An “Eucharistic” Ballad to antitotalitarian Martyrdom

Abstract

"In this study, An Eucharistic Ballad to Anti-totalitarian Martyrdom, I attempt to perform a pastoral radiography of the poetry written “behind bars.” On the one hand, this study deals with an academic inventory of the main themes present in the poetry of the intellectuals imprisoned for political reasons. On the other hand, the study examines its relevance for and impact on postmodern public conscience. Values such as the freedom of speech/the right to publicly express one’s opinion, patriotism/the denunciation of the “shrinking” map of Romania by the Soviet Empire, religious beliefs/the conviction that the public space should not be infested by atheist ideology, etc., for which many of the political prisoners from those times gave their lives, nowadays – once they have been obtained, passed as laws and entered everyday life – have lost their capacity to stir, their impact on the masses, their axiological relevance. "