Black Sea as a space of contrasts: from political death camp to communist tourist paradise
Black Sea as a space of contrasts: from political death camp to communist tourist paradise

Author(s): Roxana Elena Doncu
Subject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music, Studies of Literature, Recent History (1900 till today), Romanian Literature, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Сдружение „Транспонтика“
Keywords: Black Sea; forced labour camps; prison poetry; communism; popular culture
Summary/Abstract: The article traces the development of a literary and cultural imaginary of the Black Sea space after the Communist takeover in Romania. First, the space of the Black Sea is reflected in the poetry of detention written by the political detainees working at the Danube-Black Sea Canal. ‘Black’ becomes both a geographical attribute, as the whole space is criss-crossed with references to the Kara Su Valley (Black Water Valley) and the black water (Cernavodă), and also the colour of pure negativity, expressing the terror and deprivations experienced by prisoners. If physical repression leads to the emergence of a new literary genre, where literature becomes a testimonial of the pure negativity of the experience of terror, psychic repression seems to underlie the uncanny atmosphere in A. E. Baconsky’s stories of the sea. ‘The madmen’s equinox and other stories’ paints the image of the sea as the uncanny, mysterious Other, a source of anxiety for the main characters, who experience “the terror of history” as a cyclical past, returning and engaging each of them in some kind of cosmic drama. With the Thaw and the re-evaluation of Soviet policy undertaken by Nikita Khrushchev, we witness the emergence of a new aesthetic, more Western-oriented. The Black Sea takes on the qualities of a mediator or turns into a paradisiacal space. Yet, during the last stage of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s rule, the attribute ‘black’ suddenly ceases to appeal, and the sea turns blue. This newly acquired blueness was part and parcel of a massive programme of history-rewriting, instrumental for his project of building a national brand of socialism.

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