Different studies argue that the impact and the appropriation of international emancipatory movements, such as Decolonize This Place, are overlooked and under-researched topics in Eastern Europe. Our project asserts that in the field of memory studies dedicated to the space of the Republic of Moldova even less attention was given to the decolonizing memory from the legacy of Soviet influence and domination. Our project proposes to look, using a collaborative approach, to cultural forms and expressions through which this movement manifested and acted and to its impact in shaping the public discourse of memory. Acknowledging the connections between Romania and Republic of Moldova in terms of the common cultural and literary scene created for and by Moldovan-born writers and artists, we ask how the Soviet legacy was and is dealt with in this space through literary, aesthetic and artistic forms. The decolonisation includes both the issue of remembering and remediating the past by using cultural forms and that of the mechanisms used to articulate the position assumed towards the Soviet legacy. Thirdly, it refers to their impact in terms of shaping the public memory discourse. Therefore, our aim is to study, develop and implement common research practices following these three levels.
Simona Mitroiu, PI, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7600-3484
Nina Corcinschi, PL, ”Bogdan Petriceicu-Hașdeu” Institute of Romanian Philology, Chișinău, Republic of Moldova
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4903-4477
Andreea Mironescu, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9454-8792
Camelia Gradinaru, Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3019-3056
Doris Mironescu, Faculty of Letters, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2241-5971
Oxana Gherman, "Bogdan Petriceicu-Hașdeu” Institute of Romanian Philology, Chișinău, Republic of Moldova
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7366-2599
Cristina Dicusar, PhD student, "Bogdan Petriceicu-Hașdeu” Institute of Romanian Philology, Chișinău, Republic of Moldova
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6480-994X
Cristian Serdeșniuc, PhD student, "Bogdan Petriceicu-Hașdeu” Institute of Romanian Philology, Chișinău, Republic of Moldova
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8522-2523
Research Panel: "Decolonizing Memory. The Post-Soviet Novel in the Republic of Moldova", International Conference For the Study of the Novel Migration and Economic Inequalities in the History of the Novel: Discourses, Representations, Identity (Re)Construction, "Sextil Pușcariu" Institute, Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 21-22 June 2024
Participants: Nina Corcinschi, Doris Mironescu, Simona Mitroiu, Oxana Gherman, Cristina Dicusar
Roundtable and workshop: "Decolonization of Memory in Post-Soviet Literature. Emancipatory Narratives", ”Bogdan Petriceicu-Hașdeu” Institute of Romanian Philology, Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, 10-11 October 2024
Participants: Doris Mironescu, Simona Mitroiu, Nina Corcinschi, Oxana Gherman, Cristina Dicusar, Cristian Serdeșniuc, Arleen Ionescu
Roundtable: "Literary Generations and Decolonization of Memory in the Republic of Moldova after 1991", Institute of Romanian Philology "Alexandru Philippide", Iasi, Romanian Academy, Romania,16-18 October 2024
Participants: Doris Mironescu, Bogdan Crețu, Simona Mitroiu, Nina Corcinschi, Oxana Gherman, Cristina Dicusar
Workshop: "Literary History and Memory: the Novel in Post-testimony Age", Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 30 April 2025 (coordinator Andreea Mironescu)
Roundtable: "Decolonization of Memory in Literature from the Republic of Moldova: Key Elements and Provocations", Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 30 April 2025 (Invited Speakers: Nina Corcinschi and Oxana Gherman, coordinator Simona Mitroiu)
Panel "The Memory of Pluri-Crises: Challenging Power Relationships through Cultural Expressions in a De-Sovietization and Decolonization Context", Memory Studies Association Conference 2025, Prague (July 2025); Chair: Simona Mitroiu
"The Ordinary Crises of Violence: Gendered Experience in Moldovan Writers' Novels", Oxana Gherman & Simona Mitroiu
"Multimodal Activism in a World of Perpetual Crises and #permanentprotest: OccupyGuguta", Camelia Gradinaru & Cristina Dicusar
"Performing Masculinity in Between: Post Soviet Moldovan Writers and the Political Uses of Literary Violence", Doris Mironescu & Nina Corcinschi
"Navigating Liminality: Memory, Identity, and the Post-Colonial Condition of Contemporary Moldova", Kateřina Fuksová (Charles University, Prague)
Chisinau as a Case Study of Moldova's Post-colonial Condition: Fractured Memories, Settler Colonial and Identity-making Policies, Claiming and Alienation", Caterina Pislari, Independent Researcher.
Conference participation: Post-imperial Nation Rebuilding: Strategies of Mixed Synchronization in the Republic of Moldova, Cristina Dicusar & Andreea Mironescu, Theorizing (Sub)peripheries: Strategies of Synchronization in Southeast European Literary and Cultural Criticism (1821–2025), Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania, 9-10 May 2025.
FILOLOGIA MODERNĂ: REALIZĂRI ȘI PERSPECTIVE ÎN CONTEXT EUROPEAN, Chișinău: Editura Pro Libra, 2024.
Nina CORCINSCHI, Sașa Zare – emanciparea de gen. Metabolizări ale rușinii de-a fi „greșită” , 39-47.
Doris MIRONESCU, Romanul memoriei ca instrument al decolonizării, 48-56.
Oxana GHERMAN, Reprezentări identitare în romanul basarabean contemporan (Tatiana Țîbuleac, Sașa Zare), 57-66.
Simona MITROIU, Repetiție, anxietate și prăbușire. Expresii ale decolonizării memoriei în lucrările lui Iulian Ciocan, 67-72.
Cristian SERDEȘNIUC, Grigore Vieru: discursul emancipator al „Albinuței”, 73-79.
Cristina DICUSAR, Strategii de decolonizare a discursului poetic. Metamodernismul român basarabean, 80-86.
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Simona Mitroiu, & Oxana Gherman (2025). Violence and Its (In)Visibility: Forms and Expressions in Moldovan Women Writers’ Novels. Women’s Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2025.2524378
Abstract. The collapse of the socialist system in Eastern Europe opened a transitional space where new forms of agency and new subjectivities could come into being, but it also created a void in the lives of many people and a struggle to redefine themselves. These “changes had different speeds and directions,” ranging from a strong desire to be identified as part of Europe through democratization to “experimenting with the ideals of a strong authoritarian state, religion, and a ‘return to tradition’ to build a new society” (Morell and Gradskova 1). In this paper, we explore the ways in which these challenges and transformations affected the memory of the past and how they are expressed in literature, what forms and mechanisms are used, and how the process of challenging memories and narratives about the past is articulated. Through a close reading of several case studies, such as Tied to the Ground with the Rope by Lorina Bǎlteanu, Uprootedness by Sașa Zare, and Glass Garden by Tatiana Ṭîbuleac, problematic relationships of power will be discussed as mirroring past and current dependency and challenging narratives that connect political, social, and cultural facets.
Work in progress