Elena Ceauşescu's Personality Cult and Romanian Television (original) (raw)
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The structural formation of the leader cult in Communist Romania has been subject to intense scholarly debates since 1989. Most studies analyse its development and relationship with the social in association with the creation of mythology within the Romanian context, the evolution of ‘nationalist’ ideas, and political structural changes that affected the regime down to its core. This thesis unravels its mission in two ways: on one hand, it analyses the development of the leader cult in Romania during the 1970s by insisting on the role of the written press on feeding the regimes proclivities; on the other hand, it contextualizes the social and temporal boundaries of that evolution by an introspection into the importance of the Election of Nicolae Ceaușescu as the first President of Romania. As such, the thesis argues that this event had the role of legitimizing the leader in front of the Romanian people, while at the same time enhancing the image of Ceaușescu as the incorporation of national will. Furthermore, this short study brings about the content changes within the press that were triggered by the Election, as well as an analysis on how all leader cult elements have been gradually constructed by the press in the 1970s.
The Proceedings of the International Conference Literature, Discourse and Multicultural Dialogue.Literature as Mediator. Intersecting Discourses and Dialogues in a Multicultural World, Tîrgu-Mureș, Mureș, 2018, eISBN: 978-606-8624-14-3, 2018
The present study aims to bring into attention the ways in which an important historical event, such as "the making of Great Romania" was celebrated during the "80 in Ceausescu"s Romania. It is known the fact that communist propaganda used each and every festive moment to support the communist ideology, and least but not last, to strengthen the leader"s personality cult. In this regard, we are going to take a look over some of the most important publications from those times: Scînteia, România Liberă, România Literară, Flacăra, Era Socialistă, Cutezătorii, Luminița, and Șoimii patriei.
To legitimize its actions and to control the population, the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) worked constantly to impose its vision, with the propaganda apparatus acting intensely during both the period of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, as well as during the reign of his successor, Nicolae Ceaușescu. From its establishment in 1956, the Romanian National Television (TVR) had been one of the instruments through which the voice of the communist authorities had been heard, both literally and figuratively. In this study I investigate the evolution of TVR as a propaganda tool of the communist regime during the 1970s, with a focus on the evolution of the propaganda programmes and on the main requirements of the Party. For this purpose, I used sources from the Romanian National Archives and the Archives of the Romanian Broadcasting Society, and I analysed the measures that PCR took in relation to TVR so that the latter meets the ideological expectations of the communist regime.
The leader cult in communist Romania 1965-1989 : constructing Ceaușescu's uniqueness in painting
2007
This study focuses on Ceaușescu’s cult in painting. Its aim is to demonstrate that in spite of obvious similarities with the master cult of Stalin, the Romanian leader's cult was not a simple adaptation of Stalin's cult, but it had its own particularities which became apparent precisely in his painted representations. The cult of Ceaușescu in painting incorporated local artistic traditions and styles (precisely mediaeval art and folk art) and developed its own form from an early period. It also followed the evolution of Ceaușescu's cult, the shifts and the themes elaborated by Romanian propaganda. Chapter 1 attempts to determine the place of the visual image within Ceaușescu's cult. It investigates different forms of the Ceaușescu cult through which he tried to master time and to impose his image as an extraordinary leader, admirable continuer of the great Romanian rulers. Chapter 2 deals with the shaping of cultural policy at the beginning of Ceaușescu rule. It focu...
My paper analyzes how a part of the Romanian people contested on daily basis their leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, and also the overwhelming presence of his cult of personality in their life especially during the 1980s. To this end, I will employ James C. Scott’s concept of everyday resistance in order to map the array of means used by the people in order to express their protest towards the public homage paid to the Romanian communist leader.
Ceaușescu’s National-Communist Populist Turn of the 1970s: A Failed Charisma?
Connexe : les espaces postcommunistes en question(s)
Ceaușescu’s name is linked to his Promethean attempt to secure Romania’s independence from the Soviet tutelary power and to build a modern industrial state out of the agricultural and industrial Romania modernised during the 1950s following the Stalinist model. This international and social challenge was implemented through the mobilisation of nationalist ideology and the strengthening of the relation between the leader and his people. To attract the masses, Ceaușescu’s charisma did not refer to any objective and inner quality of the leader but to his capacity to embody and manipulate the aspirations of large part of society thanks to a vast housing and industrialization program and a call to nationalism. Even if this populist policy eventually failed in 1989, it consolidated the regime for almost 30 years.
Nicolae Ceausescu portrayed by the Italian press
Il contributo si concentra sui modi in cui Nicolae Ceauşescu e la Romania comunista furono presentati al pubblico italiano dalla stampa nazionale, sia di partito che d'opinione, tra il 1968 e il 1974, periodo in cui il leader romeno godette indubbiamente di un ampio apprezzamento nel mondo occidentale. In particolare, viene messo in luce come gli interessi di diversi gruppi di potere, sia politici che economici, influenzassero in quegli anni l'immagine e il giudizio che della Romania comunista erano offerti dalla stampa italiana. Alcuni giornali, tra i quali soprattutto «l'Unità» e «La Stampa», espressioni di mondi e interessi contrapposti, si distinsero allora nell'opera di manipolazione della verità a proposito di Nicolae Ceauşescu e del suo regime in Romania, omettendo o sfumando le informazioni sui caratteri autoritari del sistema o esaltandone in maniera strumentale i meriti e le " aperture ". °°°°° The ways in which Nicolae Ceaușescu and communist Romania have been portrayed in Italian public discourse are various and complex. They do not follow any kind of ideological coherence, but only political and economical opportunism. The biggest mistake would be to imagine Nicolae Ceaușescu being praised and appreciated in communist and left wing newspapers and, at the same time, denigrated and criticised in conservative ones. The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how ideological distinctions did not always count in the report of Romanian facts and how, behind the articles that
2016
We live in an era of information, when we want to know everything happening around us and to be aware of all kinds of public and personal information. The source which provides this information is mass media, whether it is online or in print, radio, or television. We can argue that television is the most important source of information. The aim of this paper is to analyze the content of agenda setting for the main news stations and the national television channels regarding topics related to administration, politics and the social scene.