Unreliable Allies: the Peasants in the Romanian Early Communist Discourse (1948-1965)

Abstract

In the Romanian official discourse and particularly in its Stalinist phase, the peasantry is the object of a constant effort of definition and identity construction, which parallels the collectivization of Romanian agriculture. I examine this process at two levels, lexico-grammatical and conceptual, using tools borrowed from social semiotics and metaphor analysis and I compare the resulting patterns of this process of identity construction with those of other social actors, such as the working class and the women. The discourse uses several meaning-making tools to construe the identity of the peasantry: classification (resulting in sub-entities with different entitlements such as poor and middle peasantry), collectivisation (aggregation of individual actors in a collective actor) and generic reference (prototypical definitions of ‘the peasant’). The peasantry is also passivisized, that is, it is represented as predominantly acted upon by other actors. As regards the metaphors mostly used to talk and write about peasantry, I identify four main frameworks: spatial (container and positional metaphors), physical (inertial, gravitational metaphors), biological (body metaphor) and anthropomorphic. Particularly relevant is – via anthropomorphic metaphors – the relationship with the working class, structured around the topics of alliance, help and contract. The peasantry appears as a fragmented, manipulable, inert, unreliable, semi-conscious and self-interested actor, situated in an inferior position compared to other actors. The features of the peasantry are essentialised and considered immutable. The analysis also helps to outline the political community envisaged in Stalinism: a fixed distribution of places and socio-economic functions reminiscent of corporatism.