Socialist Realism in Romania - in Literature - Prose Works

Prose Works

A few representative examples:

• Mihail Sadoveanu: Fantezii răsăritene ("Eastern Fantasies"; 1946), Păuna Mică ("The Little Peahen", 1948), Mitrea Cocor ("Mitrea the Crane", 1950), a novel that became a symbol of socialist-realist prose, with its depiction of class struggle, of positive heroes, of the Communist ironworker Florea Costea and the boiler-maker Voicu Cernea, of the moral and ideological transformation of Mitrea during his imprisonment in the Soviet Union.
• Zaharia Stancu, first de facto president of the newly-founded Writers' Union of Romania (1949): the novel Desculţ ("Barefoot; first edition, 1948).
• Alexandru Jar: Sfârşitul jalbelor ("The End of Complaints"; 1950), Marea pregătire ("The Great Preparation"; 1952), novels about the Griviţa Strike of 1933 that followed the class-struggle pattern and distorted historical truth.
• Petru Dumitriu: Drum fără pulbere ("Road without Dust") and Pasărea furtunii ("The Bird of the Storm"), novels that hailed the "achievements" realised while digging the Danube-Black Sea Canal, known even at the time as a harsh political prison.
• Eusebiu Camilar: the novel Negura ("The Fog"; 1949), a book filled with barbarism, stupidity and cruelty, all ascribed to the Romanian Army during its war "of conquering the Soviet Union".
• Eugen Barbu: author of the novels Groapa ("The Pit"; 1957) and Şoseaua Nordului ("The Highway of the North").