Abstract
This chapter explores the role of the dissident intellectual in the post-dictatorship era. More specifically, it looks at the reaction in the Romanian cultural press and in the daily newspapers to the awarding of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature to Herta Müller, a Romanian-born German writer. Müller is known for her anti-Communist stance as well as her critique of those Romanian political and intellectual elites judged too shy in distancing themselves from the Communist past. I would suggest that the ambivalent attitude of the media towards Müller’s prize reflects the hesitation of both the public and elite to critically engage with the recent past. The effectiveness of Müller’s intransigent attitude is also questioned. I ask more broadly, whether former anti-Communist dissidents are still in a position to mobilize interest and reaction in the aftermath of authoritarian regimes.
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Notes
See Jie-Hyun Lim and Karen Petrone (eds), Gender Politics and Mass Dictatorship: Global Perspectives (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
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© 2013 Anamaria Dutceac Segesten
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Segesten, A.D. (2013). The Post-Communist Afterlife of Dissident Writers: The Case of Herta Müller. In: Schoenhals, M., Sarsenov, K. (eds) Imagining Mass Dictatorships. Mass Dictatorship in the 20th Century. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137330697_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137330697_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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