When it comes to freedom, America delivers: the archaeologies of cosmoscapes in the 1980s poetry in late communist Romania

Abstract This paper examines the influence of American cultural models on Romanian poetry during the late communist period. Using a postcolonial framework, it highlights how and why Romanian poets in the 1980s navigated the symbolic presence of the United States, adopting Westernized perspectives through “self-colonization” strategies (Kiossev in Cultural aspects of the modernization process, 1995), integrating foreign cultural models to construct hybrid poetic identities. The concept of “in-between peripherality” (Tötösy de Zepetnek in The Comparatist 23:89–110, 1999) further clarifies how peripheral cultures negotiate their identities by integrating foreign cultural models and transforming them into “intentional communication” (Hebdige in Subculture. The meaning of style, 2002) and manifestos. Thus, Romanian poetry of the era becomes a site of cross-cultural engagement, constructing “cosmoscapes” that reflect the interplay of local and global imaginaries. By examining the works of poets like Traian T. Coşovei, Romulus Bucur, Alexandru Muşina and Mircea Cărtărescu, the study reveals how American cultural influences were adapted to fit local socio-political contexts.