Gendering the Communist System of Political Detention:
Three Women's Memoirs of Romanian Political Prisons
Theodora-Eliza Vacarescu,
PhD Candidate, Central European University
There are few academic studies on the Romanian communist system of political detention and repression, though there is a vast production of memoirs and testimonies of the prison experience, both by women and men. The extant study of communist political prisons generally takes the stance of "neutrality" by focusing primarily on men's experiences and testimonies, which are often made understandable as simply politically motivated or "inhuman." This combination of approaches peripheralizes the pervasively gendered experience of political prisons, and my doctoral research explores the idiosyncratic dynamics of women's prison experiences, especially the survival and resistance strategies women used during the time of imprisonment and upon release. This paper uses the memoirs of Lena Constante, Nicole Valery Grossu and Annie Samuelli to question how women uniquely reconstruct their prison experiences, and their strategies for choosing life; for survival and resistance while living through life in detention. A gendered reading of the communist system of political detention and repression is essential for a rigorous understanding of the history of the communist political system and society, as well as for the history of women under communism.
