‘The Reign of the Ravens’: The War Profiteer in Romanian Pamphlets (1918–1919)
‘The Reign of the Ravens’: The War Profiteer in Romanian Pamphlets (1918–1919)

Summary/Abstract: At the end of 1918, Romania exits the Great War as a victorious country, following a German occupationand double change in political alliances. The after-war years are dedicated to the national unification,political and cultural alike; there is much talk in the public agenda of starting anew and theethical dimension of this renewing process is obviously of highest priority. The present paper aimsto examine a specific element of the Romanian public agenda at the end of 1918 and beginning of1919: the press campaigns dealing with the aftermath of the occupation years, specifically the caseof war profiteers, during the first months following the war. Based on various forms of press campaignsaiming to expose the war profiteers, this article showcases the ad-hominem literary pamphlet,largely present in the Romanian press during the immediate post-war years. Seen as an intermediategenre (closely related to the press in terms of form and immediate purpose, but claiming literary statusfor its use of techniques and structures borrowed from literature), the literary pamphlet is usedin the Romanian press of ’18–’19 for its symbolical charge and as a substitute for ‘real’ social justice.

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