Short prose from Bessarabia. Face to face with “The New Epic”(1940-1990)
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About author:
Alexandru BURLACU
Doctor of Philology,
University professor
The “Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu” Institute of Philology at the State University of Moldova
E-mail: alexandru.burlacu@sti.usm.md
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52505/llf.2026.1.01
Abstract:
This article examines Bessarabian prose over a period of five decades, emphasizing the catastrophic consequences of proletcultism. Socialist realism, especially in the aggressive Zhdanovist form during the first post-war decade, is characterized by the break with tradition, the politicization of the literary creation, and the pressure of censorship. Khrushchev’s “thaw” briefly encouraged a gradual return to certain forms of normality within the pseudo-democratization of society, followed by the restoration of a neo-Stalinist ideological climate under Brezhnev’s regime. Short prose, like other literary genres, was conceived not only as a “weapon” of communist propaganda and a field for exploring the “new epic”, but also as a means of distancing itself from socialist realism through the assimilation of various forms of modernism. The phenomenon is specific to rural prose characterized by a neo-Sămănătorist orientation. The protagonists of rural prose belong to a traditional, predominantly peasant typology, although they manifest themselves in atypical ways. Short prose is analyzed both in its essential stages of development and in its fundamental tendency to function as a breach in the dogmatic monolith of socialist realism, with emphasis placed on innovations in content and narrative technique. The prose writers of the 1960s proved receptive to various experiments and innovations of the time, assimilating modern techniques such as the stream of consciousness and interior monologue (Joyce), involuntary memory (Proust), Hemingwayan dialogue, and symbolic suggestion. All these are integrated into a broader framework of ethical concerns and the so-called “ethical maximalism”. As a rule, in a normal literary context, crises of conscience are generally associated with intellectual protagonists. This is the stage dominated by defeated and disillusioned characters.
Keywords: proletcultism, socialist realism, rural prose, positive heroes, defeated characters.