An Alternative Humanity. The Subversion of Postwar Romanian Novel
This article discusses the conditions of representing reality and humanity within the Romanian context during the communist era, together with all its narrative, ideological, social and political implications. In the first part I propose a typology of subversion related to the official ideology of the regime, based on two fundamental criteria: one characterological, the other ideological. In the second part, I will analyze three novels published during the years of relative ideological liberalization (in a flexible understanding, 1970s-1980s). The central argument is that the subversive attitude in Romanian novel writing of the period does not have a political character, but rather an aesthetic one. These novels propose characters and situations that present an alternative humanity (that is, an illusioned, mediocre, antiheroic, problematic, failed, and marginal behavior) compared with the rigid humanity promoted by the Romanian socialism. The subversive character of this type of humanity derives from the fact that it reshapes in a “heretic” way ideologically prefabricated themes such as identity, human condition and memory.
Keywords: Postwar Romanian Novel, Socialist Humanism, Subversion, Aestheticism, Nicolae Breban, Norman Manea, Mircea Nedelciu
