MEMORY, TRAUMA AND ETHICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN MIHAIL SEBASTIAN’S DIARY
MEMORY, TRAUMA AND ETHICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN MIHAIL SEBASTIAN’S DIARY
Author(s): Maria-Nicoleta PopSubject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Anthology, Studies of Literature, Romanian Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Editura Arhipelag XXI
Keywords: Mihail Sebastian; diary; cultural memory; trauma; ethics; otherness; testimony
Summary/Abstract: This paper examines Mihail Sebastian’s Diary (1935–1944) as a paradigmatic text of ethical memory in twentieth-century Romanian literature. Drawing on cultural memory studies (Jan and Aleida Assmann), Lévinas’s ethics of otherness, and Ricoeur’s philosophy of testimony, the study highlights the transformation of historical trauma into moral reflection. Sebastian’s diary transcends the confessional genre, functioning both as a document of human vulnerability and as an ethical archive of conscience. In a time of exclusion and hatred, the author maintains lucidity and empathy, thus turning literature into an act of moral resistance.
Journal: Journal of Romanian Literary Studies
- Issue Year: 2025
- Issue No: 43
- Page Range: 337-341
- Page Count: 5
- Language: Romanian
