Email this article 
Hide
Show all
Sovereign Power and Nuda Vita in Ruta Sepetys’s I Must Betray You: Unveiling the Struggles of Romanian Civilians In 1989
https://doi.org/10.22146/poetika.v11i2.87177 Geubrina Rizki(1*), Miftahul Huda(2), Abdul Aziz(3)
(1) Department of Languages and Literatures, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(2) Faculty of Arts, University of Antwerp Belgium
(3) University of Science Malaysia
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
I Must Betray You (2022), a literary work by Ruta Sepetys, is a touching drawing of the painful experience suffered by Romanian civilians under Nicolae Ceauşescu’s regime in 1989. Through a rich tapestry of policies, regulations, and prohibitions, Ceauşescu bound Romanian life to nuda vita. This study aims to analyzes how Ruta Sepetys’ I Must Betray You illustrated the sovereign power that restrains Romanian civilians’ lives and how the civilians detached from nuda vita and the sovereign power. It employs a qualitative descriptive approach by drawing on the theoretical framework put forth by Giorgio Agamben. The framework encompasses crucial concepts such as sovereign power, the state of exception, and nuda vita. Notably, the sovereign power represents an authority to create laws but remains unbound. The state of exception refers to a blurred zone of “law and life”. Besides, nuda vita embodies the condition in which an individual’s life is vulnerable to death without being considered a sacrifice. The study reveals two primary findings. First, restrict any criticism directed at Ceauşescu, exiting Romania, gathering in groups of more than three individuals, engaging in conversations with foreigners, possessing typewriters, and many other prohibitions. The authorities also exercised rigid control over civilians’ basic needs, from access to electricity to food, and imposed strict laws. The sovereign power restrained Romanian civilians’ lives through various methods to instill fear, such as utilizing Phillips, i.e., tapping devices, widely spread within households. Second, the civilians’ revolts against the sovereign power and nuda vita were manifested through strategies like adopting a double-agent role, utilizing knowledge as propaganda, and building allies with soldiers. The novelty of this study proposes a path towards detachment from the sovereign power and nuda vita, particularly relevant to contemporary debates.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Agamben, G. (1995). Idea of Prose (D. Heeler Roazen, Trans.). Albany: State University of New York Press (SUNY Press).
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (1st ed.). Stanford California: Stanford University Press.
Agamben, G. (2004). The Open: Man and Animal (K. Attell, Trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Agamben, G. (2020). Homo Sacer: Kekuasaan Tertinggi dan Kehidupan Telanjang (Indonesian; S. A. Herinarko, Trans.). Yogyakarta: IRCiSoD.
Basting, A. (2009). Forget memory: Creating Better Lives for People with Dementia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Behuniak, S. M. (2011). The Living Dead? The Construction of People with Alzheimer’s Disease as Zombies. Ageing and Society, 31(1), 70–92.
Burke, L. (2019). Dementia and the Paradigm of the Camp: Thinking Beyond Giorgio Agamben’s Concept of “Bare Life.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 16(2), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-019-09913-5.
Chivers, S. (2011). The Silvering Screen: Old Age and Disability in Cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Cohen-Shalev, A., & E.L, M. (2013). Lifting the Lid of Pandora’s Box: Alzheimer’s Disease in the Cinema. In L. Z & R. S.B (Eds.), Chronicity enquiries: Making sense of chronic illness (pp. 103–110). Oxford: Inter Disciplinary Press.
Davis, N. (2020, January 6). Severe Childhood Deprivation Reduces Brain Size, Study Finds. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/06/severe-childhood-deprivation-reduces-brain-size-study-finds.
Deletant, D. (2015). Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Faruk. (2012). Metode Penelitian Sastra: Sebuah Penjelajahan Awal (Pertama). Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Graham-Harrison, E. (2014, December 7). Twenty-five Years After Nicolae Ceausescu was Executed, Romanians Seek a ‘Revolution Reborn.’ The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/07/romanians-seek-a-reborn-revolution-25-years-after-ceausescu.
He, K. (2022). Interconnecting Public Interests with Private Concerns: Biopolitics, Female Bodies, and Guilt in Mo Yan’s Frog and Zola’s Fruitfulness. Springer, 50(1), 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-022-00657-7
Herskovits, E. (1995). Struggling Over Subjectivity: Debates about the “Self” and Alzheimer’s Disease. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 9(2), 146–164.
Howard, A. (2023, August 1). Olympic Star Nadia Comăneci was a Romanian ‘Hero’ Who Defected to Escape Her Government. What Do Her Surveillance Files Reveal? The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/olympic-star-nadia-comaneci-was-a-romanian-hero-who-defected-to-escape-her-government-what-do-her-surveillance-files-reveal-209988.
Mackes, N. K., Golm, D., Sarkar, S., Kumsta, R., Rutter, M., Fairchild, G., … Sonuga-Barke, E. J. S. (2020). Early Childhood Deprivation is Associated with Alterations in Adult Brain Structure Despite Subsequent Environmental Enrichment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 117(1), 641–649. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1911264116.
Manea, G. S. (2018). Alternative Images. The 50s in Romania trough Jokes Broadcasted by Radio Free Europe. In The Image of The Other: Memory and Representation of the Neighbourhood and the World (1st ed., pp. 126–144). Târgovişte, Romania: Cetatea de Scaun.
McLaughlin, D. (2006, July 21). Ceausescu Regime Used Children as Police Spies. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jul/22/mainsection.international1.
Mihailescu, C. A. (2022). An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ruta Sepetys’ I Must Betray You Via Lacan. Revista Economică, 74(1), 125–143. https://doi.org/10.56043/reveco-2022-0010.
Murray, A. (2010). Giorgio Agamben (1st ed). Taylor & Francis: Routledge.
Özpolat, G. (2017). Between Foucault and Agamben: An Overview of the Problem of Euthanasia in the Context of Biopolitics. Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, 7(2), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.18491/beytulhikme.373466.
Rosca, M. (2014, July 4). Ikea Funds Went to Romanian Secret Police in Communist Era. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/ikea-funds-romania-secret-police-communist-era.
Sepetys, R. (2022). I Must Betray You (First). Penguin Books Ltd.
Sima, C. (2017). Communist Heritage Representation Gaps and Disputes. International Journal of Tourism Cities, 3(3), 210–226. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-03-2017-0015.
Walker, S. (2019, December 15). Thirty Years On, Will the Guilty Pay for Horror of Ceaușescu Orphanages? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/15/romania-orphanage-child-abusers-may-face-justice-30-years-on.
Wearing, S. (2013). Dementia and the Biopolitics of the Biopic: From Iris to the Iron Lady. Dementia, 12(3), 315–325.
Whitney, C. R. (1989, July 20). Bucharest Journal; To Rumanians, It Just Feels Like the Third World. The New York Times, p. 4. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/20/world/bucharest-journal-to-rumanians-it-just-feels-like-the-third-world.html.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/poetika.v11i2.87177
Article Metrics
Abstract views : 991
| 
views : 672
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2023 Poetika: Jurnal Ilmu Sastra
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
ISSN 2503-4642 (online) | 2338-5383 (print)
Copyright © Poetika: Jurnal Ilmu Sastra under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
