Marginalitatea opresivă: Spațiul-stereotip și spațiile de colecție în literatura scriitorilor moldoveni / Oppressive marginality: the place stereotype and the spaces of collection in the literature of Moldavian writers

Maricica Munteanu

doi:10.35824/sjrs.v1i1.16813

Authors

Maricica Munteanu The “A. Philippide” Institute of Romanian Philology, Iasi, Romania

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v1i1.16813

Keywords:

Marginality, radical provincialism, place stereotype, spaces of collection, Moldavia, Mihail Sadoveanu, Ionel Teodoreanu

Abstract

This paper states out that marginality is not always the space of radical difference as a range of spatial theories underline, but also a hostile space that transforms the difference into a mechanism of exclusion. The spatial representations of Moldova, a conservative space with a particular mythology, expose a limitative oppressive space that alienates the people that fall out its canon. The borough in Mihail Sadoveanu’s work or the provincial city in Ionel Teodoreanu’s literature are examples of this hostile space which is marginality. The myths of periphery such as the glorious past, the social idyll or the organic community operate with mechanisms of power that constrain and fix according to a pre-existing image of space. Therefore, the periphery becomes the space of radical closure, excluding the difference in name of a marginal identity. I examine two realities of this radical space: the place stereotype and the spaces of collection. While the first one forces the diversity of spatial practices to fit a unitary ideal image of space, the second type accumulates the variety of spatial representations but deprives them of any functionality.

Author Biography

Maricica Munteanu, The “A. Philippide” Institute of Romanian Philology, Iasi, Romania

Maricica Munteanu is a research assistant in the Department of Literary History at the “A. Philippide” Institute of Romanian Philology in Iași. Her research interests include cultural studies, Romanian literary history, and theories on spatiality. More specifically, her works examine different ways of representing marginality and the impact they have on the literary communities.

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