The Heroines. Re-mythicization of the First World War in the Romanian Literature

• Published in: Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 109 - 120
• Main Author: Borza, Cosmin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cluj-Napoca Babeș-Bolyai University 01.07.2019; Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai; Faculty of Letters, UBB; Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
• Subjects: American literature; Authorship; Biographies; Culture; de/re- mythicization; female characters; Femininity; First World War; German literature; Hegemony; Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961); Heroism & heroes; Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu; Imagery; Language and Literature Studies; Literary characters; Literary devices; Literary translation; Literature; Martyrs; Military history; Novels; Pre-WW I WW I (1900 -1919); Propaganda; Recent History (1900 till today); Remarque, Erich Maria (1898-1970); Romanian Literature; War; Women; World War I; Writers; Romania; female characters; remythicization; Hortensia PapadatBengescu; First world war; Romanian literature; demythicization
• ISSN: 2457-8827; 2457-8827
• DOI: 10.24193/mjcst.2019.7.06

The paper analyses the most significant Romanian literary representation of First World War in which femininity is imagined as subversive to the “negative myth” of the conflagration. In the Romanian culture, this so-called “negative myth” is of such great magnitude that the literary works that anathemize the historical event responsible for the birth of Greater Romania are labelled as attacks on the nation. A discordant note to the above mentioned demythologizing tendency is struck by a series of female characters from novels signed especially by “classical” writers such as Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, Camil Petrescu, Liviu Rebreanu, and Ion Agârbiceanu. These sui-generis “heroines” propagate an image of femininity capable of giving stability and hope to a world/nation devastated by male vanities and vulnerabilities. Thus, they postulate a subversive discourse in relation both to the heroic-patriotic imagery of propaganda, and to the “negative myth” of the war consecrated by most Romanian writers.