The Romanian Gulag As Reflected in the Novels of the “Obsessive Decade”
The Romanian Gulag As Reflected in the Novels of the “Obsessive Decade”

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the novel of the “obsessive decade” published in communist Romania (especially during the period 1970–1985) and the manner in which this type of novel approached the theme of the Gulag, alternating between genuine dissidence and imposture. The phrase “novel of the obsessive decade” has become commonplace in literary criticism, but it is rather inadequate, a more accurate description being “the novel about the obsessive decade.” These writings belong to authors who did not experience the Gulag (prisons, labor camps, deportation, colonies) directly (with few exceptions); these authors resorted to thematic compromises so as not to aggravate the Ceaușescu regime, which sanctioned their publication. At the time of their publication, the novels of the “obsessive decade” had a real impact. After the Revolution of 1989, this impact faded away, due to the critical reassessment of Romanian literature after the collapse of the communist regime and to the disconcerting emergence of prison memoirs, related to the communist period.

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