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Emil Cioran

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Emil Cioran
Cioran in Romania,c. 1947
Born
Emil Mihai Cioran

(1911-04-08)8 April 1911
Resinár,Austria-Hungary(modern-dayRășinari,Romania)
Died20 June 1995(1995-06-20)(aged 84)
Paris,France
Alma mater
PartnerSimone Boué
Awards
Region
School
Main interests
aesthetics,antinatalism,ethics,hagiography,literary criticism,music,nihilism,poetry,religion,suicide
Signature

Emil Mihai Cioran(Romanian:[eˈmiltʃoˈran]ⓘ;French:[emilsjɔʁɑ̃];8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was aRomanianphilosopher,aphoristand essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasivephilosophical pessimism,style, and aphorisms. His works frequently engaged with issues of suffering, decay, andnihilism.In 1937, Cioran moved to theLatin Quarter of Paris,which became his permanent residence, wherein he lived in seclusion with his partner, Simone Boué, until his death in 1995.

Early life

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Cioran's house inRășinari

Cioran was born in Resinár,Szeben County,Kingdom of Hungary(todayRășinari,Sibiu County,Romania).[1]His father, Emilian Cioran, was anOrthodoxpriest, and his mother, Elvira, was the head of theChristian Women's League.[2]

At 10, Cioran moved toSibiuto attend school, and at 17, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy at theUniversity of Bucharest,where he metEugène IonescoandMircea Eliade,who became his friends.[1]Future Romanian philosopherConstantin Noicaand future Romanian thinkerPetre Țuțeabecame his closest academic colleagues; all three studied underTudor VianuandNae Ionescu.Cioran, Eliade, and Țuțea became supporters of Ionescu's ideas, known asTrăirism.[citation needed]

Cioran had a good command ofGerman,learning the language at an early age, and proceeded to read philosophy that was available in German, but not in Romanian. Notes from Cioran's adolescence indicated a study ofFriedrich Nietzsche,Honoré de Balzac,Arthur SchopenhauerandFyodor Dostoevsky,among others.[3]He became anagnostic,taking as an axiom "the inconvenience of existence". While at the university, he was influenced byGeorg Simmel,Ludwig KlagesandMartin Heidegger,but also by the Russian philosopherLev Shestov,whose contribution to Cioran's central system of thought was the belief that life isarbitrary.Cioran's graduation thesis was onHenri Bergson,whom he later rejected, claiming Bergson did not comprehend the tragedy of life.[citation needed]

From the age of 20, Cioran began to suffer frominsomnia,a condition which he suffered from for the rest of his life, and permeated his writings.[4]Cioran's decision to write about his experiences in his first book,On the Heights of Despair,came from an episode of insomnia.[5]

Career

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Berlin and Romania

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In 1933, he received a scholarship to theUniversity of Berlin,where he studiedJohann Gottlieb Fichte,Hegel,Edmund Husserl,Immanuel Kant,Georg Simmel,Schopenhauer,andNietzsche.[3]Here, he came into contact with Klages andNicolai Hartmann.While inBerlin,he became interested in the policies of theNazi regime,contributed a column toVremeadealing with the topic (in which Cioran confessed that "there is no present-day politician that I see as more sympathetic and admirable thanHitler",[6]while expressing his approval for theNight of the Long Knives— "what has humanity lost if the lives of a few imbeciles were taken" ),[7]and, in a letter written toPetru Comarnescu,described himself as "aHitlerist".[8]He held similar views aboutItalian fascism,welcoming victories in theSecond Italo-Abyssinian War,arguing that: "Fascism is a shock, without whichItalyis a compromise comparable to today's Romania ".[9]

Cioran's first book,Pe culmile disperării(literally translated: "On the Heights of Despair" ), was published in Romania in 1934. It was awarded theCommission's Prizeand theYoung Writers Prizefor one of the best books written by an unpublished young writer. Regardless, Cioran later spoke negatively of it, saying "it is a very poorly written book, without any style."[10]

