<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the role of Romanian post-communist witness literature for contemporary historiography in outlining national and social (self-)images. This type of literature, written mostly by former political detainees, is perceived by literary criticism as a specific borderline segment partly relevant as historical documents and partly as literary texts. Applying the conceptual pattern coined by Giorgio Agamben. in his analysis based upon the national socialist concentration camp, to post-communist depositional literature reveals two focal directions of imagological relevance: on the one hand, the points of similarity and difference of totalitarian practices in creating stereotypes, cultivating the sense of absolute antagonist otherness and promoting distorted ethnic, social and national images and. on the other hand, the particular contributions and limitations posed by the post-totalitarian depositional discourse in (re)-creating national and social (self-)images. </p></abstract>

The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the role of Romanian post-communist witness literature for contemporary historiography in outlining national and social (self-)images. This type of literature, written mostly by former political detainees, is perceived by literary criticism as a specific borderline segment partly relevant as historical documents and partly as literary texts. Applying the conceptual pattern coined by Giorgio Agamben. in his analysis based upon the national socialist concentration camp, to post-communist depositional literature reveals two focal directions of imagological relevance: on the one hand, the points of similarity and difference of totalitarian practices in creating stereotypes, cultivating the sense of absolute antagonist otherness and promoting distorted ethnic, social and national images and. on the other hand, the particular contributions and limitations posed by the post-totalitarian depositional discourse in (re)-creating national and social (self-)images.

Appeal to the Witness. The Role of Romanian Post-Communist Witness Literature in Outlining National (Self-)Images

Transilvania University of Braşov Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the role of Romanian post-communist witness literature for contemporary historiography in outlining...

Appeal to the Witness. The Role of Romanian Post-Communist Witness Literature in Outlining National (Self-)Images

Published Online: May 30, 2014

Page range: 67 - 78

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2014-0006

Keywords
totalitarianism, distorted (self-)images, depositional literature, the witness

© 2014

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Appeal to the Witness. The Role of Romanian Post-Communist Witness Literature in Outlining National (Self-)Images

Published Online: May 30, 2014

Page range: 67 - 78

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2014-0006

Keywordstotalitarianism, distorted (self-)images, depositional literature, the witness

© 2014

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords
totalitarianism, distorted (self-)images, depositional literature, the witness