Children, Heroes and Foes in a Communist Family Album
Children, Heroes and Foes in a Communist Family Album

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the contribution of the family album - a document that operates in both the public and the private sphere - to the formation of a certain (possibly idealized) view of one's childhood and family members, particurlarly in the context of the communist dictatorship from Romania. I am using the conceptual frame introduced by American theoretician of cultural memory and photography Marianne Hirsch in order to work on my own family album, with a focus on photographs on myself and my parents as children, dressed identically in communist pioneer outfits, but also on photographs of my maternal grandfather, who was relatively high up in the communist party ranks.

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