Global InformationMircea Eliade information
Mircea Eliade | |
|---|---|
 Eliade in 1933 | |
| Born | March 13, 1907 Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania |
| Died | April 22, 1986 (aged 79) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Resting place | Oak Woods Cemetery |
| Occupation | Historian, philosopher, short-story writer, journalist, essayist, novelist |
| Language |
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| Nationality | Romanian |
| Citizenship | Romania United States |
| Education |
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| Period | 1921–1986 |
| Genre | Fantasy, autobiography, travel literature |
| Subject | History of religion, philosophy of religion, cultural history, political history |
| Literary movement | Modernism Criterion Trăirism |
| Parents | Gheorghe Eliade Jeana née Vasilescu |
Mircea Eliade (Romanian: [ˈmirtʃe̯a eliˈade]; March 13 [O.S. February 28] 1907 – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century[1] and interpreter of religious experience, he established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential.[2] One of his most instrumental contributions to religious studies was his theory of eternal return, which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but (at least in the minds of the religious) actually participate in them.[2]
Eliade's literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres. The best known are the novels Maitreyi ('La Nuit Bengali' or 'Bengal Nights', 1933), Noaptea de Sânziene ('The Forbidden Forest', 1955), Isabel și apele diavolului ('Isabel and the Devil's Waters'), and Romanul Adolescentului Miop ('Novel of the Nearsighted Adolescent', 1989); the novellas Domnișoara Christina ('Miss Christina', 1936) and Tinerețe fără tinerețe ('Youth Without Youth', 1976); and the short stories Secretul doctorului Honigberger ('The Secret of Dr. Honigberger', 1940) and La Țigănci ('With the Gypsy Girls', 1963).
Early in his life, Eliade was a journalist and essayist, a disciple of Romanian philosopher and journalist Nae Ionescu, and a member of the literary society Criterion. In the 1940s, he served as cultural attaché of the Kingdom of Romania to the United Kingdom and Portugal. Several times during the late 1930s, Eliade publicly expressed his support for the Iron Guard, a Romanian Christian fascist terrorist[3] organization. His involvement with fascism at the time, as well as his other far-right connections, came under frequent criticism after World War II.
Noted for his vast erudition, Eliade had fluent command of five languages (Romanian, French, German, Italian, and English) and a reading knowledge of three others (Hebrew, Persian, and Sanskrit). In 1990 he was elected a posthumous member of the Romanian Academy.
- ^ Rennie, Bryan (January 2001). Changing Religious Worlds: The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-4729-1.
- ^ a b Wendy Doniger, "Foreword to the 2004 Edition", Eliade, Shamanism, p. xiii
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Gross, Feliks (November 5, 2018) [1972]. "From the individual terror of the totalitarians to the underground struggle against the conquerors, 1918–1945". Violence in politics: Terror and political assassination in Eastern Europe and Russia. Studies in the Social Sciences, volume 13 (reprint ed.). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 63. ISBN 9783111382449. Retrieved October 15, 2023.
The Rumanian Iron Guard and the Croat Ustasha practiced widely all kinds of violence, including individual terror.