Quarrel of the wise men with the world. On the conversation between N.
Steinhardt and Sergiu Al-George
The manner in which N. Steinhardt relates to Western culture, in this case
French and English, and its formative dimension in relation to the subversive
profile of the Romanian writer’s personality and texts, confirms not only the
impression of a convinced European but also an appetite for the forms of
contradiction. However, Steinhardt’s overcoming of these contradictions follows
a specific logic, on the “living” line: the reconciliation, the engagement of
the contradictions. Reflecting the cultural and ideological dimension of
Western Europe is not, in fact, exempt from contradictions: for Steinhardt, the
European citizen illustrates the aristotelian concept of the “zoon politikon”,
the being endowed with civic, social and active sense. The talks with Sergiu
Al-George in the Jilava prison cell reveal Steinhardt as an apologist of the
European spirit, not only in relation to the Asian trends, but especially in
relation to the communist dictatorship, viewed by Ion Negoiţescu as a form of
forced orientalization. On the other hand, Sergiu Al-George reproaches
Europeans and, indirectly, Christians, their persistence in dichotomies and
bipolarities, moralizing tendencies, fear of death etc. The dialogue of the two
is the unwonted debut, under dramatic conditions, of a great friendship between
two brilliant Romanian intellectuals of the twentieth century.
ADRIAN MUREŞAN
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