Page 17 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 17
Introduction: The Crossroads of Literature and Social Praxis 17
was banned in Soviet Union, while his life passed in vain expectation of
returning to his native land.
The book concludes with two Romanian authors. Andrei Terian ad-
vocates the analytical and historiographic usefulness of the concept of
‘socialist modernism’ in denominating and describing the paradigm that
prevailed in Romanian and other Eastern European literatures between
1960/1965 and 1980. In doing so, the paper follows a three-pronged line
of reasoning. Firstly, Terian provides a diachronic overview of this peri-
od with a view to unraveling the motives behind the writers and com-
munist politicians’ conviction that modernism was a trend whereby they
could effectively express their interests following the fall of socialist re-
alism. Secondly, he defines the concept of ‘socialist modernism’ and ex-
plains how its usefulness in characterising this period supersedes that of
well-established Romanian concepts such as ‘neomodernism’ and ‘social-
ist aestheticism’. Lastly, he aims to determine whether socialist modern-
ism can be successfully integrated in a transnational modernist network
(if it, for instance, aligns with the so-called ‘late modernism’) or if, con-
versely, it was limited to a local or, at most, regional level.
In the last chapter, Stefan Baghiu discusses socialist realism as
mass-addressed. Socialist realism has often been perceived as a mass cul-
ture movement, but few studies have succeeded in defining its true struc-
ture as being mass-addressed. The general view of literature under social-
ist realism is that of standardised writing and formulaic genre. Baghiu
aims to analyse the genre fiction and subgenres of fiction translated in
Romania during socialist realism with a view to acquiring a more com-
prehensive perspective of the social purpose and functions of socialist re-
alist literature. There were many attempts to control popular and youth
novels in keeping with the ideological programme of the USSR and its
entire sphere of influence. At the same time, these struggles should be
opposed/connected to the development of popular fiction in Western
cultures, as the two opposite cultural systems shared several important
traits: if we consider that the most translated authors of fiction within the
Stalinist Romanian cultural system were Alexandre Dumas, Jack Lon-
don and Mark Twain, the gap between Western and Eastern popular fic-
tion no longer seems big, while their functions may be opposite.
was banned in Soviet Union, while his life passed in vain expectation of
returning to his native land.
The book concludes with two Romanian authors. Andrei Terian ad-
vocates the analytical and historiographic usefulness of the concept of
‘socialist modernism’ in denominating and describing the paradigm that
prevailed in Romanian and other Eastern European literatures between
1960/1965 and 1980. In doing so, the paper follows a three-pronged line
of reasoning. Firstly, Terian provides a diachronic overview of this peri-
od with a view to unraveling the motives behind the writers and com-
munist politicians’ conviction that modernism was a trend whereby they
could effectively express their interests following the fall of socialist re-
alism. Secondly, he defines the concept of ‘socialist modernism’ and ex-
plains how its usefulness in characterising this period supersedes that of
well-established Romanian concepts such as ‘neomodernism’ and ‘social-
ist aestheticism’. Lastly, he aims to determine whether socialist modern-
ism can be successfully integrated in a transnational modernist network
(if it, for instance, aligns with the so-called ‘late modernism’) or if, con-
versely, it was limited to a local or, at most, regional level.
In the last chapter, Stefan Baghiu discusses socialist realism as
mass-addressed. Socialist realism has often been perceived as a mass cul-
ture movement, but few studies have succeeded in defining its true struc-
ture as being mass-addressed. The general view of literature under social-
ist realism is that of standardised writing and formulaic genre. Baghiu
aims to analyse the genre fiction and subgenres of fiction translated in
Romania during socialist realism with a view to acquiring a more com-
prehensive perspective of the social purpose and functions of socialist re-
alist literature. There were many attempts to control popular and youth
novels in keeping with the ideological programme of the USSR and its
entire sphere of influence. At the same time, these struggles should be
opposed/connected to the development of popular fiction in Western
cultures, as the two opposite cultural systems shared several important
traits: if we consider that the most translated authors of fiction within the
Stalinist Romanian cultural system were Alexandre Dumas, Jack Lon-
don and Mark Twain, the gap between Western and Eastern popular fic-
tion no longer seems big, while their functions may be opposite.
