The Romanian Novels of the ‘Obsessive Decade’ as Subversive Literature. A Macroanalysis (1971-1979)
The Romanian Novels of the ‘Obsessive Decade’ as Subversive Literature. A Macroanalysis (1971-1979)

Summary/Abstract: This paper attempts to investigate the prevalence of the novels of the ‘obsessive decade’ in the ’70s, using the means of the quantitative studies and macroanalysis, as they are theorised by Franco Moretti and Matthew L. Jockers. We will focus on how the subversive nature of the novels of the ‘obsessive decade’ can be detected through quantitative analysis of textual structures (thematic, lexis). In the political context of the ’70s, due to the imposing of certain restrictions (we are referring to the July Thesis of 1971), the situation of Romanian literature changed. One of the decrees of the Communist Party, proposed in 1964 due to the installation of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s totalitarian regime, was to develop a critique of the dogmatism of the ’50s. In the ’70s, the novels of the ‘obsessive decade’ were viewed as subversive by censorship and by literary criticism. Therefore, the main focus of my paper is to re-discuss the subversive formula of the novels of the ‘obsessive decade’ in the ’70s, from a different and innovative point of view, within a quantitative approach.

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