Proceedings of the International Conference “Humanities and Social Sciences Today. Classical and Contemporary Issues” – Philosophy and Other Humanities 293 The Memory of Romanian Political Speech: 19 th Century Experts and Witnesses ∗ Roxana Patraş Post-PhD Fellow, SOP HRD/159/1.5/S/133675 Romanian Academy, Iaşi Branch Abstract: In picturing the 19 th -century political world, the present-day reader is helped by a score of the speech scripts, published by authors themselves or editors in a “plotted” order, so as to drive audiences straight to a meaning. Leaving aside textualised variants, this paper reverts to the various testimonies on the quality of political oratory. In order to do that, I will develop Judith Schlanger’s and Jan Assmann’s theories on the logic of oral tradition. The creative variation of political speeches drives back to the way the orator and his public relate to tradition, either generic (the schools of oratory) or cultural (the past of the Romanian oratory). The difference from previous references is noted by two categories of recorders or memory-keepers: 1. the executants, that is, the orators themselves, who play the part of experts, and try to spread a set of successful practices; 2. the witnesses, or the connaisseurs, who brand the quality of variations. Belonging to a community defined institutionally, political orators are both executants (of their own speeches) and witnesses (to the other’s speeches). Keywords: political oratory, expert, witness, oral memory, reliable/ unreliable recordings Introduction In picturing the 19 th century political world, the reader of the 21 st century is helped by a score of the speech scripts, sometimes published in a “plotted” form and order, so as to drive audiences straight to a meaning. Leaving aside these documents, ∗ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This paper is supported by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development (SOP HRD), financed from the European Social Fund and by the Romanian Government under the contract number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/133675.