Old and New Hierarchies: Rewritten Social Norms in Silent Valley
Old and New Hierarchies: Rewritten Social Norms in Silent Valley

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the socialist and post-socialist hierarchical structure in Romania by focusing on the sociological reading of the series Silent Valley (Valea Mutã, 2016). As argued in the text, the production shows a remarkable, novel approach to breaking the discursive taboos of the Ceaușescu system by featuring homosexuality, corruption and revised gender roles on screen. The main focus of the article is on revealing how the old socialist socio-political hierarchies have been inherited and/or transferred to the capitalist-democratic epoch. By analysing such structures, the text provides a gender-centred description of the Romanian socialist and contemporary framework, while giving special attention to the situation of the Roma minority in the country. In a formalist-structuralist reading, it aims to dissect the phenomena of gender hierarchy, political and social dominance, and people’s subjugated position within this context.

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