1 Capturing the Romanian Revolution: Violent Imagery, Affect and the Televisual Event By Stefana Lamasanu Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University August 2010 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Ph.D. ©Stefana Lamasanu, 2010 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 2 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 4 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 5 Résumé................................................................................................................................ 7 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter One. The Iconicity of Capital Punishment ........................................................... 19 War and Death Imagery ................................................................................................ 19 Examples ....................................................................................................................... 28 Lynching Photographs ............................................................................................... 28 Holocaust Photography ............................................................................................. 32 The Saigon Execution ................................................................................................ 33 Saddam Hussein ........................................................................................................ 37 Execution Literature ...................................................................................................... 40 The Historical Context and Definition of Capital Punishment .................................. 41 The Public Execution ................................................................................................. 45 Executions of Women ............................................................................................... 55 The Case of Contemporary Romania ............................................................................ 61 Chapter Two. The Romanian Revolution, Its Context, and Media Coverage ................... 63 Historical and Political Context of the Execution .......................................................... 63 Censorship during the Socialist Communist Era of Nicolae Ceauşescu .................... 65 The Public Image of the Ceauşescus ......................................................................... 67 The Historical Context Leading to the Execution ...................................................... 76 The Televised Revolution .............................................................................................. 78 Trial and Execution .................................................................................................... 86 Media Coverage ............................................................................................................ 89 A Contested Revolution .............................................................................................. 102 Exaggerated Numbers ............................................................................................. 103 3 Conspiracy Theories ................................................................................................ 112 Chapter Three. The Journalistic Context ......................................................................... 117 Romanian Journalistic Practices before the Revolution ............................................. 117 Romanian Journalistic Practices during the Revolution ............................................. 121 “New” Media, Old Language? ................................................................................. 122 Live Televisual Documentary: A Break in Aesthetics ............................................ 124 The Romanian Revolution: An International Narrative Collaboration ....................... 135 Chapter Four. Revisions of the Past ................................................................................ 148 Televisual Economics of Capturing the Past ............................................................... 148 Visual Reformulations ................................................................................................. 160 Public and Formal Commemoration Practices and Collective Memory ................. 160 Revisiting the Past through Art ............................................................................... 167 Chapter Five: Affect Formation and Circulation ............................................................. 182 Affect ........................................................................................................................... 182 Icons ............................................................................................................................ 184 Circulating Affects ....................................................................................................... 193 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 214 Iconophobia ................................................................................................................ 214 The Sublime................................................................................................................. 219 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................... 226 4 Acknowledgements I want to thank Prof. William Straw for patiently guiding me toward choosing the right topic. Although my choice of subject is not surprising, his guidance has enabled me to bridge my personal interest with academic theory. His constant encouragement and belief in my project have helped me immensely. Without him, and the generous help of Media@McGill, I would have not been able to conduct archival research and interviews in Romania. I also want to thank my friends and family for making my return to Romania wonderful, in particular Viorica and Sorin Popovici. My gratitude to Prof. Hajime Nakatani and Prof. Carrie Rentschler for helping in the development of this project. I have been fortunate to share the intensity of the dissertation process with great friends. My thanks to Ian Reilly for being continuously supportive and motivating, for sharing his ideas, music, and contagious enthusiasm. Mandeep Basi, Megha Sehdev, and Christine Mitchell have been strong partners in this process. I am grateful for the help provided by Lisa Sumner, Dawa Samdup, Daniel Nerenberg, David Assouline, Norbert Schmoll, and Tania Chiarotto. I thank my brother, my mother, and my father, for providing me with more support than words can describe. My parents have shown me the power of critical thought and questioning dogma, even in difficult times. This dissertation exists first and foremost because of them, and our experiences in communist Romania. 5 Abstract On December 21, 1989, the communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu crumbled to its demise under the gaze of the video cameras filming the start of what was to become the ‗Romanian televised revolution‘. This dissertation analyses the visual representation of the fall of Communism in Romania, and more specifically, the mediatised footage of Nicolae Ceauşescu‘s execution, as it was broadcast in Romania and globally. The uprisings and the execution are examined here as a constructed ―televisual event‖ (Morse 93) with important socio-political implications. One of the main assertions of this dissertation is that these images were produced and disseminated within an economy of emotions that circulated affect for political and ideological purposes. Furthermore, beyond their role as documentary representations and historical archives, these visuals offer a forum for discussing the way viewers experience a certain kind of pleasure in the consumption of violent images. In order to better situate the object of study, the project begins with a broad overview of current ways of thinking about death imagery and its circulation, before presenting the specific historical and political context of the visuals of the revolution. Then, through archival research on the news disseminated during the revolution and after, the study provides an examination of the domestic and international media coverage of the events. Subsequently, in order to examine the interplay between media technology, politics, and the public, the images are examined as particular audiovisual texts with their own aesthetic 6 codes and style. Finally, the thesis considers the images as sites for the mobilization of affect, exploring their ethical and political implications, in their role as media performances. 7 Résumé Le 21 décembre 1989, le régime communiste de Nicolae Ceauşescu s‘est effondré devant les caméras. C‘était le début de ce qu‘on a appelé la « révolution roumaine télévisée ». La présente dissertation analyse la représentation visuelle de la chute du communisme en Roumanie, et notamment les images de l‘exécution de Nicolae Ceauşescu qui ont été diffusées dans ce pays et dans le monde. Les soulèvements et l‘exécution