Аннотация
Poetry produced in the prisons of communist Romania still represents a lost page in the history of European literature, as it has so far received less attention from critics than prose and memoirs. In this contribution, after some preliminary reflections on Romanian Gulag poetry, I will propose a close reading of Radu Gyr’s poetry, focusing in particular on the two posthumous cycles The Blood of the Prison [Sângele temniței] and Stigmata [Stigmate] and on some recurring themes and motifs in his prison poetry: the infernal space of the prison and the cell, blood and wounds, which converge in the shocking image of the stigmata. By analysing how these themes evolve and change in the author’s poetic universe, I will demonstrate that Radu Gyr, through his search for a sacred, ritual, and cathartic language, transformed the brutality of imprisonment into poetry, making his poetic art not only a testimony to trauma, but also an act of inner healing.
