Max Blecher

Max Blecher (b. September 8, 1909, Botoşani– d. May 31, 1938) was a Romanian writer, one of the most celebrated prose writers of the Romanian avant-garde. After publishing in 1934 the volume of poetry Corp transparent ("Transparent Body") thanks to Geo Bogza, he wrote three books: Întâmplări în irealitatea imediată ("Occurrence in the Immediate Unreality"), Inimi cicatrziate ("Scarred Hearts") and Vizuina luminată: Jurnal de sanatoriu ("The Lit Up Burrow: Sanatorium Journal", published posthumously). In 1928, he was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis (Pott's disease) and forced to abandon his studies. He sought treatment at various sanatoriums: Berck-sur-Mer in France, Leysin in Switzerland and Tekirghiol in Romania. For the remaining ten years of his life, he was confined to bed and practically immobilized by the disease. His unique prose (that has been associated with Expressionism, Surrealism and compared with Franz Kafka) went (with a few exceptions, such as Mihail Sebastian) unnoticed/underappreciated in the 1930s, as literary critics were preoccupiated with promoting realist and moderate modernist novels - Romanian literature did not had many important novels until the interwar period.
Max Blecher was rediscovered by postmodernist critics and readers and, in recent years, attempts were made to introduce Întâmplări în irealitatea imediată in the literary canon. The literary circle Institutul Blecher and the publishing house Casa de Editură Max Blecher were named after him. The house in Roman in which Blecher lived in his last years has been demolished in 2013http://www.ziarulderoman.ro/44585/max-blecher-a-fost-ingropat-sub-zidurile-casei/http://www.ziarulderoman.ro/44618/orasul-roman-isi-pierde-memoria/, even though the mayor of the city previously promised that the house would turn into Blecher Museum.http://www.ziarulderoman.ro/40980/max-blecher-urca-romanul-pe-harta-culturala-a-lumii/
Category:Romanian avant-garde
Category:Romanian literature
Category:Novelists
Category:20th century
Category:Poets