Andrei Oișteanu


Andrei Oișteanu is a Romanian historian of religions and mentalities, ethnologist, cultural anthropologist, literary critic and novelist. Specialized in the history of religions and mentalities, he is also noted for his investigation of rituals and magic and his work in Jewish studies and the history of antisemitism. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, he also became noted for his articles and essays on the Holocaust in Romania.
A founding member and researcher at the Institute for History of Religions of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, he is also the president of the Romanian Association for the History of Religions. Oișteanu is professor in the Department for Jewish Studies at the University of Bucharest. He is also member of the educational board of the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania and member of the editorial board of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism. Andrei Oișteanu is a Knight of the Order of the Star of Romania, awarded by the Romanian President, and a Commander of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, awarded by the Italian President.
He is the father of Amana Ferro Oisteanu, EU public affairs expert and the brother of American poet Valery Oișteanu.

Biography

Born into a Jewish family in Bucharest, Oișteanu took a post-graduate course in Oriental Studies at the University of Bucharest. During the early 1970s, he was active in Ceata Melopoică, an experimental music and concept band led by Mircea Florian.
In 1997 he took a course in Jewish Studies at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Between 1997 and 1999, he had a research grant at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. In 2002 he had a documentary grant in Germany offered by the Goethe-Institut, a grant on "Jewish Identity and Antisemitism in Central and Eastern Europe". In 2005-2006 he had a research grant at the New Europe College Institute for Advanced Studies on "History of the History of Religions in Romania".

Works

Grădina de dincolo. Zoosofia. Comentarii mitologice, Editura Dacia, Cluj, 1980.Motive și semnificații mito-simbolice în cultura tradițională românească, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1989.Cutia cu bătrâni, Preface by Dan C. Mihăilescu, Meta Publishing House, Bucharest, 1995.Mythos & Logos. Studii și eseuri de antropologie culturală,, Bucharest, 1997.Cosmos vs. Chaos. Myth and Magic in Romanian Traditional Culture, illustrated edition, Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999.Imaginea evreului în cultura română. Studiu de imagologie în context est-central european, Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, 2001. The volume was awarded with five major prizes in Romania, Italy, Belgium, and Israel.Das Bild des Juden in der rumänischen Volkskultur, Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Konstanz, 2002.Jewish Identity and Antisemitism in Central and South-Eastern Europe, volume edited, foreworded and illustrated by Andrei Oișteanu, Goethe Institut, Bucharest, 2003.A Képzeletbeli Zsidó, Kriterion Publishing House, Cluj, 2005.Ordine și Haos. Mit și magie în cultura tradiţională românească, illustrated edition, Polirom Publishing House, Iași, 2004.Religie, politică și mit. Texte despre Mircea Eliade și Ioan Petru Culianu, Polirom Publishing House, Iași, 2007.Il diluvio, il drago e il labirinto. Studi di magia e mitologia europea comparata, A cura di Dan Octavian Cepraga e Maria Bulei, Postfazione di Dan Octavian Cepraga, Edizioni Fiorini, Verona, 2008.Inventing the Jew. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romanian and Other Central-East European Cultures, foreword by Moshe Idel, Nebraska University Press, Lincoln & London, 2009. The author was awarded with the Prize "A.D. Xenopol" of the Romanian Academy and the Prize B'nai B'rith Europe "for an intellectual who has contributed to the changing image of the Jew in society";Konstruktionen des Judenbildes: Rumänische und Ostmitteleuropäische Stereotypen des Antisemitismus, Aus dem Rumänischen übersetzt von Larisa Schippel, Frank & Timme Verlag, Berlin, 2010;Narcotice în cultura română. Istorie, religie și literatură Polirom Publishing House, Iași, 2010. The volume was awarded with the Special Prize of the Union of Writers from Romania;Les Images du Juif: Clichés antisémites dans la culture roumaine. Une approche comparative, Préface de Matei Cazacu, édition illustrée, Éditions Non Lieu, Paris, 2013.Rauschgift in der rumaenischen Kultur: Geschichte, Religion und Literatur, Translated from Romanian by Julia Richter, Frank & Timme Verlag, Berlin, 2013.
  • Andrei Oișteanu, Andrei Pleșu, Neagu Djuvara & Adrian Cioroianu, Evreii din România, Hasefer Publishing House, Bucharest, 2013.Sexualitate și societate. Istorie, religie și literatură, Illustrated edition, Polirom Publishing House, Iași, 2016; Second edition, revised, enlarged and illustrated, Polirom, Iași, 2018. Author's Prize: "The Writers of the Year 2016".L´immagine dell'ebreo: Stereotipi antisemiti nella cultura romena e dell'Europa centro-orientale, a cura di Francesco Testa e Horia Cicortas, Collana di Studi Ebraici, Edizioni Belforte, Livorno, 2018.Moravuri și nǎravuri. Eseuri de istorie a mentalitǎților ("Good Habits and Bad Habits: Essays on History of Mentalities", Polirom Publishing House, Iași, 2021. The volume was awarded with the Special Prize of the Union of Writers from Romania.