Successively,The Book of Delusions(1935),The Transfiguration of Romania(1936) andTears and Saints(1937) were also published in Romania.Tears and Saintswas "incredibly poorly received", and after it was published, Cioran's mother wrote him asking him to retract the book because it was causing her public embarrassment.[11]

Although Cioran was never a member of the group, it was during this time in Romania that he began taking an interest in the ideas put forth by theIron Guard—afar rightorganization whosenationalistideologyhe supported until the early years ofWorld War II,despite allegedly disapproving of their violent methods. Cioran would later denounce fascism, describing it in 1970 as "the worst folly of my youth. If I am cured of one sickness, it is surely that one."[12]

Cioran revisedThe Transfiguration of Romaniaheavily in its second edition released in the 1990s, eliminating numerous passages he consideredextremistor "pretentious and stupid". In its original form, the book expressed sympathy fortotalitarianism,[13]a view which was also present in various articles Cioran wrote at the time,[14]and which aimed to establish "urbanizationandindustrialization"as" the two obsessions of a rising people ".[15]

His early call formodernizationwas, however, hard to reconcile with the traditionalism of the Iron Guard.[16]In 1934, he wrote, "I find that in Romania the sole fertile, creative, and invigorating nationalism can only be one which does not just dismiss tradition, but also denies and defeats it".[17]Disapproval of what he viewed as specifically Romanian traits had been present in his works ( "In any maxim, in any proverb, in any reflection, our people expresses the same shyness in front of life, the same hesitation and resignation... [...] Everyday Romanian [truisms] are dumbfounding." ),[18]which led to criticism from the far-rightGândirea(its editor,Nichifor Crainic,had calledThe Transfiguration of Romania"a bloody, merciless, massacre of today's Romania, without even [the fear] ofmatricideandsacrilege"),[19]as well as from various Iron Guard papers.[20]

France

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Portrait of Cioran

After returning from Berlin in 1936, Cioran taught philosophy at theAndrei ȘagunaHigh School inBrașovfor a year. His classes were marked by confusion and he quit in a year.

In 1937, he first applied for a fellowship at the Spanish Embassy in Bucharest but then the Spanish Civil War started. Then he left forPariswith a scholarship from theFrench Institutebranch inBucharest,which was then prolonged until 1944. He was supposedly working towards a doctoral thesis in theSorbonne University,but he had no intention to actually work towards it, as the identity of being a student gave him access to cheap meals at the university cafeteria. This he continued until 1951 when a law passed that forbade enrollment of students older than 27.[21]

After a short stay in his home country (November 1940 – February 1941), Cioran never returned again.[22]This last period in Romania was the one in which he exhibited a closer relationship with the Iron Guard, which by then had taken power (seeNational Legionary State). On 28 November, for the state-ownedRomanian Radio,Cioran recorded a speech centered on the portrait ofCorneliu Zelea Codreanu,former leader of the movement, praising him and the Guard for, among other things, "having given Romanians a purpose".[23]

He later renounced not only his support for the Iron Guard, but also their nationalist ideas, and frequently expressed regret and repentance for his emotional implication in it. For example, in a 1972 interview, he condemned it as "a complex of movements; more than this, a demented sect and a party", saying, "I found out then [...] what it means to be carried by the wave without the faintest trace of conviction. [...] I am now immune to it".[24]

Cioran started writingThe Passionate Handbookin 1940 and finished it by 1945. It was the last book he wrote inRomanian,though not the last to deal withpessimismandmisanthropythrough lyricalaphorisms.Cioran published books only in French thereafter. It was at this point that Cioran's apparent contempt for the Romanian people emerged. He told a friend that he "wanted to write aPhilosophy of Failure,with the subtitleFor the exclusive use of the Romanian People".[25]Furthermore, he described his move to Paris as "by far the most intelligent thing" he had ever done, and inThe Trouble with Being Bornhe says, "In continual rebellion against my ancestry, I have spent my whole life wanting to be something else: Spanish, Russian, cannibal—anything, except what I was."[26]

