Vasile Ernu

Vasile Ernu was born in 1971 in Odessa, Ukraine, which was then still part of the Soviet bloc. With the advent of perestroika in 1985, circumstances in the Soviet Union began to change. The national ideal became more robust, the devotion toward national language became part of the political discourse, and unique opportunities arose that were unimaginable until then. In 1990, Ernu was able to leave the Soviet Union and move to Timișoara. This is a critical biographical moment in terms of his debut novel Născut în URSS (Born in the USSR), which the author defines as an identity play since, from this point on, his life can be traced through the strange duality that has been infused with pathos-free irony in his first book. He came to Romania with a Soviet-style civic self-awareness and gradually began to build his Romanianness within himself. As stated by him, this process has not been completed to this day. According to Ernu, the concepts of homeland and nation cannot necessarily be linked to a linguistic and cultural region. What’s more important here is to gain common experiences and collective memories of everyday life, without which we can only remain strangers.

As part of pulzArt8, the author meets his audience in Saint George for the first time, where we can discuss his career path, his works, and the Soviet era, which is inevitably nostalgic for him – moderated by Andrei Dósa, writer.

Date: 14th October, Friday 18:00

Location: Zamat Café