Lizards and Baits – Ethos, Pathos and Logos in Petre Sălcudeanu’s Biblioteca din Alexandria
Lizards and Baits – Ethos, Pathos and Logos in Petre Sălcudeanu’s Biblioteca din Alexandria

Author(s): Mihaela-Claudia Trifan
Subject(s): Romanian Literature, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Universitatea Petrol-Gaze din Ploieşti
Keywords: censorship; communism and literature; subversive strategies; Romanian Communism;
Summary/Abstract: Petre Sălcudeanu’s novel, Biblioteca din Alexandria (The Library of Alexandria) is one of the prose pieces about the first decade of communism in Romania which were allowed to appear during Nicolae Ceauşescu’s rule. The conditions for passing the censorship in that particular historical moment included presenting an officially accepted version of the events happened during the rule of the previous communist leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Part of the negative aspects of that period could be reflected in literary works because they served Ceauşescu’s attempt to justify his personal politics; other truths, more harmful for the regime, were to remain hidden. In his novel, published in a censored version in 1980, Petre Sălcudeanu managed to be subversive enough as to draw the attention of the readers towards his well-masked critique of the regime but he also deceived the censorship to such a degree that his book still included subversive fragments. In 1992, after the Romanian Revolution, Petre Sălcudeanu re-published his work in an uncensored version. By comparing the two versions of the book, we intend to identify what was detected by the Communist censorship and what eluded the officials’ vigilance. We will then analyse the strategies used by the writer to persuade the official reviewers and pass some of his anti-regime ideas through censorship.

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