The Holocaust in Czechoslovak and Czech Feature Films

The Holocaust in Czechoslovak and Czech Feature Films PDF

Author: Sarka Sladovnikova

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2018-11-30

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 3838211960

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Šárka Sladovníková analyzes the depiction of the Holocaust in Czechoslovak and Czech Feature Films and the relevant literary pretexts. While she charts the social and cultural framework in which the films were made and how this framework changed, she also focuses on the cinematic language, the composition of and narration in each film (e.g., the depiction of the war and the Shoah as a narratively closed versus a narratively open event), genre aspects of the films (e.g., the use of comedy and humor), convention and innovation in presenting motifs and characters (the division of gender roles, the character of the “good German”). Particular attention is paid to the portrayal of stereotypes and countertypes in the films, where already well-known images, situations, and backdrops are repeated and which meet viewers’ expectations or, in contrast, which form countertypes and countersituations that go against the grain. Many of the films analyzed are adaptations of literary works. Therefore, this book is also a contribution to the rapidly developing field of adaptation studies.

Handbook of Polish, Czech, and Slovak Holocaust Fiction

Handbook of Polish, Czech, and Slovak Holocaust Fiction PDF

Author: Elisa-Maria Hiemer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-06-21

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 311066741X

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The Handbook of Polish, Czech, and Slovak Holocaust Fiction aims to increase the visibility and show the versatility of works from East-Central European countries. It is the first encyclopedic work to bridge the gap between the literary production of countries that are considered to be main sites of the Holocaust and their recognition in international academic and public discourse. It contains over 100 entries offering not only facts about the content and motifs but also pointing out the characteristic fictional features of each work and its meaning for academic discourse and wider reception in the country of origin and abroad. The publication will appeal to the academic and broader public interested in the representation of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and World War II in literature and the arts. Besides prose, it also considers poetry and theatrical plays from 1943 through 2018. An introduction to the historical events and cultural developments in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Czech, and Slovak Republic, and their impact on the artistic output helps to contextualise the motif changes and fictional strategies that authors have been applying for decades. The publication is the result of long-term scholarly cooperation of specialists from four countries and several dozen academic centres.

The Legacy of World War II in European Arthouse Cinema

The Legacy of World War II in European Arthouse Cinema PDF

Author: Samm Deighan

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1476643393

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World War II irrevocably shaped culture--and much of cinema--in the 20th century, thanks to its devastating, global impact that changed the way we think about and portray war. This book focuses on European war films made about the war between 1945 and 1985 in countries that were occupied or invaded by the Nazis, such as Poland, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, and Germany itself. Many of these films were banned, censored, or sharply criticized at the time of their release for the radical ways they reframed the war and rejected the mythologizing of war experience as a heroic battle between the forces of good and evil. The particular films examined, made by arthouse directors like Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Larisa Shepitko, among many more, deviate from mainstream cinematic depictions of the war and instead present viewpoints and experiences of WWII which are often controversial or transgressive. They explore the often-complicated ways that participation in war and genocide shapes national identity and the ways that we think about bodies and sexuality, trauma, violence, power, justice, and personal responsibility--themes that continue to resonate throughout culture and global politics.

Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe

Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe PDF

Author: Haim Fireberg

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-09-07

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 3110582368

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Jewish life in Europe has undergone dramatic changes and transformations within the 20th century and also the last two decades. The phenomenon of the dual position of the Jewish minority in relation to the majority, not entirely unusual for Jewish Diaspora communities, manifested itself most distinctly on the European continent. This unique Jewish experience of the ambiguous position of insider and outsider may provide valuable views on contemporary European reality and identity crisis. The book focuses inter alia on the main common denominators of contemporary Jewish life in Central Europe, such as an intense confrontation with the heritage of the Holocaust and unrelenting antisemitism on the one hand and on the other hand, huge appreciation of traditional Jewish learning and culture by a considerable part of non-Jewish Europeans. The volume includes contributions on Jewish life in central European countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Germany.

