Re-staging the popular

Mustata, Dana

doi:10.7765/9781526111739.00015

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Through the 1980s, RNT was used to propagate an ideologically constructed, descriptive type of narrative of the regime and of citizens’ lives that had little in common with the reality of substantial economic decline and the general oppression of dissent. Furthermore, different strategies and visual codes, such as the centrality of Ceaușescu in the frame, depersonalisation of the masses and the spotlight on the banners were used during live transmissions (Mustata, 2013: 110). Pre-screening control sessions were held for all the materials to be broadcast; however, brute materials were also archived and Jude does not abstain from using those in his film.…”

Section: Securitate Files and Artistic Reworkingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memorability of Romanian dissidence: Ordinary people, secret files and artistic remediations

Mitroiu,

Mironescu

2024

Journal of European Studies

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The article explores the conditions necessary for a narrative recounting of past events to become memorable and incorporated into collective memory. The analysis is focused on the role played by artistic remediations in creating such memorability. In Romania, as well as in other East Central European countries, the production of memorability and the management of the resulting collective memories are interlinked with the narratives of communism that dominate the memorialisation of the recent past. The article reviews several examples of acts of dissent, based on their representativeness and the existing literature, and question the memorability of dissident acts by considering the memory discourse on communism and the involvement of different agents of memory. It also interrogates the use of the Romanian secret police (Securitate) files in artistic productions, examining this acknowledgement of the role played by the Securitate in creating the narratives of the communist past. Two artistic productions based on reworkings of the Securitate files are analysed: a documentary theatre play staged by Gianina Cărbunariu, Uppercase Print (2013), and Radu Jude’s 2020 film of the same title, both presenting the story of Mugur Călinescu. The article argues that these productions question mainstream frames of memory by revisiting the narratives and biographies created by the Securitate files and give new, artistically mediated voices to victims, perpetrators and collaborators.

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Section: Securitate Files and Artistic Reworkingsmentioning

confidence: 99%