In 1942, Cioran met Simone Boué, anotherinsomniac,whom he lived with for the rest of his life. Cioran kept their relationship entirely private, and never spoke of his relationship with Boué in his writings or interviews.[27]

In 1949, his first French book,A Short History of Decay,was published byGallimardand was awarded thePrix Rivarolin 1950 for the best book written by a non-French author.[28]Throughout his career, Cioran refused most literary prizes awarded to him.[29]

Later life and death

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The tomb of Cioran and Simone Boué

TheLatin Quarterof Paris became Cioran's permanent residence. He lived most of his life in seclusion, avoiding the public, but still maintained contact with numerous friends, includingMircea Eliade,Eugène Ionesco,Paul Celan,Samuel Beckett,Henri MichauxandFernando Savater.[citation needed]

In a 1986 interview, Cioran said he no longer smoked or drank coffee or alcohol, citing health reasons.[30]

In 1995, Cioran died ofAlzheimer's disease[31]and was buried at theMontparnasse Cemetery.[1]

Major themes and style

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Professing a lack of interest in conventional philosophy in his early youth, Cioran dismissed abstract speculation in favor of personal reflection and passionate lyricism. "I invented nothing. I've been the one and only secretary of my own sensations," he later said.[32][33]

Aphorismsmake up a large portion of Cioran's bibliography, and some of his books, such asThe Trouble with Being Born,are composed entirely of aphorisms. Speaking about this decision, Cioran said:

I only write this kind of stuff, because explaining bores me terribly. That's why I say when I've written aphorisms it's that I've sunk back into fatigue, why bother. And so, the aphorism is scorned by "serious" people, the professors look down upon it. When they read a book of aphorisms, they say, "Oh, look what this fellow said ten pages back, now he's saying the contrary. He's not serious." Me, I can put two aphorisms that are contradictory right next to each other. Aphorisms are also momentary truths. They're not decrees. And I could tell you in nearly every case why I wrote this or that phrase, and when. It's always set in motion by an encounter, an incident, a fit of temper, but they all have a cause. It's not at all gratuitous.[34]

Philosophical pessimismcharacterizes all of his works, which many critics trace back to events of his childhood (in 1935 his mother is reputed to have told him that if she had known he was going to be so unhappy she would haveabortedhim). However, Cioran's pessimism (in fact, hisskepticism,evennihilism) remains both inexhaustible and, in its own particular manner, joyful; it is not the sort of pessimism which can be traced back to simple origins, single origins themselves being questionable. When Cioran's mother spoke to him of abortion, he confessed that it did not disturb him, but made an extraordinary impression which led to an insight about the nature of existence ( "I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?" is what he later said in reference to the incident).[35]

His works often depict an atmosphere of torment, a state that Cioran himself experienced, and came to be dominated by lyricism and, often, the expression of intense and even violent feeling. The books he wrote in Romanian especially display this latter characteristic. Preoccupied with the problems of death and suffering, he was attracted to the idea ofsuicide,believing it to be an idea that could help one go on living, an idea which he fully explored inOn the Heights of Despair.He revisits suicide in depth inThe New Gods,which contains a section of aphorisms devoted to the subject. The theme of human alienation, the most prominentexistentialisttheme, presented byJean-Paul SartreandAlbert Camus,is thus formulated, in 1932, by young Cioran: "Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?" inOn the Heights of Despair.[36]

Cioran's works encompass many other themes as well:original sin,the tragic sense of history, the end of civilization, the refusal of consolation through faith, the obsession with the absolute, life as an expression of man'smetaphysicalexile, etc. He was a thinker passionate about history; widely reading the writers that were associated with the "Decadent movement".One of these writers wasOswald Spenglerwho influenced Cioran's political philosophy in that he offeredGnosticreflections on the destiny of man and civilization. According to Cioran, as long as man has kept in touch with his origins and hasn't cut himself off from himself, he has resisted decadence. Today, he is on his way to his own destruction through self-objectification, impeccable production and reproduction, excess of self-analysis and transparency, and artificial triumph.[citation needed]

