Aktionsgruppe Banat Reconstructs Its Past, I: Personal Memories and Collective Identity
This study represents the first part of an analysis focusing on Aktionsgruppe Banat and its members’ endeavors to reconstruct their pre-1989 common past. Based on memory sources, this first part illustrates that the members of this non-conformist group have not recently recalled their experience under Romanian communism in order to turn themselves retrospectively into dissidents. Instead, they have jointly conveyed the memory of a “collective author” with a unique identity in Ceauşescu’s Romania. As the present study argues, this uniqueness derives not only from the different ethno-cultural origin of the group members, but also from their specific literary program and indeed atypical political convictions.
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