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October 8

How are our heroes now? – presentation and discussion. Cristian Cercel

During the national-communism promoted by Ceausescu, textbooks (History and Romanian literature in particular) were presenting a heroic narrative of the history of the Romanians (n.b.: the history was of the Romanians and not of Romania). Without the existence of an authentic alternative, the monopoly for the production and the reproduction of identity was in the hands of the Communist Party, the education system was one of the main channels through which a national identity, far from being a comprehensive one, was propagated. What is the situation now, when the alternative textbooks are an everyday reality for the high school pupils? What are our brave national heroes doing now? How different is the present “Romanian narrative” compared to the one from the national-communist period?

Cristian Cercel graduated in European Studies from the Literature department of Bucharest University and has a Master of Arts in Nationalism Studies from the Central European University, Budapest. He works as a translator.