Continuities and Changes of Europe in Romanian National Discourse A thematic analysis of Romania`s chiefs of state speeches, between 1931 and 2016
(2017) STVM23 20171Department of Political Science
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Abstract
There are several problems when studying, as this thesis, the interplay between the concepts of Europe and of nation, in an official discourse of a state. One is that these concepts are largely seen as being in a dichotomous position. This research argues about the importance of changing the perception about the various way the concepts can relate to each other. The study considers the representations of the nation and of Europe as correlated. Consequently, the idea of Europe is modified over time according to the political culture type. The peculiarities of the case selection: Romania, as two violent regime changes, amplifies the effects of this multi faced process of conferring meanings to Europe. First, the communist regime... (More) - Abstract
There are several problems when studying, as this thesis, the interplay between the concepts of Europe and of nation, in an official discourse of a state. One is that these concepts are largely seen as being in a dichotomous position. This research argues about the importance of changing the perception about the various way the concepts can relate to each other. The study considers the representations of the nation and of Europe as correlated. Consequently, the idea of Europe is modified over time according to the political culture type. The peculiarities of the case selection: Romania, as two violent regime changes, amplifies the effects of this multi faced process of conferring meanings to Europe. First, the communist regime crafted its own national narrative by mixing soviet supranational elements with a strong nationalistic rhetoric. This was done also with the use of Protochronism, a Romanian term, describing the process to ascribe, with the use of questionable data and by questionable interpretations, an idealised past to the country. Second, the post-communist elites could not decide what stance should be adopted towards pre-communist and communist regimes. The implications for the concept of Europe were discovered using a thematic analysis on 25 New Year’s Eve messages of Romanians chiefs of the state, transmitted from 1931 to 2016. The results shows that the role of the concept of Europe in the Romanian public discourse was to facilitate the diffusion of the nationalistic messages and to justify internal policies. This happened surprisingly, even during the Cold War era. The technique to manipulate the meanings of Europe continued, ever since. In the context of the present wave of Euroscepticism within the EU space, the author warns about the risk of a credibility decrease of the concept of Europe for the Romanian public.
.Words: 20000 (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8922725
- author
- Mihail, Nejneru LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVM23 20171
- year
- 2017
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- ey words: collective memory, national narratives, Europe, communism, political culture, Romania, protochronism, New Year`s Eve Messages, official discourse
- language
- English
- id
- 8922725
- date added to LUP
- 2018-04-27 10:13:58
- date last changed
- 2018-04-27 10:13:58
@misc{8922725,
abstract = {{Abstract
There are several problems when studying, as this thesis, the interplay between the concepts of Europe and of nation, in an official discourse of a state. One is that these concepts are largely seen as being in a dichotomous position. This research argues about the importance of changing the perception about the various way the concepts can relate to each other. The study considers the representations of the nation and of Europe as correlated. Consequently, the idea of Europe is modified over time according to the political culture type. The peculiarities of the case selection: Romania, as two violent regime changes, amplifies the effects of this multi faced process of conferring meanings to Europe. First, the communist regime crafted its own national narrative by mixing soviet supranational elements with a strong nationalistic rhetoric. This was done also with the use of Protochronism, a Romanian term, describing the process to ascribe, with the use of questionable data and by questionable interpretations, an idealised past to the country. Second, the post-communist elites could not decide what stance should be adopted towards pre-communist and communist regimes. The implications for the concept of Europe were discovered using a thematic analysis on 25 New Year’s Eve messages of Romanians chiefs of the state, transmitted from 1931 to 2016. The results shows that the role of the concept of Europe in the Romanian public discourse was to facilitate the diffusion of the nationalistic messages and to justify internal policies. This happened surprisingly, even during the Cold War era. The technique to manipulate the meanings of Europe continued, ever since. In the context of the present wave of Euroscepticism within the EU space, the author warns about the risk of a credibility decrease of the concept of Europe for the Romanian public.
.Words: 20000}},
author = {{Mihail, Nejneru}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Continuities and Changes of Europe in Romanian National Discourse A thematic analysis of Romania`s chiefs of state speeches, between 1931 and 2016}},
year = {{2017}},
}