ROMANIANS IN SPAIN. PORTRAITS - Ioana Gruia: I consider myself a Mediterannean, cosmopolitan author in whom literatures combine

AGERPRES correspondent Ruxandra Constantinescu reports: In the times we are living, in which the humanities suffer, unfortunately, a sort of marginalization, claiming for ourselves a critical discourse and an entire humanist culture with the purpose of outstanding personal development to which literature can contribute, Ioana Gruia, compared literature professor at the University of Granada, believes.

Author of several volumes of poetry, some receiving awards in Spain, she has recently published her first novel — La vendedora de tiempo (Vendor of Time), at the Renacimiento publishing house in 2013 — featuring a main character that is a Spanish teacher from Romania. She speaks honestly and openly regarding claims to the relevance of Romanian literature, combined with other literatures, regarding how the idea for the first novel appeared, how the documentation and writing process turned out and how she combines teaching, research and writing.

"I consider myself a Spanish language author — without wanting to sound pretentious — and at the same time a Mediterranean author, maybe even a cosmopolitan author. I believe the combination of several literatures is important, assuming different influences and even multilingualism. I like the idea of crossing, of combining, of multiple cultural identity", she stated for AGERPRES. Ioana Gruia acknowledges with joy the chance she had, the one that brought her, slowly but surely, to the present day life she has in the Andalusian city. She studied at the University of Granada, had the opportunity to stay in this city and complete her Ph.D. studies here. "I studied Hispanic philology and compared literature at the University of Granada, and my training (...) was important for writing as well"...