Since 1973, when he emigrated to the US from communist Romania, Matei Călinescu has been professor of comparative literature at Indiana University, Bloomington. He was a Guggenheim fellow (1976-77) and a Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., fellow (1995-96). He is listed in Who's Who in America (since 2000).
His publications in English include Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1987, which has been translated into several languages, including Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Swedish, and Romanian; Exploring Postmodernism (co-edited with D.W. Fokkema) (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1987); and Rereading (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1993). He is also the author of numerous professional essays and articles in journals, books, and anthologies. Before leaving Romania he had published in Romanian two books of poetry, a short novel, and several volumes of literary criticism. After the collapse of the Ceauşescu regime, he published in Romania several books, including Despre Ioan P. Culianu şi Mircea Eliade [On Ioan P. Culianu and Mircea Eliade](2002) and Portretul lui M [A Portrait of M] (2003). He lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with his wife.