Censors and Censorial Relations in Communist Romania: Customs, Conventions, and Practices
Censors and Censorial Relations in Communist Romania: Customs, Conventions, and Practices
Author(s): Andru ChioreanSubject(s): History, Cultural history, Politics and communication, History of Communism
Published by: NEW EUROPE COLLEGE - Institute for Advanced Studies
Keywords: censorship; cultural control; cultural construction; East-European communism;
Summary/Abstract: The communist state monopolized and directed the cultural sphere but, in opposition to traditional accounts, I maintain that it was not a domination based on destruction. As I show, communist censorship did not emerge in a vacuum but drew on local traditions, institutional continuities and historical particularities, as much as on ideological improvisation and practical expediency. Whereas the censorial system was certainly effective in defending the state’s cultural monopoly, it is an overstatement to cast the socialist culture as the offspring of the censor’s pencil. The institutional censorship seems often trapped between its ambition to engage actively in cultural production and the supervisory powers granted by its charter.
Journal: New Europe College Stefan Odobleja Program Yearbook
- Issue Year: 2022
- Issue No: 2021+22
- Page Range: 9-42
- Page Count: 35
- Language: English