Lidia Vianu

Lidia Vianu (b. 7 July 1947, Bucharest) is Professor at the English Department of the University of Bucharest, a writer of fiction and poetry, and a translator both from English into Romanian, and from Romanian into English. She founded the online publishing House, Editura pentru Literatură Contemporană / Contemporary Literature Press, which is supported by the RCI, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the British Council, and the The Writers' Union of Romania. She also founded the MA Programme for the Translation of the Contemporary Literary Text (MTTLC), and its eZine, Translation Café, which mainly publishes the translations of the MTTLC graduates.
== Biography ==
Her parents: mother, Beatrice Vianu (born Steiner), was an editor, and father, Theodor Vianu, was a cardiologist. She attended both highschool (1961-1965) and university (1965-1970) in Bucharest. She graduated from the University of Bucharest, the English Department. She became an academic in the year 1974—a teaching assistant at the English Department. She was in time promoted and became a Professor in 1998. She defended her doctoral dissertation in 1978, and the subject of her thesis was Philosophical Lyricism in the works of T.S. Eliot and Paul Valéry. After the fall of communism, she was granted two Fulbright Scholarships, and taught in the United States, at State University of New York - Binghamton (1991-1992) and University of California, Berkeley (1997-1998).|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180630185638/http://www.metrolinks.ro/lidia-vianu/ |archive-date=2018-06-30}}
== Academic career ==
Vianu learned English from the three major specialists in English studies Romania has: Leon Levițchi, Dan Duțescu, C. George Sandulescu. Coming next in line after them in the tradition of teaching English to Romanians, she launched her own method of teaching English through translation, with the handbook English with a Key ().
The MA Programme for the Translation of the Contemporary Literary Text, which Vianu founded, is familiar to writers in the UK, mainly on account of the yearly Masterclasses it organizes, which bring to the University of Bucharest English poets (from Bloodaxe Books, among others) who stylize the Romanian literature translated into English by the graduate students. The resulting collective volumes are published by the Romanian Cultural Institute Editura Muzeul Literaturii Române, etc. Among many cultural texts that the students translate into English while they attend MTTLC, one is the site of Radio România Muzical, which is Romania’s radio-station of classical music.
The MA Programme also has its own online publishing House, Contemporary Literature Press, which is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute, the British Council and the The Writers' Union of Romania. The publishing house has so far produced over 500 volumes, most of which are parallel texts of fiction and poetry in English and Romanian. The publishing house also hosts the largest online data-base of Joyce Studies, A Manual for the Advanced Study of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake in 130 volumes.
== Work ==
As an academic, Vianu is the author of numerous essays, anthologies, interviews, and books of literary criticism. Most of them were written in English, while some were also published in Romanian. Her major subjects in English Studies are T.S. Eliot (T.S. Eliot, An Author for All Seasons), James Joyce, and contemporary British poets and novelists.
As a writer, she published Censorship in Romania (selection, interviews, translations) at Central European University Press, a novel and three volumes of poetry.
As a translator, she published in the USA Eugen Simion , The Return of the Author, at Northwestern University Press, and in the UK, Marin Sorescu, The BridgeMarin Sorescu, The Bridge, by Marin Sorescu in The Penniless Press, 20/2004, UKAlan Brownjohn, "The Bridge, by Marin Sorescu" in TLS 18 June 2004, p. 36Martin Caseley, " Final Words" in Orbis 130, fall 2004, and Mircea Dinescu, The Barbarians’ Return (with Adam Sorkin) at Bloodaxe Books, Ion Mureşan , The Book of Winter and Other Poems, Mircea Ivănescu, Lines poems poetry, Ioan Es. Pop, No Way Out of Hadesburg and Other Poems, (all with Adam Sorkin at University of Plymouth Press).
She also published a large number of translated books in Romania.
Vianu and Sorkin’s translation of Marin Sorescu, The Bridge (Bloodaxe Books, 2004), was awarded the Prize of Poetry Society, London, 2005.