RegardingGod,Cioran has noted that "withoutBach,God would be a complete second-rate figure "and that" Bach's music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded as a complete failure ".[37]Cioran went on to say "Bach,Shakespeare,Beethoven,DostoevskyandNietzscheare the only arguments againstmonotheism."[38]

William H. Gasscalled Cioran'sThe Temptation to Exist"a philosophicalromanceon the modern themes of alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease ".[39]

According toSusan Sontag,Cioran's subject is "on being a mind, a consciousness tuned to the highest pitch of refinement" and "[i]n Cioran's writings... the mind is a voyeur. But not upon 'the world.' Upon itself. Cioran is, to a degree reminiscent ofBeckett,concerned with the absolute integrity of thought. That is, with the reduction or circumscription of thought to thinking about thinking. "[40]: 80 

Cioran became most famous while writing not in Romanian but French, a language with which he had struggled since his youth. During Cioran's lifetime,Saint-John Persecalled him "the greatest French writer to honor our language since the death ofPaul Valéry."[41]Cioran's tone and usage in his adopted language were seldom as harsh as in Romanian (though his use of Romanian is said to be more original).[citation needed]

Legacy

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After the death of Cioran's long-term companion, Simone Boué, a collection of Cioran's manuscripts (over 30 notebooks) were found in the couple's apartment by a manager who tried to auction them in 2005. A decision taken by theCourt of Appeal of Parisstopped the commercial sale of the collection. However, in March 2011, the Court of Appeal ruled that the seller was the legitimate owner of the manuscripts. The manuscripts were purchased by Romanian businessman George Brăiloiu for €405,000.[42]

An aged Cioran is the main character in a play by Romanian dramatist-actorMatei Vișniec,Mansardă la Paris cu vedere spre moarte( "A Paris Loft with a View on Death" ). The play, depicting an imaginary meeting between Vișniec and Cioran,[43]was first brought to the stage in 2007, under the direction of Radu Afrim and with a cast of Romanian andLuxembourgianactors; Cioran was played by Constantin Cojocaru.[44]Stagings were organized in the Romanian city ofSibiu[43][44]and in Luxembourg, atEsch-sur-Alzette(both Sibiu andLuxembourg Citywere the year'sEuropean Capital of Culture).[43]In 2009, theRomanian Academygranted posthumous membership to Cioran.[45]

Susan Sontag was a great admirer of Cioran, calling him "one of the most delicate minds of real power writing today."[40]: 82 She wrote an essay on his work that served as the introduction to the English translation ofThe Temptation to Exist,published in 1967. The essay was included in Sontag's 1969 collectionStyles of Radical Will.

Under the rule ofNicolae Ceaușescu,Cioran's works were banned.[25]In 1974,Francoist SpainbannedThe Evil Demiurgefor being "atheist, blasphemous, and anti-Christian", which Cioran considered "one of the greatest jokes in his absurd existence."[1]

American electronic musicianOneohtrix Point Nevernamed a song after Cioran on his 2009 releaseZones Without People.[46]

DanishneofolkmusicianKim Larsenre-enacted Cioran's choking arms photograph on the cover of the 2021 albumYour Love Can't Hold This Wreath of Sorrow.

In the 2023 Mexican/US English-language filmRotting in the Sunactor and character (and director)Sebastián Silvais seen reading Cioran's book, The Trouble with Being Born, at the beach and quotes passages from it.

Major works

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Romanian

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  • Pe culmile disperării(translated "On the Heights of Despair"), Editura" Fundația pentru Literatură și Artă ", Bucharest 1934
  • Cartea amăgirilor( "The Book of Delusions" ), Bucharest 1936
  • Schimbarea la față a României( "The Transfiguration of Romania" ), Bucharest 1936
  • Lacrimi și Sfinți( "Tears and Saints" ), "Editura autorului" 1937
  • Îndreptar pătimaș( "The Passionate Handbook" ), Humanitas, Bucharest 1991

French

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All of Cioran's major works in French have been translated into English byRichard Howard.

