Dumitru Tsepeneag (born 14 February 1937) was a leading member and theorist of the Romanian “oneiricist” group in the late 1960s and early 70s, before the communist regime suppressed the literary movement.
The regime viewed Tsepeneag as a troublemaker; in 1975 Nicolae Ceaușescu himself personally signed the decree stripping him of his Romanian citizenship, thus forcing him into exile. He settled in Paris, continuing to write literary work in Romanian, and later in French, as well as publishing extensively in the press. Since 1990, he has commuted between Paris and Bucharest. He has translated into Romanian books by Alain Robbe-Grillet, André Malraux, Albert Béguin, Robert Pinget, Alexandre Kojève, and Jacques Derrida. His short prose, novels, and collections of articles include Exercitii (Exercises, Bucharest, 1966); Frig (Cold, Bucharest, 1967); Asteptare (The Wait, Bucharest, 1972); Arpièges (the French translation of the then unpublished Romanian novel Zadarnica e arta fugii (Vain is the Art of the Fugue), Paris, 1973); Les noces nécessaires (Paris, 1977); La défense Alekhine, a book on chess theory (Paris, 1983); Le mot sablier, the integral French-language version of the bilingual Cuvintul nisiparnita (The Sandglass Word), the Romanian passages being translated by Alain Paruit (Paris, 1984); Roman de gare (written in French, Paris, 1985); Pigeon vole (written in French, Paris, 1988); Inscenare si alte texte (A Staging and Other Texts, Pitesti, 1992); Nuntile necesare (The Necessary Weddings, 1992); Un roman la Paris (A Romanian in Paris, Cluj, 1993; definitive edition, Bucharest, 1997); Reintoarcerea fiului la sinul mamei ratacite (The Son’s Return to the Bosom of the Errant Mother, Jassy, 1993); Hotel Europa (Bucharest and Paris, 1996); Calatorie neizbutita (Abortive Journey, Bucharest 1998); Pont des Arts (Paris, 1998); Razboiul literaturii inca nu s-a incheiat(The Literature War is not yet over, Bucharest, 2000); Prin gaura gheii (Through the Keyhole, Bucharest, 2001); Destin cu Popesti (A Fate with the Popescus, Cluj, 2001); Maramures (Cluj, 2001); Attente (Paris, 2003); Clepsidra rasturnata. Dialog cu Ion Simut (The Upturned Hourglass. Dialogue with Ion Simut, Pitesti, 2003); La belle Roumaine (Pitesti, 2004, Paris, 2006); Capitalism de cumetrie (Godfather Capitalism, Polirom, 2007); and Frappes chirurgicales (Paris, 2009).
