Mircea Cărtărescu teaches Romanian literature course at Columbia University in New York

Renowned Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu is the Harriman Institute’s 2024 Writer in Residence at Columbia University in New York, where he will teach the four-week course “Postmodernism vs. Tyranny: A Romanian Literary Revolution,” the Romanian Embassy to the US announced.

The course will examine the legendary Generation of the 1980s (the Blue Jeans generation) in Romanian literature, and its relationship with the Beat generation in American poetry on one hand, and with American Postmodernism in fiction, on the other, reads the course’s presentation. It will be conducted in English.

An award-winning poet, novelist, literary critic, journalist, and professor, Mircea Cărtărescu is one of the most translated and awarded Romanian authors. Much of his work is available in English, French, Spanish or German and can be read in about 25 languages.

His book Solenoid was awarded the Dublin Literary Award (2024) and named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, The Financial Times, and Words Without Borders.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)