Adrian Marino – Contributions to the Research of Censorship in Romania

The article discusses the contributions of literary critic and expert of intellectual history Adrian Marino to the research on censorship in Romania in two major registers. In the first one, the author observes, on the one hand, a remodelling of Adrian Marino’s intellectual biography in the second half of the last decade of the 20th century, by concluding a research project dedicated to the idea of literature and starting a new one on the evolution of the ideas of freedom and censorship in Romanian culture. On the other hand, he emphasizes the theoretical and methodological perspective based on which the new research project is articulated, a history of ideas engaged in the context of a broader cultural program regarding the reconstruction of modern, European and creative Romanian culture which was a necessary step for the formation and strengthening of civil society and democracy after the fall of communism in 1989. In the second register Marino’s biographical incidence with censorship is studied. Imprisoned and being in house arrest in the years of communism (in the 50s), Marino was subject to a series of censorship practices: using a pseudonym, writing chapters of annulled books, passages excluded from articles and books, books within publishing programs postponed sine die, etc. Moreover, Adrian Marino was not relieved of these practices even after the fall of communism. His contribution to the international encyclopedia of censorship published in 2001, the summarizing article on Romania, suffered a series of editorial interventions whithout the author’s “blessing” (e.g. shortening the text, reorganizing the chapters, or introducing different passages). The present study is based on a number of primary sources (correspondence, memoirs, interviews with A. Marino) and on a rich literature on the topic.

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