Femei între ziduri
Women between Walls

Summary/Abstract: The article reveals the ways in which “the wall” with its many faces curtailed the freedoms of women prisoners during the communist period. Special emphasis is laid on the wall as a symbol of totalitarianism that restricted the prisoners’ freedom while confining them to a deeply anguishing, traumatic space. Several types of wall are considered: the prison wall, the fence camp, and the ideological walls of the Soviet regime. The article, however, focuses on the effects of imprisonment on the women prisoners’ bodies: the poor hygiene and nutrition, and the tattered uniforms contributed to their dehumanisation by humiliation. These aspects are examined in the testimonies of several victims of the Romanian and Soviet Gulag: Lena Constante, Annie Samuelli, Adriana Georgescu, Evguenia Guinzburg, and Aniţa Nandriş-Cudla. The discursive features of the testimonies range from a colloquial style to a mixture of registers, and from detachment and objectivity to subjective involvement. The article draws attention to major issues in the national and European history, which disclose the true face of a past still unknown.

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