The Political Dimension in Romanian Novels of The Communist Period (1965–1989): A Quantitative Approach

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the political dimension in the Romanian novel during the communist period. Indeed, the increasing presence of the political in the everyday life of the individual led to a greater sensitivity to this aspect of public life, making the category of the “political novel” widely used by writers and critics of the time. Based on the data provided by the only lexicographic tool on the Romanian novel, the Chronological Dictionary of the Romanian Novel from its Origins to 2000, the analysis aims to identify not only the novels typically associated with this dimension, such as the socialist realist novel and the political novel (with the subcategory of the novel “of the obsessive decade”), but also the cases in which it is intertwined with other subgenres, such as the social, parabolic or historical. The quantitative analysis shows that the novels of this category, much emphasized by critics, especially because of the renown of some representative works, do not in fact outnumber those of other categories; at the same time, the presence of a political dimension in several subgenres highlights the inclination of this category to intertwine with other forms of the novel during this period, with different intensities and results. After this initial assessment, in the second part of the article we will review the main novels in the most relevant subgenres associated with political elements, for the period 1965–1989, identifying their main themes.