Freedom, Human Rights and Censorship in Nineteenth-Century Romanian Literature

Abstrakt

This paper, a part of a wider research on the topic of the first Romanian nov­els, acknowledges their importance in helping us understand the historical and literary context. The identification and description of the genesis stages of this literary genre makes it necessary to appeal to a broad interdisciplinary area (in­cluding poetry, literary theory and history, history of mentalities). We must note the tight control exercised by the power on literary publications in the second half of the 19th century, with the increasing role that they play in the cultural movement. The repression follows all links in the chain of book distribution: the published materials are subjected to harsh scrutiny by auditors, printers receive orders not to print any books without due “permits”, bookstores could only work on the basis of a special authorization granted only to those of good social con­dition and considered to have good manners. Censorship is also mentioned in the first Romanian original novels. But the book’s journey towards its readers can hardly be stopped, it travels more and more, and where censorship is hindering, a subversive parallel circuit is created. The ardent, revolutionary word is spread in secrecy, underground, printed on flyers which are easily transmitted and hidden. And when the word of freedom and human rights could not be printed, then the works were spread as manuscripts (as in the case of the Romanian writer Bolliac, whose works have caused the author’s banishment to a monastery). By forcing us to abandon the convenience, to step outside of our comfort zone, the Romanian literature of the 19th century conveys some of the anxieties of that tumultuous transitional period, and thereby offers us an unmediated contact with a glimpse real literary history.