Womanhood in „Pe strada Mântuleasa” by Mircea Eliade

The Answer to Communism’s Agression: Love at the Center of the World

Abstract

Some children searching for mystery and its signs on Mântuleasa street, a story teller who defends
himself from an unknown aggression, by inventing the facts, by trying to escape from the main story, by
building a labyrinth from his memories, an author, Mircea Eliade, living in Chicago, longing for the fairy
tale space of his childhood – those are the ingredients of the most complex short story of the writer, “Pe
strada Mântuleasa”. At the center of the story, womanhood interferes with an ancient curse that leads to
uncanny events. Women like Oana, Arghira Zamfira, Marina, Leana, or Anca Vogel represent together the
changing face of womanhood in Eliade’s short story. The narrative voices, the appeal to Romanian or
universal myths and symbols, unexpected characters, the text’s plans, epic developments, configure a unique
text in Mircea Eliade’s works panorama.