Perspectives on Identity in Romanian Post-Totalitarian Criticism: Adrian Marino and his Pro-European ‘Third Discourse’

Abstract

This paper traces the trajectory of Eastern European culture following its acute and deliberate separation from the communist political system, a separation that resulted in a conscious quest for a self led by the literatures reborn after the mechanism of ideological oppression disappeared. The effect is a permanent redefinition of national cultural positions with reference to the European centre, joined to a revision of aesthetic criteria that allow peripheral cultural ‘voices’ to interact on the Western scene. The stated aim is for ‘marginal literature’ to participate actively in the European circulation of cultural production, which entails the necessity of invoking studies that centre on European interferences, as well as comparative analyses of the status of other marginal post-communist literatures, which found a solution for their identity problem by supporting a national cultural voice already heard in a European context. The case of Romania and, in particular, the work of Adrian Marino, form the focus of the present discussion.