Andrei Ciurunga: Poetry of the Carceral Universe Cover Image

Andrei Ciurunga: poezia universului carceral
Andrei Ciurunga: Poetry of the Carceral Universe

Author(s): Alexandru Burlacu
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Institutul de Filologie Română „Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu”
Keywords: neo-modernist poet; transitive language; carceral poetry;

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the poetry of Andrei Ciurunga (1920-2002), the pseudonym of Robert Esenbraun, born in a family of German settlers in southern Bessarabia. Under the communist regime he was sentenced on two occasions (the first time to four years, 19501954, the second time to 18 years to prison – from 1958), he was detained for a little more than ten years, undergoing amnesty in 1964. Memorable is the poem published after the fall of communism. It is a poem „coming from the heart”. The author has identified his destiny with the poetry of detention in all prisons and jails of Romania (Gherla, Salcia, Jilava, Văcărești, Peninsula, Poarta Albă, Danube - Black Sea canal). The lyrics "From the Canal" are distinguished by the invention of a new fixed form of poetry, the decastih. They were mentally composed and circulated widely among the detainees. It reveals, retroactively, another world, a world from the carceral inferno.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 7-16
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English, Romanian