ROMANIAN HISTORIANS UNDER COMMUNISM. AN ORAL HISTORY INQUIRY
ROMANIAN HISTORIANS UNDER COMMUNISM. AN ORAL HISTORY INQUIRY

Summary/Abstract: The aim of my paper is to describe, analyze and interpret not only the contents, rules, preferences, style, methods and themes engaged by the canonical socialist historiography but also to discuss history and historian’s place, role and basic functions inside the socialist society, by interpreting a series of interviews with the most representative Romanian historians, interviews which I have conducted during 2009-2011. From this perspective, my interest is not focused upon questions such as what type of historiography has been produced then? but rather how it was produced, by whom, in what conditions, under what circumstances, auspices and preconditions. My approach starts from two assumptions: a) history stands for one of the constitutive element of the sociopolitical system since the beginning of the communism in Romania till its crash in 1989; b) in the new epistemological context of social sciences and theory of historiography, the self discourse means not only a real way of historical knowledge, but also a process of “negotiation with history” where intermediaries between the past and the present are really involved, a process able to transcends the limits of traditional historical narration and to bring to life subjectivity as a way of knowledge.

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