Between denigrating nonconformity and eulogising the proletariat: Strategies of representation of intellectual figures in Romanian film (1960-1989)

The present thesis aims to offer a valuable and authentic insight into the discursive construction of representations of intellectual figures in Romanian cinema from the early 1960s until the late 1980s. By taking into account the importance of the freedom of creation within a totalitarian geographical space, the main interest of this thesis is to reveal the hidden and latent meanings that stand behind cinematic representations of intellectuals during such a political regime. In this sense, as a result of uncovering the modes of representation employed in Romanian cinema under Communism, this research aims to trace the almost contractual relationship between compliant filmmakers and politics on the one hand, and the genuine struggles of power between dissident artists and the restrictive ideology, on the other hand. The novelty of this project is granted by the adaptation of the multimodal critical discourse analysis, when it comes to reading films through semiotics and narrative or thematic approaches, and its empirical merger with an extended range of archival records and historical documents as a means to produce a penetrating and genuine illustration of the Socialist micro-cosmos in the second half of the 20th century. The usefulness of this conceptual, methodological, and analytical combination lies in its capacity to offer an evocative series of results with respect to the ideological relationship between cinema and the state apparatus. If the Romanian intellectuals are found to be classified in the collaborative, the dissident (or even apolitical), and the grey (as a consequence of their ability to circumvent the system), their cinematic portrayals are characterised either by their nonconformity, as a way to oppose the ideology, or their working class origin, as a means to eulogise the proletariat and denigrate the upper classes. What is interesting is that, with very few exceptions, the ideological conditions imposed by the system can be clearly seen in the type of cinema produced and, subsequently, in the modes of representation employed in the case of intellectual figures. As such, if the slender liberalising politics induce the production of dissident cinematic films and representations, at the same time, Nicolae Ceauşescu’s dictatorial outbursts have a massive effect on the type of cinema that is being produced. By relying heavily on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and intellectual organicity, Jacques Ranciére’s representational regimes of art, and Bruno S. Frey’s affirmation of the hegemonic exchange between authoritarian leaders and various forms of art, the present thesis represents a historical but still topical journey into the relationship between politics and art and between ideology and culture, ultimately emphasising the importance of cinema as a means to express the injustices of a people.