by Diana Dumitru * fragments from the study published in Holocaust. Studies and Research (Bucharest: The “Elie Wiesel” National Institute for Holocaust Studies in Romania), vol.1, no.2 / 2009, selected and republished here with the permission of the author In the context of our attempt to evaluate the attitude and behavior of the population of Bessarabia and Transnistria, it is important to note that the relations between the Jews and the local population were strictly limited and controlled by the regulations and situations imposed by the authorities. The Romanian civil-military administration undertook a series of measures meant to ensure minimal…

by Ovidiu Ţichindeleanu The city of Kishinev is a massive construction site. In the Eastern European public spaces, one of the asymmetrical struggles of the transition period was fought between the concrete of the common housing blocks and the digitally processed images of the commercial billboards. So long as most of the inhabitants had trained their gaze on black-and-white TV sets, the blocks had been “silver” and “new.” Long overcoats, pullovers and one-piece dresses were in fashion. Blue jeans, which fit the dry concrete aesthetics, were a smash hit particularly in Eastern Europe (a dancer from Alvin Ailey’s company, on…

by Marius Bogdan Tudor […] Interpretation is key to any historical narrative. This is because official records are both sufficient and insufficient. On the one hand, there are always more data in the records than the historian can include in his representation of a certain part of the historical process. The historian must therefore “interpret” the data by deeming some of the information irrelevant for his account and excluding them from the narrative. On the other hand, in his effort to reconstruct a certain historical period “as it was”, the historian cannot exclude from his narrative an account of an…

*Tema GAP7 Ce tip de istorii recente abordează teatrul documentării realităților adesea expulzate din teritoriul „adevărului istoric” unic? Cum abordează și cum interpretează discursul teatral diferite contexte istorice, accesibile prin intermediul documentelor scrise, arhivelor sau al istoriilor orale? Cum sunt teatralizate istoriile recente inconfortabile, nefiltrate unilateral, problematizante din punct de vedere politic, și care sunt perspectivele performative prin care sunt expuse? În ce măsură demersuri artistice de chestionare a istoriilor recente ajung să legitimeze strategii politice mainstream, întărind astfel narațiunea dominantă? Tema numărului 7 din Gazeta de Artă Politică – Teatrul istoriilor recente – are în centru o serie de…

By Mihaela-Diana Crăciun Gender equality has never seemed more attainable. It appears to be so close, it’s almost refreshing: we no longer have to fight for it or question it. We are free. Period. Because we’re worth it. The current mainstream discourse informs us that we enjoy unimaginable sexual freedom, which is allegedly the equivalent of women’s emancipation and of the triumph of gender equality. However, according to Natasha Walters, this discourse originates in the hypersexualization of feminine identity as a basis of consumer society and of the reproduction of patriarchal domination. The woman-as-object sells. And not only does it…

by Irina Costache I first came across Nina Cassian in her volumes Memory as Dowry. From her diary notes spread across half a century, I built an image of her as a sort of feminist-poetic ideal. Nina Cassian seemed to be a free woman, open to experimenting (either poetically, politically or amorously), a woman dedicated to her work (maybe the only woman who was known to spend her entire time on the reading-writing rollercoaster so present in the lives of male intellectuals) and not least of all, a woman honest with herself. Critics would say Nina Cassian was spoiled, including…

By Judith Butler[1] “Women” as the Subject of Feminism For the most part, feminist theory has assumed that there is some existing identity, understood through the category of women, who not only initiates feminist interests and goals within discourse, but constitutes the subject for whom political representation is pursued. But politics and representation are controversial terms. On the one hand, representation serves as the operative term within a political process that seeks to extend visibility and legitimacy to women as political subjects; on the other hand, representation is the normative function of a language which is said either to reveal…