Images of the model worker in state-socialist propaganda and novels - the case of Romania

摘要

The importance of the model worker in building the 'multi-faceted socialist' society was at the heart of Communist Party propaganda in Eastern Europe. The 'new man', the so-called 'homo socialisticus', who was prepared to sacrifice his (sic!) immediate goals and needs for the good of the society was seen to be essential for paving the road towards communism. We draw on literary work written at the height of the communist regime in Romania to shed light on some of the existing worker identities which, far from endorsing the model worker depicted in Party propaganda, highlight the mundane struggles and dilemmas of ordinary Romanian working men and women. The novel under study entitled Refuges (Buzura 1984) constitutes a landmark in modern Romanian literature and was considered a dissident novel until the Revolution from 1989.