ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

The New Prophet. The Making of the Official Image of Elena Ceauşescu 115Due to their success in creating the illusion, the new prophets, the bearersof the new ideal tend to appear before the confused people as a new sign oflegitimacy, as a new vivid symbol. The prophecy has come true. Their existence isa promise. Power is the mark of their glory. The entire history was nothing but ameticulous preparation of their arrival. In an eschatological sense, the radianteffigy of the two was but a great symbol, a mystical and enigmatic guarantee for anew alliance, millenary and prophetical at times, historical and political at othertimes. However, as most official plastic art productions show, the dictators giveoff a magical way of living, which was relaxing, hardly visible, concealed andrevealed by the massive mystical reverberations. Deformed, altered, inversed,deviated from their genuine significance, these signs built singular conceptions,often surprising about the world, history and power.Nevertheless, from this point forward, things were heading one wayonly, that of consolidating the personality cult of Elena Ceauseşcu as well.Her performances in the field of chemistry, with “remarkableaccomplishments”: anionic polymerization, the synthesis of certain plasticizers,the polymerization of certain macromolecular compounds etc. are eulogies thatthe life “comrade” of the general secretary of the Central Committee of theRomanian Communist Party benefits from. She had forged for herself an imageof a scholar woman, very serious, dedicated to the work in the laboratory.There are two poles between which the symbolism of the specialpersonality cult built for Elena Ceauşescu oscillates: Elena as a matrix offeminine virtues and Elena as “revolutionary”, “politician”, “scientist” and“fighter for world peace”. That the country’s first lady reached a jubilee age canalso be seen from the fact that numerous newspapers and magazines 12reproduced a massive iconography, unprecedented at the time, which renderedvisible both her “her beauty” and her moral and intellectual qualities; thepaintings dedicated to her reflect generic symbols, immediately established assuch by the official direction.LE NOUVEAU PROPHETE. LA CREATION DE L’IMAGE OFFICIELLE D’ELENACEAUSESCU(Résumé)Il a deux pôles entre lesquelles pendule l'imagerie symbolique issue du culte de lapersonnalité, spécialement construit pour Elena Ceausescu: Elena comme matrice des vertusféminins et Elena comme «révolutionnaire», «homme politique», «homme de science» et «militantpour la paix du monde». Dans des différentes journaux et revues on a été reproduite une énormeiconographie, sans pareil jusqu’à ce temps-la, qui rendait visible tant «la beauté» que «lesqualités» morales et intellectuelles du personnage, de même que les tableaux qui lui sont dédiés etqui reflète des symboles génériques, établis par la directive officielle.12 Scânteia, January 7 th 1984; Luceafărul, January 7 th 1984; Suplimentul litarar-artistical Scânteii tineretului, January 8 th 1984; Orizont, January 6 th 1984.