  • Précis de décomposition( "A Short History of Decay"),Gallimard1949
  • Syllogismes de l'amertume(tr. "All Gall Is Divided"), Gallimard 1952
  • La Tentation d'exister( "The Temptation to Exist" ), Gallimard 1956 | English edition:ISBN978-0-226-10675-5
  • Histoire et utopie( "History and Utopia"), Gallimard 1960
  • La Chute dans le temps( "The Fall into Time" ), Gallimard 1964
  • Le Mauvais démiurge(literallyThe EvilDemiurge;tr. "The New Gods" ), Gallimard 1969
  • De l'inconvénient d'être né( "The Trouble with Being Born"), Gallimard 1973
  • Écartèlement(tr. "Drawn and Quartered" ), Gallimard 1979
  • Exercices d'admiration1986, andAveux et anathèmes1987 (tr. and grouped as "Anathemas and Admirations" )
  • Œuvres(Collected works), Gallimard-Quatro 1995
  • Mon pays/Țara mea( "My country", written in French, the book was first published in Romania in a bilingual volume), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1996
  • Cahiers 1957–1972( "Notebooks" ), Gallimard 1997
  • Des larmes et des saints,L'Herne| English edition:ISBN978-0-226-10672-4
  • Sur les cimes du désespoir,L'Herne,| English edition:ISBN978-0-226-10670-0
  • Le Crépuscule des pensées,L'Herne,
  • Jadis et naguère,L'Herne
  • Valéry face à ses idoles,L'Herne, 1970, 2006
  • De la France,L'Herne, 2009
  • Transfiguration de la Roumanie,L'Herne, 2009
  • Cahier Cioran,L'Herne, 2009 (Several unpublished documents, letters and photographs).

