Mythbiography between Propaganda and Memory

The aim of this study is to outline how the cultural model of the hero-traitor functioned in the second half of the 20^th century. The investigation focuses on the case study of the communist martyr hero, Lazăr of Rusca’s figure, heroized in the context of the political show trial of Timişoara held in the summer of 1949 and diffused by the propaganda machinery of the communist regime from Bucharest (party press, literature, monuments, denominations); on another level, we take into consideration the two modalities of representing Lazăr of Rusca in the rural community he came from: a) the way in which he was depicted by the anticommunist partisans and b) the image outlined by the narrative of the family members, which applies strategies for preserving the social prestige of the family in the post-socialist period.

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