La destruction de la ville de Bucarest en Roumanie à travers Un Sosie en cavale, Mort d’un poète de et Peste à Bucarest
The Destruction of the City of Bucharest, in Romania, through the Novels Un Sosie en cavale, Mort d’un poète and Peste à Bucarest

Summary/Abstract: The Destruction of the City of Bucharest, in Romania, through the Novels Un Sosie en cavale (1986) by Oana Orlea, Mort d’un poète (1989) by Michel del Castillo and Peste à Bucarest (1989) by Tudor Eliad The historic destruction of the city of Bucharest, in Romania, between 1977 and 1989, has had a deep impact on the Romanian literature. Shaken in 1977 by an earthquake, the city had been remodelled since 1983, by Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator. The project was impressive. The work had started by the progressive destruction of churches since 1977. In the beginning of 1983, the Uranus quarter, situated in the historic centre of the city, started being demolished. The expulsions were carried out in the roughest manner. The demolitions were immediate. Consequently, these events have been evoked by a lot of Romanians writers. Three major testimonies were published in France: Un Sosie en cavale by Oana Orlea, in March 1986, Peste à Bucarest by Tudor Eliad, in October 1989, both written by two Romanian authors of French expression, and, finally, in September 1989, Mort d’un poète by Michel del Castillio, a French writer of Spanish origin. All these three books had been published before the events that caused the fall of the couple Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu in December 1989. All these novels illustrate, in the background, as a recurrent theme, the destruction of the city of Bucharest. The city is present everywhere with its construction sites, with its demolitions, with its bewildered inhabitants. It constitutes a symbol of the Romanian identity which is being crashed by an overwhelming totalitarianism. What does its allegorical image really signify? What is the meaning of the story of the demolition of this city, of the destruction of its memory and, eventually, of the disintegration of its community of inhabitants?

• Details
• Contents