COMMEMORATIVE MONUMENTS DEDICATED TO POLITICAL PERSONALITIES IN BUCHAREST, ROMANIA. AN INTERPRETIVE APPROACH BASED ON POSTCARDS

Monuments in the public forum dedicated to political leaders are an important tool in promoting national identity. Frequently, the political message embedded in public monuments is intended to contribute to propagating and strengthening a sense of national identity by shaping the community’s commemo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTerritorial identity and development Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 81 - 118
Main Author Merciu, Florentina-Cristina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai 2021
Babeș-Bolyai University
Subjects
Cultural history
Geography, Regional studies
Historical Geography
History
History of ideas
Regional Geography
commemorative practices
collective memory
the Romanian Principality and Royalty
nationalism
ideological function
semiotic approach
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Summary:Monuments in the public forum dedicated to political leaders are an important tool in promoting national identity. Frequently, the political message embedded in public monuments is intended to contribute to propagating and strengthening a sense of national identity by shaping the community’s commemorative experience. In addition to the commemorative function related to social memory, public monuments also have an associated ideological function, as the monuments become essential in visually epresenting the national politics of memory and identity. The ideological function also represents an expression of power by emphasising a series of prominent political leaders. This article analyses the imagology and symbolism of public monuments in the central area of Bucharest as elements that support the construction of national identity. Commemorative monuments dedicated to symbolic national political personalities from the period of the United Principalities and Royalty were analysed in terms of their role in remembering and forming the national identity. The evolution of these monuments and their significance were also analysed based on postcards, which were marked by a series of changes in how power was expressed and the formation of national identity in the communist and contemporary periods.
ISSN:2537-4850