Theories of the Biographical Genres in Romanian Postwar Criticism
Theories of the Biographical Genres in Romanian Postwar Criticism

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the main theories of “biographical genres” in Romania. It contends that especially the works of Eugen Simion, Mihai Zamfir and Mircea Mihãieº of the 1980s can be reused for a better understanding of biographical writing in the context of emerging life writing studies and memory studies. The authors emphasize the fact that theories of the biographical genres did not consider important the study of diaries, correspondences and memoirs until the late 1980s, and that there has been an increased interest on the subject in the 1990s due to the transition to the post-communist society. Thus, the study argues that certain categories of “biographical genres,” and especially the “diary of existence” and “diary of crisis,” put forward by Zamfir, could be used for a better understanding of biographical writing in a world of fragmentation, migration and post-colonial struggle.

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