On literature, with love… N. Steinhardt – In between life and books
During the last two communist decades, N. Steinhardt proposes a personal approach on literature and critics. He practices the reading and the receiving of literature and art in a Christian manner. Avoiding turgid expression, N. Steinhardt highlights the life embroidered in literature, in more or less famous authors, lyrics and characters. He catches a single moment of truth and beauty in the book he reads, in the painting he contemplates, and, starting from this glimpse or revelation of life, he develops a vivid demonstration of the values he believes in: the way, the truth, and the life. N. Steinhardt’s attitude regarding literature and arts is based on love and gratitude. In a grey, humdrum, wearisome world, he finds the resources to proclaim the arts as an aristocratic manifesto. This is an intelligent and discrete way for him to counterpoise a vulgar ideology and the ubiquitous spectrum of censorship.
* Mănăstirea Rohia, Editura Polirom, 2010.
1. Primejdia mărturisirii. Convorbirile de la Rohia, Opere 15, Polirom, 2009, pp. 58-59.
2. Zaharia Sângeorzan, op. cit., p. 12.
3. Nicolae Steinhardt, Ioan Pintea, Primejdia mărturisirii. Convorbirile de la Rohia, ed. cit., p. 49.
4. Ibidem, p. 56.
5. Ibidem
6. Mircea Ivănescu, „Cărţi şi critică”, în Transilvania, anul IV (LXXXI), serie nouă, nr. 8, august 1976, pp. 23-24.
7. „N. Steinhardt între viaţă şi cărţi” (ianuarie 1977), în vol. Semnul mirării,Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1995, pp. 159-164.
Mircea Ivănescu, „Cărţi şi critică” / “Books and criticism”, în Transilvania, anul IV (LXXXI), serie nouă, nr. 8, august 1976.
Nicolae Steinhardt, Ioan Pintea, Primejdia mărturisirii. Convorbirile de la Rohia / The danger of confession. Interlocutions from Rohia, in Opere / Works, 15, Polirom, 2009.
„N. Steinhardt între viaţă şi cărţi”(ianuarie 1977) / “N. Steinhardt between life and books”(January 1977), in Semnul mirării / The sign of wonder, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 1995.
