Legitimising Power Discourse: Political Ideology within the Romanian Cultural Press in the Late 1940s and 1950s

Abstract

Political power and, in particular, totalitarian regimes use sophisticated instruments of propaganda in order to legitimise their abusive or repressive measures. Ideologies were used to support, during the 20th century, totalitarian regimes, the latter’s ultimate failure leading to the “end of ideology” (Knight 622). The study is interested in the relations between the “totalitarian ideology” applied in its practices by Communism and cultural manifestation, the latter being transformed into an instrument of propaganda. The roles of art and literature within propaganda are intimately connected to the legitimizing mechanism. Culture is forced to abandon any aesthetic interests, losing independence and becoming tributary to a role and a cause. It was functional, as transformed in discourse manifestations of the communist ideology with the purpose of legitimizing power. It meant an artificial and dramatic shift for all Eastern Europe cultures as their natural aesthetic orientation was replaced by functionality and subordination to politics. This trauma was also experienced by the Romanian culture in the late 1940s and 1950s – a case particularly analyzed in the study – being forced to follow this new function of legitimizing a regime that was consolidating its fragile bases.