Romania

F

Education

Primary education in Romania is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 7 and 14. The literacy rate is 98.5 per cent. The educational system heavily emphasizes practical and technical studies. The allocation to education in the state budget in 2001 represented 5.9 per cent of total expenditure. The EU has announced the availability of some US$33 million to modernize the educational system in Romania.

In 2000 1.09 million children were enrolled in Romania’s 6,086 primary schools, and some 2.25 students attended secondary schools. In 2001–2002 582,221 students attended institutions of higher learning. Romania has over 60 institutes of higher education, including the University of Bucharest (1864), the University of Cluj-Napoca (1919), and the University of Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iaşi (1860).

G

Culture

Romanian culture is largely derived from the Roman, with strains of Slavic, Magyar (Hungarian), Greek, and Turkish influence. Poems, folktales, and folk music have always held a central place in Romanian culture. Romanian literature, art, and music attained maturity in the 19th century. Although Romania has been influenced by divergent Western trends, the culture remains fundamentally indigenous.

G

1

Literature

Romanian literature is rich and varied and may be roughly divided into five periods. The literature from the 15th to 18th centuries was primarily religious, often in the form of hagiographies. The dominant literary form in the late 18th century was preoccupied with national history, and a number of major works promoted the idea of the Latinate nature of the origins and language of the Romanian people. In the century before World War I, Romanian literature reached maturity and reflected national unity. A major figure of the period was Vasile Alecsandri, a narrative poet and dramatist. Others whose work had a profound influence on later writers included the Romantic poet Mihail Eminescu and Ion Luca Caragiale, a dramatist whose plays satirized the bourgeois life of the late 19th century. Between World War I and World War II, Romanian literature largely dealt with national themes, and the novel first came into the foreground. The most outstanding novelist was Mihail Sadoveanu. From the late 1940s through the 1980s, the literature was characterized by Soviet realism except for a brief period in the late 1960s when cultural controls were relaxed. The Romanian-born playwright Eugène Ionesco became famous after World War II while exiled in France and the Romanian-born Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel writes of his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps.

G

2

Art and Music

Romanian art, like Romanian literature, reached its peak during the 19th century. Among the leading painters were Theodor Aman, a portraitist, and the landscape painter Nicolae Grigorescu. Romanian art during the period from 1945 to 1990 period was dominated by Soviet realism. A notable contribution to modern concepts of 20th century art was the work of the Romanian-born French sculptor Constantin Brancusi.

A number of Romanian musicians achieved international recognition in the 20th century. Most notable among them were Georges Enesco, violinist and composer, who is perhaps best known for his Romanian rhapsodies, and the pianist Dinu Lipatti.

G

3

Libraries and Museums

The principal libraries are the Central State Library and the Library of the Academy of Romania, both in Bucharest. The Art Museum of Romania, in Bucharest, contains fine collections of national, Western, and Oriental art. Many other museums of art are located throughout the country.