When “I” Becomes “We”: Religious Mobilization, Pilgrimage and Political Protests

Scholars have extensively studied social and psychological components of pilgrimage in the past decades. Its political ingredients have less been taken into account. Moreover, there is marginal scientific evidence on connections between pilgrimage and political protests: A response to injustice within a specific agenda and certain goals, remembrance, testimony, imagination, as well as transformation, along with communion and solidarity—are some common features of pilgrims and protesters. There is also the resource mobilization factor—to be analyzed here with a view upon the Romanian 1989 anti-communist revolution in Timișoara. We look at religion as a provider of social ties, in terms of messages with political connotations coming from clergy, and of chain reactions inside religious groups. The qualitative research relies on content analysis of documents, and of 30 semi-structured interviews with former participants to the demonstrations. Results point towards a subtle and circumstantial collective religious mobilization before and during the Romanian revolution. Similarities with pilgrimage are related to the presence of a resourceful actor, converting individual into common needs and generating a collective identity. Differences refer to the spiritual vs. political movement, and to the socio-religious experience vs. the secular search for freedom and justice.

Cvasi în direct: evenimentul revoluției române în Istoria lui Mihai Iovănel

This essay aims to examine several means by which literary historian and critic Mihai Iovănel grounds his synthesis work around the seminal moment of the Romanian revolution. It proceeds by defining two central occurrences of that event throughout the volume – as a temporary marker, useful insofar as it manages to divide more or less arbitrarily a historic period, and as a source for the narratives that would develop in quick response to the brutal transition towards capitalism. The article questions the meaning of the choice to engage the contemporary history starting from the Romanian revolution, while also pointing out the media transformations that this globally televised event brought to the literary field.

One Bloody Regime Change and Three Political Paradoxes. The Romanian Revolution of 1989 and Its Legacy

Este estudio se centra en tres paradojas políticas que caracterizan el sangriento cambio de régimen de 1989 en Rumania y el período de treinta años que transcurrió, es decir, 1989-2019. Estas tres paradojas políticas dicen lo siguiente: Paradoja # 1: La sangrienta revolución anticomunista de 1989 llevó al poder a los miembros de segundo y tercer rango de la élite del poder comunista y a varios tecnócratas que habían estado cerca de las estructuras de poder del difunto Partido Comunista Rumano (RCP); Paradoja # 2: El número de víctimas registradas después del colapso del régimen comunista el 22 de diciembre de 1989 supera el número de víctimas registradas durante el período del 16 al 22 de diciembre de 1989 en una proporción de aproximadamente 7 a 1; y Paradoja # 3: Aunque Rumania pasó por una de las transiciones más largas y dolorosas a la democracia en la Europa Centro-Oriental, el país no ha experimentado hasta ahora un retroceso autoritario después del año 2010 siguiendo el modelo centroeuropeo (especialmente los casos de Hungría y Polonia). El presente estudio aborda estas paradojas y explica por qué el colapso violento del régimen comunista en Rumania ha llevado al nacimiento de una cultura política de contestación, que provocó varias olas de movilización de abajo hacia arriba en favor de la consolidación democrática y, hasta ahora, obstaculizó el auge del autoritarismo en este país.

The Influence of Political Regimes on Romanian Psaltic Music in the Second Half of the 20thCentury

During the second half of the 20th century, the Romanian society was marked by two events that had a profound impact on its destiny: the establishment of the communist regime after the abdication of King Michael I in 1948, and the Romanian Revolution of 1989, which marked the end of this regime. The Byzantine monody has had a millenary tradition in this part of Europe, and the contribution of the local chanters to the perpetuation of Orthodox church music – also through their own compositions – is evidenced by the numerous manuscripts written by Romanian authors and by the works printed in the last two centuries. In 20th-century Romania, the music written in neumatic notation specific to the Orthodox Church manifested itself discontinuously due to the historical events mentioned above. The church chant in the traditional psaltic style managed to survive, despite being affected by the Communist Party’s decisions regarding the Church, namely the attempt to standardize the church chant. This paper captures the way in which the preservation of tradition and the perpetuation of church music succeeded through the difficult times of the communist period, with special emphasis on the religious music written in neumatic notation and on certain peculiarities of the period, due to the political regime. The musicians trained before the establishment of Communism – by teachers concerned with the preservation of the good tradition of church chanting, in monastic schools and prestigious theological seminaries of the interwar period – were the binding forces who ensured the rapid revival of the music of Byzantine tradition in the last decade of the 20thcentury and who enriched the repertoire of the Romanian churches with valuable original works.

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 - An Armed Conflict?

The violent events of December 1989 in Romania, which led to the removal of the Communist regime from power are still shrouded in mystery today. The social disorder and the political chaos of those days overlapped with the violent use of the armed forces that used all kinds of weapons. During the armed confrontations, many casualties (military and civilian) and destruction of goods, including cultural ones, took place. In the years following these events a series of theories, hypotheses, controversies, and trials have emerged, but no one has clearly defined the legal nature of this social-political crisis. The purpose of this scientific approach is not to analyze the events and crimes committed in December 1989, but to determine whether and to what extent the international humanitarian law can be applied to these events.

Actions. Situations. Possible Scenarios.

Zigzagging through personal memory and historical episodes of great consequence – the fall of the Berlin wall, the Romanian revolution and the April 2018 protests in Nicaragua – the essay seeks points of connection between the personal and the political, exploring how the two are intimately and inextricably intertwined. The textual approach can be situated in-between historical analysis and auto-biographical fiction; the aim is to enable multi-layered narratives, and contrasting, conflicting temporalities to co-exist. Illustrative of this intent, Romanian artist Călin Man intervenes upon the more well-known documentary photographs referenced in the text, by conflating them with everyday snapshots from the city of Arad taken at different points along the temporal arc described. Keywords: documentary, memory, personal history, photography, revolution, transnationalism

A Revolution for the Stage – Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill

The raw material of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest was extracted from the 1989 Revolution in Romania and chiselled to the essence. The play bridges reality and fiction through a cross-cultural perspective, which implies documentation, collaborative work and emotional detachment. The British playwright used innovative devices and adapted pictorial techniques to turn the Romanian Revolution into a work of art, to preserve what she considered particular and also connect the event to several of the cultural symbols Romania is associated with.