Nume: BURUIANA Stefan Ovidiu

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

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

Proiect: „Building national community”. The image of political leader in Romanian society (1900-1940). Propaganda discourse and cultural representations

Date de contact:
ovidiub@uaic.ro

Profil

University training: I graduated the Faculty of History, in 1998, at “Al. I. Cuza” University in Iaşi. In 1999, I graduated the post-universitary course Romanians within the International Relations – Modern and Contemporary Ages, organised by the same Faculty. Ph. D in Social Science in July 2008 with thesis entitled National-Liberal Party between 1927 and 1933

Domains of interest: the history of political ideas, political institutions, political culture and discourse in Modern Ages Romania; the issue of democracy and liberalism in peripheric societies.

Work Experience: Since February 1999, I am lecturer for the course of Contemporary Romanian History, at the Faculty of History, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iaşi (str. Carol I, No. 11, Iaşi, cod 6600, Romania, tel. 40232201273).

Courses and seminars:

  • "Modernization and Nationalism in Modern and Contemporary Romania"
  • "Political ideas, institutions and practices in the interwar Romania"
  • "Politics and culture in the interwar Romania"

Since 2004, I’ve been a scientific secretary for the "Scientific Annals of the Al. I. Cuza University" in Iasi. History Series

„Building national community”. The image of political leader in Romanian society (1900-1940). Propaganda discourse and cultural representations

In european historiography, imagining the national community is rather impersonal: myths made France, many personalities illustrating only a certain discourse or an historiographical theme on the nation. In close raport to the political culture dominant in Romania of the first half of the XX-th century, the national identities evolve into being heritage. The triumph of the democratic idea in Europe happened simultanously with the progresive ascension of the mesiahnic leaders. Each socially relevant political leader tended to prescribe the proper way in which the nation should be understood, as a form of legitimating itself or the group around them. As far as the discourse, they refounded periodically the nation, establishing a special relation between their own thinking and the process of social transformation. Placing openly their ideas and political actions in a rational medium, they equaled their actions with historic necesity. The cult of the leader’s personality is situated at the crossroads of social representations of people around them and their own vision towards society. In the end, the constructed image of the political leader concentrated all human and national virtues (fidelity, security, continuity, etc.) and fulfilled the historical aspirations of Romanian people; he embodied the past and future, being the great protector, the one making history possible. A figure strongly symbolized, enriched with symbols, with literature, art (paintings, sculptures with magalomanic and fetishized tendencies) portraying him, he is a metonimy for the community in its entirety.

My suppositon is that there was a personality cult in the first half of XX-th century, with main exponents being Ion I. C. Brătianu, Alexandru Averescu, Carol al II-lea, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and Ion Antonescu, with structural function of the particular identity, being of a group or national. The main goal of this measure is the establishment of the relation between the cult of leader and national identities in the interbelic society, analyzing the cultural discourse, the images and the representations of the political man as they are reflected, of forms of the myth and of ritual which goes back to the community unity as a whole and build, in the end, the nation. Taking part in the cult’s manifestations, sharing the symbols agitated by propaganda, the individual negociated its quality as a member of the group, legitimating institutions, a status or the relations of authority in the society. He assumes a system of values and behavioural conventions.

Publications

a. Coordinated books and editions

  • Coordinating (along with Liviu Bratescu) the thematic number of "Xenopoliana. Buletinul Fundaţiei Academice «A. D. Xenopol»" magazine, Romania liberalism. Ideas, Structures, Characters, Tendencies (Liberalismul românesc. Idei, structuri, personaje, tendinţe), XIII, 2005, 1-4, 268 p.
  • Co-author of volume Ion Agrigoroaiei (coord.), Ovidiu Buruiană, Gheorghe Iacob, Cătălin Turliuc, The Inter-war Romania within the paradigm of modernization. Studies (România interbelică în paradigma modernizării. Studii), Iasi, Publishing House of "Al. I. Cuza" University, 2005, 319 p.
  • Co-author of volume coordinated by Gheorghe Iacob, Iasi. The history of a Capital (Iaşii. Istoria unei capitale), Iaşi, Publishing House of "Al. I. Cuza" University, 2008, 560 p.

b. Chapters

  • Romanian liberalism and its European identity (Liberalismul românesc şi identitatea sa europeană), in Ibidem, p. 224-270.

c. Studies

  • Modernization in the communist discourse of propaganda (1944-1949) (Modernizarea în discursul propagandistic comunist (1944–1949), in “Xenopoliana. Buletinul Fundaţiei Academice A.D.Xenopol”,VI, 1998,1–2, p. 122 – 133.
  • Society and propaganda in the Romania of the 9th decade. The 14th congress of R.C.P. (Societate şi propagandă în România deceniului nouă. Congresul al XIV-lea al P.C.R.), in “Analele Sighet 10”, Anii 1973-1989. Cronica unui sfârşit de sistem, comunicări prezentate la Simpozionul de la Memorialul Sighet (5-7 iulie 2002), Editor Romulus Rusan, Bucureşti, Academia Civică Foundation, 2003, p. 559-573.
  • The identity of inter-war Romanian liberalism (Identitatea liberalismului românesc interbelic), in “Xenopoliana. Buletinul Fundaţiei Academice «A. D. Xenopol» din Iaşi”, volum 13, nr. 1-4 / 2005, p. 113-126.
  • The National Liberal Party and the act of Restoration (June 1930). The issue of power under king Carol 2nd (I) ( Partidul Naţional Liberal şi actul Restauraţiei (iunie 1930). Problema puterii sub regele Carol al II-lea ( I ), in “Anuarul Institutului de Istorie «A. D. Xenopol» din Iaşi”, tom XLII, 2005, p. 271-294.
  • The National Liberal Party and the necessity of political reorganization (Partidul Naţional Liberal şi necesitatea reorganizării politice), în “Arhiva Istorică a României”, serie nouă, vol. II (2005), nr. 1 (3), Bucureşti, Editura Scriptorium, 2005, p. 136-153.
  • Hebrew students at the University in Iasi during the first interwar decade (Studenţi evrei la Universitatea din Iaşi în primul deceniu interbelic), in The University in Iasi between the French model and Bologna process (Universitatea din Iaşi între modelul francez şi procesul Bologna), Gheorghe Iacob (coordonator), Iaşi, Publishing House of “Al. I. Cuza” University, 2007, p. 414-439.
  • The National Liberal Party and the National Peasant Party Assembly of Alba Iulia (May 1928), I, in “Revista Arhivelor”, tom LXXXIV (2007), nr. 3-4, Bucureşti, p. 203-224.
  • The Difficult Situation of the National Liberal Party after I.G. Duca’s Death, in “Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii Alexandru Ioan Cuza din Iaşi” (serie nouă). Istorie, tomul LII-LIII, 2006-2007, p.165-187.
  • The National Liberal Party and the National Peasant Party Assembly of Alba Iulia (May 1928), II, in “Revista Arhivelor”, tom LXXXV (2008), nr. 1, Bucureşti, p. 243-256.
  • On the Need of Studying the National Liberal Party and the Mysticism of the Party Idea belonging to the Romanian Interwar Liberals, in Romanian Liberalism and its European Values, Liviu Brătescu (coord.), Iaşi, Editura PIM, 2010, p. 212-223.