The Journey of the Romanian Worker Hero

Abstract

The chapter identifies a historical shift in the representation of the worker hero in the narratives of Romanian movies after the 1989 revolution. While the prerevolutionary narratives were organized around the state, postrevolutionary narratives are organized around the market. Moreover, while the prerevolutionary narratives were structured around masochistic/passive fantasies of the satisfaction of the desire of the worker through the body of the state, the postrevolutionary narratives do not offer any scenarios of satisfaction—rather they encircle the historical trauma of 1989, a trauma of rapid and swift social dislocation from the order of the state to the order of the market. Under these conditions from a powerful, young, idealistic character during communism, the image of the worker hero shifts to a middle-aged, cynical, and insecure character fighting to survive in a rapidly changing world.