== Bibliography ==
=== Literary criticism ===
* Scenarii lirice moderne (De la T.S. Eliot la Paul Valéry), Ed. Universității București, 1983
* T. S. Eliot: An Author for All Seasons, Bucharest: Ed. Paideia, 1997
* Censorship in Romania, Central European University Press, 1998Lidia Vianu Blackbird. Retrieved 2020-07-05
* British Literary Desperadoes at the Turn of the Millennium, Bucharest: Ed. ALL, 1999
* Alan Brownjohn and the Desperado Age, Ed. Universității București, 2003
* The Desperado Age: British Literature at the Start of the Third Millennium, Ed. Universității București, 2004
* Desperado Essay-Interviews, Ed. Universității București, 2006
* The AfterMode. Significant Choices in Contemporary British Fiction, Ed. Universității București, 2010
* Literatura contemporană britanică. Literatura Desperado, Iași: Institutul European 2011
=== Translations [a selection] ===
* Joseph Conrad: Oglinda mării, Timișoara: Ed. Amarcord, 1994
* Eugen Simion: The Return of the Author, translated into English for Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, 1996 (Nominated for the Scaglione Translation Prize, 1997)
* Marin Sorescu: The Bridge, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin for Bloodaxe Books, 2004
* Mircea Ivănescu, Lines Poems Poetry, University of Plymouth Press, 2009, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin
* Ioan Es Pop, No Way Out of Hadesburg and Other Poems, University of Plymouth Press, 2010, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin
* Ion Mureșan, The Book of Winter and Other Poems, University of Plymouth Press, 2011, co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Hilary Elfick: A Single Instinct. Unicul instinct. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Daniel Thomas Moran: Here in the Afterlife/Aici, în viața de după. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Jeremy Page: If not now. Dacă nu acum. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Katherine Gallagher: The White Boat. Barca albă. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Mandy Pannett: Ladders of Glass. Scări de sticlă. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Maria Jastrzębska: Old Knives. Cuțite vechi. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Michael Curtis: True Compass? Ca o busolă adevărată. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Anne Stewart. Let It Come to Us All. Să vină pentru noi toți. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Moira Andrew: A Box of Sky. Cerul, o cutie. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Lidia Vianu Translates. Joan Michelson: Bloomvale Home. Azilul de bătrâni din Bloomvale. Bucharest: Ed. Integral 2017
* Mircea Dinescu, The Barbarians' Return, Bloodaxe Books, 2018
=== Handbooks of english ===
* English with a Key, Timișoara: Ed. de Vest, 1993
* Student la engleză, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 2016
* Admiterea la engleză, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 2016
=== Fiction ===
* Prizonieră în oglindă, Galați: Ed. Porto Franco, 1993
=== Poetry ===
* 1, 2, 3, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 1997
* Moderato 7, Editura Orient-Occident, 1998
* Foarte, Bucharest: Ed. Cartea Românească, 2001
* The Wall, Bucharest: Ed. Integral, 2016Lidia Vianu, The Wall", mttlc.ro. Retrieved 18 November 2019
==In the media==
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== References ==
== External links ==
* 
* Lidia Vianu | Bloodaxe Books
* 10 Questions for Lidia Vianu | Mass Review
* Lidia Vianu - Google Scholar Citations
* Lidia Vianu: Books - Amazon.in
* Lidia Vianu's research works - ResearchGate
* Portrait by VIC (Cristina Ioana Vianu) - lidia vianu
* Lidia Vianu - Words Without Borders
* Lidia Vianu – Harvard Review
* Lidia Vianu | Blackbird v15n1 | #poetry
* Lidia Vianu | University of Bucharest - Academia.edu
* Lidia Vianu books and biography | Waterstones
* Poetry in Desperate Times? An Interview with Lidia Vianu
Category:1947 births
Category:University of Bucharest faculty
Category:University of Bucharest alumni
Category:Romanian translators
Category:English–Romanian translators
Category:20th-century poets
Category:20th-century writers
Category:21st-century writers
Category:20th-century translators
Category:21st-century translators
Category:People from Bucharest‎