Nume: BRATESCU Liviu

Tema: Discurs literar-artistic şi construcţie identitară în secolele XVI-XX

Partener: Academia Română, Filiala Iaşi Institutul de Istorie A.D. Xenopol, Iaşi

Proiect: Liberals versus conservators: political monuments and converging memories in modern Romania. (1866-1914)

Date de contact:
bratescu@gmail.com

Profil

Graduated in History at the AL. I Cuza University, Iasi in 1997, I have been a researcher for the Modern History Department of the A. D. Xenopol Historical Institute Iasi since 2002.

In February 2007 called Doctor in History, “cum laudae” distinction, with the thesis I.C.Bratianu and Romanian foreing policy , “Al. I. Cuza” University, Iasi. It is a research that showed the contribution that I.C. Bratianu, the informal leader of the Liberal National Party, had on the change of the Romanian international judicial status and its transformation into an important political factor in the south-eastern part of Europe and Romania’s external affairs.

Currently, I am developing my scientific activity with two major projects: Participant in the grant called “Historic discourse and diplomacy: the Romanians in Transylvania and Basarabia in Romania’s external politics” and “Continuity and change in the Romanian political life. The end of the XIX-th century-the beginning of the XX-th century”. The phase of the project: investigations in archives and libraries, establishing a bibliography useful to accomplish the theme, writing individual files of the important political actors from the indicated span of time.

Social skills and competences:

  • Lecturer for the seminar organized by “The center for inter-ethnical relations”, with the following theme “How do politicians see the inter-ethnical relations?”, Tirgu Mures, the 28-th-31-st August 2005
  • Participant at the debate organized by Pro Europa League with the title “Postponed reforms – necessary reforms for the inclusion of Romania in the E.U.”, Cluj Napoca, May, the 20th, 2005
  • Graduate of the courses organized by Transylvania Intercultural Academy and Pro Europa League, with the following theme “The transition from monoculture to multiculturalism”, November, 21st – 27th, 2003, May, 2004
  • Graduate of summer courses organized in July and August 2003 by Pro Europa League with the following debate “Transylvania, Regionalization, European Integration, Fascism and Communism”
  • Founder of the professional association called “The Society of Historic Studies in Romania”, 2003, and from November 2006, co-initiator of the East-Democracy project, belonging to “A.D.Xenopol” Institute of History and the Faculty of History from “Al.I.Cuza” University, Iasi.

Liberals versus conservators: political monuments and converging memories in modern Romania. (1866-1914)

The essence of our research is therefore the investigation of the political and cultural direction that mediates the reception of certain figures of the national pantheon, the registering of reactions towards the way in which the authorities of Romania handle inauguration events and the analysis of the manner in which the followers of some political figures (like I.C. Brătianu, Mihail Kogălniceanu, Lascăr Catargiu or Alexandru Lahovary) try to impose party colleagues as models for future generations.

That is why our project focuses on something completely different. Mainly we are considering the political contests and the attempts of parties of winning a small amount of symbolic capital by associating themselves in one way or the other with heroes of the Middle Ages, transforming the inauguration of monuments in opportunities of bringing back to life the disputes between power and opposition. Our intention is to analyze the resorts of value and cultural codes that have led to the decision of transforming some characters in models worthy to be followed by the entire society. A direction of analysis required for this study will be focused on the place occupied in Romanian political speeches by themes such as “Michael the Brave” or “Stephen the Great” before the inauguration of their statues.

Our analysis will track a few apparently contradictory discourses and behaviors like: the loss of a political figure immediately declared as being irreparable and followed by the dissimulation of his death under the cover of civic and funerary festivities that certified the idea that life goes forward while we continue the work of the individual in question. The development of the patrimonial discourse must be traced to the tension that exists between the two tendencies, the stake of these festivities being preservation in the sense of commune existence, the resurrection of bonds and of temporal continuity with the period in which the individual had asserted himself.

Publications

  • Editor for “Xenopoliana”, 2005, with Ovidiu Buruiana “The Romanian liberalism, tendencies, structures, personalities”, dedicated to the evolution of liberalism Romanian;
  • Editor of a volume of studies called “The Romanian Conservatism. Origins, directions, perspectives”, with Mihai Chiper, Pim Publishing House, Iasi, 2008;
  • During 2010, editor of the volume called “The Romanian Liberalism and its European utilities”, Pim Publishing House, Iasi, 2010.

Relevant studies publised in the same area of research

  • 1. Al.I. Cuza’s political heritage during the exile, in the volume “The Unification of the Romanian Countries: Moments, facts, protagonists” published by Dumitru Ivanescu, Junimea Publishing House, Iasi, 2005, pages 135-147.
  • 2. Romania in 1866. The ending of the crisis, in the Annals of Al.I.Cuza University, 2005, pages 143-164.
  • 3. The inauguration of the statue of Steven the Great. Rituals, nostalgia, arguments (1883) in Xenopoliana. Political rituals in modern Romania, publishers Andi Mihalache and Adrian Cioflanca, XIV, 2006, pages 119-142
  • 4. The separatist movement in Moldavia in 1866, in The historical archive of Romania, new series, vol. II, 2005, no. 1(3), Scriptorium Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005, pages 129-136
  • 5. The National Liberal Party (1876-1888). An efficient reign or the passage from theory to practice, in Xenopoliana, The Romanian Liberalism. Ideas, structures, characters, tendencies, XIII, 1-4 2005, pages 80-97
  • 6. Liberals and conservators at the half of the XIXth century, in the volume “The Romanian conservators: Personalities, tendencies and reigns”, 2008, pages 104-129.
  • 7. The fall of the liberal-radical government (1867-1868). An episode of the Jewish problem in Romania, in the volume “Political parties and minorities in the XXth century Romania“ coordinated by Sorin Radu, Sibiu, 2008
  • 8. Political disputes related to the Romanian participation to the Universal Exposition in Paris (1900) in the volume “The National Patrimony and Modernization in the Romanian society. Institutions, actors, strategies” published by Catalina Mihalache and Dumitru Ivanescu, Junimea Publishing House, Iasi, 2009, pages 45-63
  • 9. The Town of Iasi in 1866. Between the acceptance of the changing of the regime and the temptation of separation, in The Yearbook of A.D.Xenopol Institute of History, Tom M XLVI, 2009, pages 273-287
  • 10. Al. I. Cuza : temptations of authoritarian reign, in Historia Magazine, no. 96, 2009.