Aceleași ape tulburi ale istoriei. Despre rinoceri și crocodili într-o lectură biopolitică
The same troubled waters of history: Rhinoceros and crocodiles in a biopolitical reading

Summary/Abstract: In this article, we propose a comparative analysis of the political imaginary in Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinoceros and the (political) figures of crocodiles in Matei Vișniec’s The Moon’s Consulate or Adelina and the Swamp Crocodiles. Although the two playwrights employ animal metaphors (rhinoceroses and crocodiles) in different historical contexts, both authors mobilize literature, along with its political and social functions, to issue warnings against ideological indoctrination, political regimentation, and the growing threat of (post)modern dictatorships. As metaphors of ideological servility and of the (symbolic and political) metamorphosis of the individual, rhinoceroses and crocodiles signify forms of alienation, dissolution, and identity crisis under historical pressures. In light of the intensifying resurgence of political extremism, neo-Nazism, and neo-Legionarism in contemporary Romanian society, Vișniec offers a book for both children and adults that explores the mechanisms of ideological indoctrination, propaganda, and crocodilization as symptoms of dictatorship

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