Ceaușescu och litteraturen. Mellan antisovjetism och personkult

Abstract

Ceaușescu and literature – Between anti-Sovietism and personal cult

The goal of this article is to examine what role literature played for Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania’s political leader between 1965 and 1989. I focus on the period between 1968 and 1974, when the basis was laid for a cultural policy which was to be applied until the end of Ceaușscu’ reign in 1989. Such studies are easier to conduct today, when the archives of the Romanian Communist Party have been opened, and the protocols of Ceaușscu’ meetings with Romanian writers after his so called “Little Cultural Revolution” in 1971 have been published. What is especially salient is that Ceaușscu saw literature, especially formalistically experimental literature, as a potential danger for his project of ideological repression of Romanian citizens. He also used literature and art in general in his struggle for independence from the Soviet Union and emancipation of Romanian identity. The results of Ceaușscu’ ideological turn in cultural policy were not at all positive for Romanian literature.