Childhood in Romanian literature – a beneficial delay? History playing the two faces God Cover Image

Childhood in Romanian literature – a beneficial delay? History playing the two faces God
Childhood in Romanian literature – a beneficial delay? History playing the two faces God

Author(s): Diana Radu (Tătăruş)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Editura Universitatii Transilvania din Brasov
Keywords: childhood crisis; delay; communism; autobiographical novels

Summary/Abstract: Many Western academics have expressed their views on the childhood crisis arisen in the last decades of 20th century, as a consequence of both globalization and the ideology of capitalism, as well as of the impact of media. However, for the Eastern societies these changes emerge years later. Using the representations of childhood in Romanian novels (mostly autobiographical) which have as background the socialist ages (from the ʼ60s to the end of the ʼ80s), I suggest that it might have been exactly this delay which made possible the conservation of a happier childhood, despite the totalitarian regime. Many Romanian writers living their childhood during communism recount this period in post-totalitarian democracy, outlining no crisis, but the opposite.

  • Issue Year: 10/2017
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 97-102
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: English