Vanished History

Vanished History PDF

Author: Tomas Sniegon

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2014-05-30

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 178238295X

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Bohemia and Moravia, today part of the Czech Republic, was the first territory with a majority of non-German speakers occupied by Hitler's Third Reich on the eve of the World War II. Tens of thousands of Jewish inhabitants in the so called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia soon felt the tragic consequences of Nazi racial politics. Not all Czechs, however, remained passive bystanders during the genocide. After the destruction of Czechoslovakia in 1938-39, Slovakia became a formally independent but fully subordinate satellite of Germany. Despite the fact it was not occupied until 1944, Slovakia paid Germany to deport its own Jewish citizens to extermination camps. About 270,000 out of the 360,000 Czech and Slovak casualties of World War II were victims of the Holocaust. Despite these statistics, the Holocaust vanished almost entirely from post-war Czechoslovak, and later Czech and Slovak, historical cultures. The communist dictatorship carried the main responsibility for this disappearance, yet the situation has not changed much since the fall of the communist regime. The main questions of this study are how and why the Holocaust was excluded from the Czech and Slovak history.

Sasha Sokolov: The Life and Work of the Russian “Proet”

Sasha Sokolov: The Life and Work of the Russian “Proet” PDF

Author: Martina Napolitano

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2022-03-07

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 3838216199

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Martina Napolitano explores the poetics of one of the most significant Russian authors of the 20th century. Sasha Sokolov’s oeuvre represents a milestone in the development of Russian literature; his legacy can be traced in most prose and poetry appearing in post-Soviet Russia. Taking as point of departure the studies and analyses written so far and considering the new suggestions contained in Sokolov’s last published book Triptych (2011), Napolitano further examines the keystones and the theoretical framework that arise from a close reading of Sokolov’s works, trying to systematize the findings into what can be considered as a structured authorial theory of literary creation. The study demonstrates how Sokolov’s oeuvre cannot be fully understood but within the widened perspective of inter-artistic creation: in fact, the writer, a “failed composer”, as he admits, in his literary work has tried to draw natural and spontaneous connecting lines between the artificially categorized realms of art (word, sound, painting, performance). Finally, the book sets forth the first solid analysis of Sokolov’s concept of proeziia, not merely a genre nor style of his own invention, but a more significant theoretical reflection of the writer about the role and value of literature, art, creation, and finally beauty.

Childhood and Nation in Contemporary World Cinema

Childhood and Nation in Contemporary World Cinema PDF

Author: Stephanie Hemelryk Donald

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2017-02-09

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1501318594

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The child has existed in cinema since the Lumière Brothers filmed their babies having messy meals in Lyons, but it is only quite recently that scholars have paid serious attention to her/his presence on screen. Scholarly discussion is now of the highest quality and of interest to anyone concerned not only with the extent to which adult cultural conversations invoke the figure of the child, but also to those interested in exploring how film cultures can shift questions of agency and experience in relation to subjectivity. Childhood and Nation in World Cinema recognizes that the range of films and scholarship is now sufficiently extensive to invoke the world cinema mantra of pluri-vocal and pluri-central attention and interpretation. At the same time, the importance of the child in figuring ideas of nationhood is an undiminished tic in adult cultural and social consciousness. Either the child on film provokes claims on the nation or the nation claims the child. Given the waning star of national film studies, and the widely held and serious concerns over the status of the nation as a meaningful cultural unit, the point here is not to assume some extraordinary pre-social geopolitical empathy of child and political entity. Rather, the present collection observes how and why and whether the cinematic child is indeed aligned to concepts of modern nationhood, to concerns of the State, and to geo-political organizational themes and precepts.

Czech and Slovak Cinema

Czech and Slovak Cinema PDF

Author: Peter Hames

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2010-08-09

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0748686835

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Examines the key themes and traditions of Czech and Slovak cinema, linking inter-war and post-war cinemas together with developments in the post-Communist period.

The Czechoslovak New Wave

The Czechoslovak New Wave PDF

Author: Peter Hames

Publisher: Wallflower Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781904764427

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This study of the most significant movement in post-war Central and East European cinema examines the origins and development of Czechoslovakian film during this time, as well as the political and cultural changes which influenced some of the most important works.