Onirismul estetic (Aesthetic oneirism, anthology of theoretical texts by Dimov and Țepeneag, edition and foreword by Marian Victor Buciu, 2007)
Aesthetic oneirism (also known as structural oneirism or, simply, oneirism) was the only movement in Romanian literature of the 1960's generation with a proper group and a fleshed out theory of its own (although the theoretical articles could only be published in their entirety after 1990). It was founded by Leonid Dimov and Dumitru Țepeneag as a reaction to Romanian Surrealism and to socialist realism. Formerly an avant-garde poet before turning to socialist realism, Miron Radu Paraschivescu was the one who supported them and who opened for them in 1966 the inset supplement Povestea vorbei of the Craiova-based magazine Ramuri. After a few issues, censorship rejected the magazine and the later attempts of oneirists to found an official oneirist magazine failed as well.
Aesthetic oneirism is different from the oneirism of past movements, such as Surrealism and Romanticism; according to D. Țepeneag, "for oneiric literature (...) the dream is not source/reference nor matter of study, but a criteria. The difference is fundamental: I am not transcribing/telling a dream (of mine or someone else), I am trying to build a reality analogue to the one of dream. (...) The Surrealists also tried to detect these strange elements of reality (...), but they were like some kind of reporters looking for the unusual, without the will to build with these elements a different world, one that is parallel to the world of dreams." (În căutarea unei definiții, 1968)
Momentul oniric (The Oneiric Moment, anthology of texts by Dimov and Țepeneag, edition by Corin Braga, 1997)
Oneiric texts are, therefore, "configurations", compositions that are build by a lucid writer who applies the principles of dreams instead of reproducing their effects. The fact that these texts are acknowledged as "texts" would lead to the textualist theory.
Although apparently as "evasive" as the metaphysical branch of neomodernism, the oneirists were deemed as "subversive"; they were among the first wave of writers who could debut without the aid of socialist realist or Marxist-referencing texts, but what attracted the attention of authorities were their attempts to create a group that is independent of the norms of the day and an alternative to the already-canonic neomodernist writers that were partially pushed in front by authorities. The group existed unofficially until around 1970, as pressure was put on the members of the group to not display as such and to not use the term "oneiric" (that was slightly later among the words banned by censorship). A factor was also the fact that Dumitru Țepeneag, against the desire of Leonid Dimov, tried to usher the group towards a political involvement; his subtly subversive prose volumes and his speeches at Europa Liberă contributed to his (partly forced) exile and the demise of oneirism. Almost all other oneirists have continued to publish independently, though few critics (such as Laurențiu Ulici) acknowledged their importance until the 1980's generation. They are cited among the major influences of textualism and postmodernism. Aesthetic oneirism is currently one of the subjects most often cropping up in academic circles.
Members of the oneiric group[]
- Leonid Dimov
- Dumitru Țepeneag
- Virgil Mazilescu
- Daniel Turcea
- Vintilă Ivănceanu
- Sorin Titel
- Virgil Tănase
- Florin Gabrea
- Iulian Neacșu
- Emil Brumaru
Other writers associated briefly with oneirism[]
- Nora Iuga
- Puși Dinulescu
- Mihai Teclu
- Teodor Pâcă
- Tudor George
- Dușan Petrovici
- Şerban Foarţă
- Vasile Andru
- Nicolae Krasovski
- Alexandru Monciu-Sudinski
- Valery Oișteanu
- Sebastian Reichmann
- Fănuş Neagu
- Sânziana Pop
- Nina Cassian
Also see neo-oneirism.