Limbă, Literatură, Folclor

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52505/llf.2025.2.07

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to reread Liviu Rebreanu’s novel The Forest of the Hanged and the short story Catastrophe through the lens of inter-imperiality. Its primary goal is to outline a perspective on the lived experience of the characters Apostol Bologa and David Pop, who embody the conflict between loyalty to the empire and ethnic-national identity. The analysis seeks to explore how war and Transylvania’s semi-peripheral status influence identity construction. In this regard, the theoretical perspectives of Laura Doyle, Anca Parvulescu, and Manuela Boatcă are integrated alongside local literary criticism. Another possible stake, by combining critical perspectives, is opening space for broader reflections on the connections between power, international dynamics, culture and individual experience.

Keywords: inter-imperiality, national identity, semiperiphery, Liviu Rebreanu, interwar prose, war, lived experience, ethnicisation.