Aurel Baranga

Aurel Baranga (pen name of Aurel Leibovici, b. 20 June 1913, Bucharest - d. 10 June 1979, Bucharest) was a Romanian playwright and poet of Jewish origin.
His first poems were published in Bilete de papagal and unu. Together with Gherasim Luca, Paul Păun and Sesto Pals he edited in the early 1930's the avant-garde revue Alge (and its infamous offshoots, Muci and Pulă). A small volume of poems entitled Poeme cu orbi was released in 1933 in the Alge Collection and is now extremely rare.
He and the other members of Alge contributed to Geo Bogza's magazine Viața imediată, one of the early publications of the militant avant-garde. After WWII, he does not disavow his leftist orientation and continues publishing proto-socialist realist poems, in contrast with his earlier poems.
His plays (such as Iarbă rea (1949), Mielul turbat (1953), Opinia publică (1967) etc.) were usually socialist realist adaptations of Caragiale's style. These comedies enjoyed wide acclaim in the Communist era, but most of them are no longer played.
His later neoclassicist poems enjoyed little acclaim and even his earlier avant-garde poems were not retained, with the exception of Sașa Pană's Antologia literaturii române de avangardă.
Category:Romanian literature
Category:20th century
Category:Playwrights
Category:Poets
Category:Romanian avant-garde
Category:Socialist realism