ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

Romanian Literature and its European Value 179One of the major methods of imposing the totalitarian system was tosubdue culture, art, and even science to politics. Taking all risks, manyRomanian intellectuals opposed the oppressive regime in one way or another.Resistance through culture became thus another form of resistance, as importantas the direct one.The war against the communist regime was not in this case a spectacularone but a sort of underground stream which eroded the system slowly butsteadily.Looking back, shortly after the communist regime seized power, alltraditional values were destroyed and a new axiological criteria was imposedwhich preached a sort of pseudo culture based on non-values submittingaesthetics to ethical norms.The most radical period in Romanian culture, when art was really "at thecrossroads" was the Stalinist period, in the 50s, when the past was ostentatiouslyrejected, when books by famous authors were forbidden and their works weretaken out from schoolbooks. Even the national poet Mihai Eminescu's poetrywas censured. Two other great contemporary poets, Tudor Arghezi and LucianBlaga were forbidden in the social circuit.In other words, a cultural "frost" came over Romania which couldn't bebut the consequence of a political "frost" – totalitarianism.Towards the end of the 60s some cultural thaw occurred which allowedsome artists, writers mainly, to be accepted again in the Pantheon. They hademerged in “the inter-wars period” and were naturally followed by some newnames: Marin Preda, Nichita Stanescu, Marin Sorescu, Ana Blandiana, AugustinBuzura, Alexandru Ivasiuc, D. R. Popescu etc.There were several "moments of decision" 6 in our history. I shall confineonly to two milestones in the contemporary history - 1944 when communismcame to power and 1989 - the revolution well-known everywhere in the worldnow. The point I will make in what follows is the correlation between history,policy and culture. In Romania communism was imposed from outside andbecause of its total inadequacy it was exceptionally painful and full of sacrificeson the part of the population.After a short period of silence (1944-948) the way Romania had tofollow in the new decade was directed by a dogmatic ideology, which confinedand even took away freedom from people by forbidding free opinion.A common statement is that the heart of a nation is its culture.Therefore, everything that was a cultural milestone, political conscience,had to be taken off the stage. Culture and literature censorship continued after1965 but in a more subtle way. Between 1964-1970 some fresh air came into ourliterary life. We became more open (not necessarily totally open) towardsWestern literature and our own past. After a period of mystification of real6 Apart from the literal meaning, "crossroads" has a figurative meaning which enriches it.The Penguin Dictionary mentions: "moment of decision".