Adrian Păunescu – Postural Polyphonies in the Golden Age

Abstract

Adrian Păunescu is the initiator of an unprecedented cultural phenomenon in communist Romania, Cenaclul Flacăra, which, together with poetry, incorporates music and choreography into a show that synthesizes nationalist themes with those of Western pop culture. From the perspective of literary postures and the idea of the author as the sum of social representations and theatricalization of the self as theorized by Jérôme Meizoz, Nathalie Heinlich or Boris Groys, Adrian Păunescu assumes different “roles”; from that of poeta vates to that of court poet, from the entertainer to the educator of a new generation of young people, the bluejeans generation, from the propagandist to the liberator from the yoke of conventions. The present study reviews these roles by analyzing their significance in the context of the age, also called “the Golden Age” in termes of propaganda.