Women's Life Writing in Post-Communist Romania : : Reclaiming Privacy and Agency / / Simona Mitroiu.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2022 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Mitroiu, Simona,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Media and Cultural Memory , 35
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (VIII, 160 p.)

This book analyzes the impact of abusive regimes of power on women’s lives and on their self-expression through close readings of life writing by women in communist Romania. In particular, it examines the forms of agency and privacy available to women under totalitarianism and the modes of relationships in which their lives were embedded. The self-expression and self-reflexive processes that are to be found in the body of Romanian women’s autobiographical writings this study presents create complex private narratives that underpin the creative development of inclusive memories of the past through shared responsibility and shared agency. At the same time, however, the way these private, personal narratives intertwined with collective and official historical narratives exemplifies the multidimensional nature of privacy as well as the radical redefinition of agency in this period. This book argues for a broader understanding of the narratives of the communist past, one that reflects the complexity of individual and social interactions and allows a deep exploration of the interconnected relations between memory, trauma, nostalgia, agency, and privacy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction: Realms of Privacy and Agency -- 2 The Political Regime, Gender, and Paradigms of Memory -- 3 Life Writing and Realms of Privacy -- 4 Traumatic Experiences: Privacy as Communicative Agency -- 5 Knowing the Past: Ana Blandiana and Privacy as Shared Agency -- 6 Everyday Communicative Responsibility: Privacy as Endurance -- 7 The Public Revelation of the Self: Mihaela Miroiu and Privacy as a Shared Responsibility -- 8 Re-Working the Past through Life Writing: Herta Müller and the (Im)Possibility of Privacy -- 9 Conclusion: Realms of Privacy -- References -- Index