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^abcd"Obituary: Emil Cioran".The Independent.23 October 2011.Retrieved22 March2021.
  2. ^Cioran, Emil (1996).On the Heights of Despair.p. 13.
  3. ^abRegier, Willis (2005)."Cioran's Nietzsche".French Forum.30(3): 76.doi:10.1353/frf.2006.0012.JSTOR40552402.S2CID170571716.
  4. ^Regier, Willis (2004)."Cioran's Insomnia".MLN.119(5): 994–1012.doi:10.1353/mln.2005.0018.JSTOR3251887.S2CID170780097.
  5. ^Regier, Willis (2004)."Cioran's Insomnia".MLN.119(5): 996.doi:10.1353/mln.2005.0018.JSTOR3251887.S2CID170780097.
  6. ^Cioran, 1933, in Ornea, p.191
  7. ^Cioran, 1934, in Ornea, p.192
  8. ^Cioran, 1933, in Ornea, p.190
  9. ^Cioran, 1936, in Ornea, p.192
  10. ^Jakob, Michel; Cioran, Emil; Greenspan, Kate (1994)."Wakefulness and Obsession: An Interview with E.M. Cioran".Salmagundi.103(103): 143.JSTOR40548762.
  11. ^Jakob, Michel; Cioran, Emil; Greenspan, Kate (1994)."Wakefulness and Obsession: An Interview with E.M. Cioran".Salmagundi.103(103): 126.JSTOR40548762.
  12. ^Acquisto, Joseph (2015).The Fall out of Redemption: Writing and Thinking Beyond Salvation in Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, and Nancy.Bloomsbury Academic. p. 142.
  13. ^Ornea, p.40
  14. ^Ornea, p.50-52, 98
  15. ^Cioran, in Ornea, p.98
  16. ^Ornea, p.127, 130, 137–141
  17. ^Cioran, 1934, in Ornea, p.127
  18. ^Cioran, 1936, in Ornea, p. 141
  19. ^Crainic, 1937, in Ornea, p.143
  20. ^Ornea, pp. 143–144
  21. ^"The Philosopher of Failure: Emil Cioran's Heights of Despair".Los Angeles Review of Books.28 November 2016.Retrieved14 March2024.
  22. ^Gruzinska, Aleksandra (2001)."(Anti-)Semitism 1890s/1990s: Octave Mirbeau and E. M. Cioran".Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature.55(1): 18.doi:10.2307/1348152.JSTOR1348152.S2CID146282921.
  23. ^Cioran, 1940, in Ornea, p.197
  24. ^Cioran, 1972, in Ornea, p.198
  25. ^abPace, Eric (22 June 1995)."E. M. Cioran, 84, Novelist And Philosopher of Despair".The New York Times.The New York Times.Retrieved13 September2020.
  26. ^Cioran, Emil (1998).The Trouble with Being Born.Arcade Publishing. p. 62.
  27. ^Regier, Willis (2005)."Cioran's Nietzsche".French Forum.30(3): 84.doi:10.1353/frf.2006.0012.JSTOR40552402.S2CID170571716.
  28. ^Regier, Willis (2004)."Cioran's Insomnia".MLN.119(5): 1000.doi:10.1353/mln.2005.0018.JSTOR3251887.S2CID170780097.
  29. ^A Short History of Decay, p. ix.
  30. ^Weiss, Jason."E. M. Cioran".Itineraries of a Hummingbird.Archived fromthe originalon 28 July 2017.Retrieved3 June2024.
  31. ^Bradatan, Costica (28 November 2016)."The Philosopher of Failure: Emil Cioran's Heights of Despair".Los Angeles Review of Books.Retrieved8 January2018.
  32. ^Kirkup, James (24 June 1995)."Obituary: Emil Cioran".The Independent.Retrieved23 March2020.
  33. ^Drawn and Quartered,p. 148.
  34. ^"E.M. Cioran".Itineraries of a Hummingbird.
  35. ^Weiss, Jason (1991).Writing At Risk: Interviews Uncommon Writers.University of Iowa Press. p.9.ISBN9781587292491.I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?.
  36. ^Cioran, Emil (1992).On the Heights of Despair.University of Chicago Press. p. 106.
  37. ^Cioran, 4 December 1989, inNewsweek
  38. ^Regier, Willis (2005)."Cioran's Nietzsche".French Forum.30(3): 78.doi:10.1353/frf.2006.0012.JSTOR40552402.S2CID170571716.
  39. ^Gass, William H. (22 August 1968)."The Evil Demiurge".The New York Review.ISSN0028-7504.Retrieved28 September2022.
  40. ^abSontag, Susan (1969).Styles of Radical Will.New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN978-0312420215.
  41. ^Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnston,Searching for Cioran(Indiana University Press), p.6
  42. ^"Manuscripts by Romanian Philosopher Cioran Fetch €400,000".Balkan Insight.8 April 2011.Retrieved22 March2021.
  43. ^abc(in Romanian)"Teatru românesc în Luxemburg",atHotNews.ro;retrieved 15 November 2007
  44. ^abIoan T. Morar,"Cronică de lângă teatre. A făcut Emil Cioran karate?", inAcademia Cațavencu,45/2007, p.30
  45. ^(in Romanian)Membrii post-mortem al Academiei Române,at theRomanian Academysite
  46. ^"Zones Without People, by Oneohtrix Point Never".Oneohtrix Point Never.

References

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[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related toEmil Cioran.
Wikiquote has quotations related toEmil Cioran.
  • Cioran.eu– Project Cioran: texts, interviews, multimedia, links.
  • E. M. Cioran on Samuel BeckettThe website states that: "Scattered throughout the one thousand pages of Cioran'sCahiers 1957–1972are many intriguing remarks about Beckett and his work, of which the following are among the more memorable. "
  • The Book of Delusions[Cartea amăgirilor] (chapter 5), translated with an introduction by Camelia Elias.Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics,Vol. V, Issue 1, MAY 2010.
  • Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba,Ideas- a variable background in Cioran-s writing
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