Revision of the Legend of Master Manole in Romanian Feminist Discourse after 1989 Cover Image

Revision of the Legend of Master Manole in Romanian Feminist Discourse after 1989
Revision of the Legend of Master Manole in Romanian Feminist Discourse after 1989

Author(s): Olga Bartosiewicz-Nikolaev
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Romanian Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Master Manole; sacrifice; the legend of immured woman; Romanian feminist discourse; Ro- manian women’s imagery;

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the ideological shift after 1989 that determined the nature of the debates over the role of Ana, the female character of the Legend of Master Manole, and her sacrifice. Until 1989, her perspective was widely ignored because the canonical interpretation of the ballad emphasized the male perspective of Manole and his sacrifice for the act of creation. After 1989, the feminist discourse argued that the symbolic structures perpetuated by this myth were reinforced in Romania by the com- munist regime. The main aim of the article is thus to present how the newly formed feminist critique employed one of the canonical Romanian texts to show the functioning of the model of a self-sacrific- ing woman in the social imaginary.

  • Issue Year: 2023
  • Issue No: Sp. Iss. 2
  • Page Range: 231-239
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: English