Drawing the Romanian Revolution at the History Museum of the County of Brașov

Romania’s anti-communist Revolution (1989) was the brutal conclusion of almost 50 years of national trauma. While the Revolution itself fits Cathy Caruth’s event-based trauma model, it can only be understood within the context of the prolonged trauma of communist oppression. The chapter explores connections, tensions and ruptures between trauma models by focusing on a unique collection of comics about the Romanian Revolution, commissioned by the History Museum of the County of Brașov (2019). Interested in proposing a different way of examining history, memory and trauma, the museum invited 39 comic book artists to draw their experiences of the Revolution. The result is an extraordinary patchwork of personal memories illustrating how collective.