Norman Manea. Identitatea ca traumă
Norman Manea: Identity as Trauma

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the literary universe of Norman Manea, emphasizing identity as a central theme intertwined with trauma, exile, and historical oppression. Manea’s works defy easy classification, oscillating between fiction and autofiction, psychological exploration, and historical testimony. His narratives revisit the traumas of the Holocaust, the brutalities of communist totalitarianism, and the existential dilemmas of exile. His writing engages with subversive figures—the clown, the fool, the marginalized—while addressing the oppressive nature of power and censorship. Exile, both linguistic and existential, becomes a space of both suffering and reinvention, where language itself serves as a home. Through a dense, introspective prose, Manea constructs a literary testimony of survival, a relentless interrogation of history, and a meditation on the role of literature as an act of resistance and remembrance.

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