Nomination Form
for the 2016 Kyoto Prize
in Arts and Philosophy
Candidate
Paul GOMA
Romanian writer and and
leading opponent of the communist
regime before 1989
Political refugee in France
Residing in Paris
2. Reasons for nomination
His family's refugee; Political prisoner; Fight for human rights in Romania;
Exile in France; Literary and spiritual contribution
3. Detailed description of reasons for nomination
Paul Goma would describe his family's refugee saga in the novels Arta
refugii ("The Art of Refuge", a wordplay on the Romanian words
for "refuge" and "taking flight"), Soldatul câinelui
("Dog's Soldier"), and Gardă inversă ("Reverse
Guard").
In 1956, Goma was arrested on the
charge of attempting to organize a strike at University of Bucharest and he was
sentenced to two years in prison.] He served his sentence, and then put under house arrest
until 1963. He wrote Gherla, a novel based on his experiences
in the Gherla Prison.
In 1977, Paul Goma wrote public letters expressing
solidarity with the Charter 77, another letter, addressed directly to Ceaușescu,following this, he
wrote another letter (addressed to the 35 countries in the CSCE) in which he called for respect for human rights in Romania. Ceaușescu made a speech in which he
attacked the "traitors of the country", referring to the two letters
Goma wrote. Following his arrest, an international appeal for his release was launched,
among the signatories being Eugène Ionesco, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Miller and Edward Albee. On November 20, 1977, Paul Goma and
his family left Romania and went into exile in
In France, in 1979, Paul Goma was active in the creation of the Free Workers' Syndicate. The Securitate planned to assassinate Goma. Although Goma's
numerous works (both fiction and non-fiction) were translated worldwide, his
books, except the first one, were published in Romania only after the 1989 Revolution. He now lives in Paris as a stateless political refugee,
his Romanian citizenship having been revoked after 1978 by the communist
government. He turned down an offer of citizenship from the French Republic, extended simultaneously to him and to the Czech writer Milan Kundera.
Goma's literary debut came in 1966. In 1968 he published his first volume
of stories, Camera de alături ("The Room Next Door"). After Ostinato
and its West German publication in 1971 came Uşa ("Die Tür" or
"The Door") in 1972, also in Germany. After his forced emigration in
1977 and until his books could again be published in Romania after the 1989
revolution, all his books appeared in France and in French. (His novel Gherla
had in fact been published in 1976 first in French by Gallimard of Paris before
he left Romania.) There followed such novels as Dans le cercle
("Within the Circle", 1977); Garde inverse ("Reverse
Guard", 1979); Le Tremblement des Hommes ("The Trembling of
People", 1979); Chassée-croisé ("Intersection", 1983); Les
Chiens de la mort ("The Dogs of Death", 1981), which details his
prison experiences in Piteşti in the 1950s; and Bonifacia (1986). The
autobiographical Le Calidor appeared in French in 1987 and was
subsequently published in Romanian as Din Calidor: O copilărie basarabeană
("In Calidor: A Bessarabian Childhood", 1989, 1990; translated as My
Childhood at the Gate of Unrest) in the Romanian émigré journal Dialog.
In its totality, Goma's literary work comprises a "persuasive and
grimly fascinating exposure of totalitarian inhumanity from which, in his own
case, even foreign exile was no guarantee of safe haven. In such later novels
as Bonifacia and My Childhood at the Gate of Unrest, the
biographical element dominates as he focuses on his childhood and adolescence
in Bessarabia. Several sets of diaries, all published in Romania in 1997 and
1998, shed light on Goma's later life and career: Alte Jurnale
("Other Journals"), which covers his stay in the United States in
autumn 1978 but concentrates primarily on 1994-96; Jurnal I: Jurnal pe
sărite ("Journal I: By Leaps and Bounds", 1997); Jurnal II:
Jurnal de căldură mare ("Journal II: Journal of Great Heat",
1997), covering June and July 1989; Jurnal III: Jurnal de noapte lungă
("Journal of the Long Night", 1997), covering September to December
1993; and Jurnalul unui jurnal 1997 ("The Journal of a Journal,
1997").
(German) Die
Tür, 1972.
(French) Elles
étaient quatre, Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1974.
(Romanian) Uşa
noastrǎ cea de toate zilele, Editura Cartea Româneascǎ, Bucharest, 1992.
(French) Gherla,
Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1976.
(Swedish) Gherla,
1978.
(French) Dossier
Paul Goma. L'écrivain face au socialisme du silence., Paris, 1977
(Romanian) In
cerc, 1995.
(French) Garde
inverse, Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1979.
(French) Le
Tremblement des Hommes: peut-on vivre en Roumanie aujourd'hui?, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1979. ISBN 2-02-005101-X.
(Dutch) 1980.
(French) Les
chiens de mort, ou, La passion selon Piteşti, Hachette, Paris, 1981. ISBN 2-01-008309-1
(Romanian) Patimile
dupǎ Piteşti, 1990.
(French) Chassé-croise,
Hachette, Paris, 1983.
(Romanian) Din
calidor, 1989.
(Romanian) Sabina,
1991.
(French) Sabina,
1993.
(French) Astra,
1992.
(Romanian) Astra,
Editura Dacia, 1992.
(Romanian) Bonifacia,
1993.
(Romanian) Amnezia
la români, Litera, 1995.
(Romanian) Justa
Editura Nemira, Bucharest, 1995.
(Romanian) Jurnal
pe sărite, Editura Nemira, Bucharest, 1997
(Romanian) Jurnal
de cǎldura mare, Edutura Nemira, Bucharest, 1997
(Romanian) Altina
- grǎdina scufundata, Editura Cartier, Chişinau, 1998.
(Romanian) Jurnal
de Noapte Lungă, Dacia, Bucharest, 2000.
(Romanian) Jurnal
unui jurnal, Dacia, Cluj, 2000.
(Romanian) Jurnal
de Apocrif, Dacia, Cluj, 2000.
(Romanian) Săptămîna
Roşie. 28 Iunie–3 Iulie 1940 sau Basarabia şi evreii, Museum, Chişinău,
2003. ISBN 978-9975-906-77-7
(Romanian) Alfabecedar,
Editura Victor Frunză, 2005.
"Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres" (France), 1986
Writers' Union of Moldova's Prize for Prose, March, 1992.
Writers' Union of Romania's Prize for Prose, May 25, 1992.
5. Nominator
ANCA George
b. 12. 04. 1944
Romanian Writers Union, member
Home address: phone: 4021 450 88 68; e-mail: george_anca&yahoo.com
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