivers of society. She was ambivalent towards women's groups which were based on a Western model and strove foremancipationof women, because she felt that they did not address the Romanian reality. In her radio speeches, she warned that erasing gender differences would result in women being limited by a male view of identity.[12]

Voinescu began publishing, with such works asMontaigne, omul și opera(Montaigne, life and work, 1936);Aspecte din teatrul contemporan(Aspects of contemporary theatre, 1941); andEschil(Aeschylus, 1946).[10]She also contributed to theIstoria filosofiei moderne(History of Modern Philosophy, 1936) with works evaluatingFrench scepticismandneo-Kantianism.[9]She contributed toIdeea europeanămagazine and published the theatre column forRevista Fundațiilor Regale.[13]During this same time, she also began teaching at the School of Social Work, which inspired a brochureContribution dans la Psychologie dans l'Assistance Sociale en Roumanie(Contributions to the psychology of social work in Romania, 1938),[10]as well as writing theatre critiques.[9]While continuing to teach at the Royal Conservatory, she also lectured at the French Institute and the Free University of Bucharest.[10]Between 1939 and 1940, Voinescu prepared a publication about four playwrights discussing the works ofPaul Claudel,Luigi Pirandello,George Bernard Shaw,andFrank Wedekind.She also wrote a condemnation of those who had assassinatedNicolae Iorga.[2]Her husband died in 1940 and after his death, her journal entries intimately related to him as a confidant, which she had not experienced during his lifetime due to his numerous infidelities.[14]

In 1948, under the nascentcommunist regime,Voinescu was forcibly retired and to relive the stress, began work onScrisori către fiul și fiica mea(Letters to My Son and Daughter), a fictional work addressed to children that the childless Voinescu never had.[9]The work would not be published until after her death.[6]In 1951, she was accused of being a monarchist and of hiding her support forKingMichael Iafter his forcedabdication.[15]Arrested after attending intellectual resistance conferences held byPetru Manoliuat the Free University, Voinescu was held for a year at theGhenceacamp before being sent to thePrison.[16]She spent nineteen months in prison[15]and then was kept under house arrest in a small village ofCosteștiinIași Countyin the northern part of the country for another year.[17]The village was very isolated, being impossible to reach except by horseback during spring and autumn rains, and with roads completely impassible in winter due to blizzard conditions. Voinescu was even forbidden to attend church to limit her contact with people.[18]Friends, such asPetru Groza,Mihail Jora,andTudor Vianu,intervened with authorities to secure her release with a small pension.[2]

Voinescu returned home in 1954 and worked as a literary translator for such works asMichael KohlhaasbyHeinrich von Kleistand short stories byThomas Mann.The work kept her busy and wasn't likely to have the same political repercussions as creating her own works. In 1960 and 1961, she worked onÎntâlnire cu eroi din literatură și teatru(Encounters with Heroes in Literature and Drama, 1983)[9]and occasionally was asked to make translations for colleagues.[11]

Death and legacy

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Voinescu on a 2021 stamp of Romania

Voinescu died during the night of 3–4 June 1961.[9]She is buried atBellu Cemetery,in Bucharest.[19]

In 1983, the Eminescu Publishing House releasedTragic Heroes,edited by Valeriu Râpeanu[11]and then in 1994Letters to My Son and Daughterwas published.[6]In 1997, Maria Ana Murnu edited and published with Editura Albatros,The Journal,Voinescu's rediscovered diaries, which was reissued in 2013 by BibliotecaPolirom.[11]The Journalincluded notes about cultural personalities from the interwar and postwar periods; her relationships with other people, particularly her interactions with the villagers during her confinement; and her musings on historical and social issues during the time which had been obscured behind political agenda.[20]She explored candidly her experiences, such as her abhorrence ofanti-Semitismand thepropagandajustifying government confiscations andnationalizationof properties ofRomanian Jews,while simultaneously pondering whether she would be able to obtain one of those houses to alleviate the financial straits in which her husband's death had left her.[21]She decried the persecution of theRomani people[22]and her frustrations of the vulnerability women faced because of societal restrictions.[23]Scrisori din Costești(Letters from Costești), written during her house arrest, was published in 2001.[6]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^Georgescu 2006,p. 608.
  2. ^abc"Vă mai amintiți de...Alice Voinescu" 2011.
  3. ^abDingeldein 2009,p. 46.
  4. ^Dingeldein 2009,p. 46;Georgescu 2006,p. 608.
  5. ^Dingeldein 2009,p. 47;Stan 2014.
  6. ^abcdeStan 2014.
  7. ^Georgescu 2006,p. 610.
  8. ^Georgescu 2006,p. 609;Morariu 2014.
  9. ^abcdefDingeldein 2009,p. 47.
  10. ^abcdGeorgescu 2006,p. 609.
  11. ^abcdMorariu 2014.
  12. ^Georgescu 2006,p. 610;"Vă mai amintiți de...Alice Voinescu" 2011.
  13. ^Sasu 2004.
  14. ^Morariu 2014;Stan 2014.
  15. ^abDingeldein 2009,p. 47;Morariu 2014.
  16. ^"Alice Voinescu" 2016.
  17. ^Georgescu 2006,p. 611;Morariu 2014.
  18. ^Iancu 2002.
  19. ^Teodoreanu, Daniel (14 May 2020)."Ce secret uluitor ascunde Capitala?" Nu și-a închipuit nimeni că există în România! "".Evenimentul Zilei(in Romanian).Retrieved18 April2021.
  20. ^Iancu 2002;Stan 2014.
  21. ^Bucur 2016,p. 152;Ionescu 2015,p. 86.
  22. ^Ionescu 2015,p. 121.
  23. ^Wingfield & Bucur 2006,p. 184.

Bibliography

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