Post-Communist Political Symbolism: New Myths – Same Old Stories? An Analysis of Romanian Political Mythology
Post-Communist Political Symbolism: New Myths – Same Old Stories? An Analysis of Romanian Political Mythology

Summary/Abstract: This article applies a case-study approach in examining the relation between cultural and political myths. It looks at post-communist political myths and questions the extent to which they are new creations or recycled narratives, re-using frames already present in the public arena, thus benefiting from the resonances they carry within the collective memory of a nation. The hypothesis advanced by this article is that the “archetypes” developed and propagated through cultural myths form the basis of construction for political myths, allowing them to travel through time. Consequently, by exploiting the patterns set by one nation’s cultural myths, political myths are perpetuated from one period to another although new faces and details are used to flesh out the script. I argue that a better understanding of cultural myths could provide an explanation about why a particular political myth has been created and become successful.

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