IOSIFESCU, SILVIAN

IOSIFESCU, SILVIAN (1917– ), Romanian literary historian and critic. A former illegal Communist, he decided in favor of an academic career and was, from 1948, professor of Literary Theory at the Bucharest University. He wrote on the Romanian classics and problems of aesthetics, and, after a short period of dogmatic Marxist esthetic, Iosifescu became an eminent literary analyst of modern prose. His works include Drumuri literare ("Literary Paths," 1957), In jurul romanului ("On the Novel," 1959), Literatura de frontieră ("The Frontier Literature," 1969), Mobilitatea privirii ("The Mobility of Sight," 1976), Trepte ("Steps," 1988). Iosifescu translated (partially in collaboration with Vera Călin) from Romain Rolland, H. Taine, John Steinbeck, Robert Graves, and published anthologies of French and English humor. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dicţionarul scriitorilor români, D-L (1998), 629–31; M. Martin and N. Rata-Dumitriu, in: Observator cultural, 157 (2003).