History and Present in South East European Cinema - JMM566

• Title: History and Present in South East European Cinema
• Guaranteed by: Department of Russian and East European Studies (23-KRVS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2019
• Semester: summer
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/4, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (1)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: Mgr. Duta Dan Mircea, Dr., Ph.D.

Annotation

The course is consisting in lectures, seminaries, film screenings and debates with external guests, that focuses on the Balkan countries. The films to be screened are made during different historical periods in these region and / or by directors born there. The connection between the destinies of the national cinematographic industries concerned and the historical, social, political and cultural development of the respective nations and states will be examined. It is a complex, diverse and multidimensional connection, also influenced by external factors such as migration, economic development in and outside the region, relations between the states and / or nations concerned with various regional, European and international superpowers, alliances or power centers, respectively cultural, philosophical, artistic or political movements, waves, circles, tendencies, etc.

Last update: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (28.10.2019)

Aim of the course

The aim of this course is to acquaint students with Balkan social, historical, cultural and political reality through this complex and multidimensional connection between the cinematographic industries in the region and politics. And in this region politics meant sometimes dictatorship or authoritarian regimes and subsequent psychological, social and of course political methods of manipulating by culture. That is why the second most important goal of this course is to prove / demonstrate the manipulating power of cinema industry in general and especially of films economically, financially - and therefore also politically - dependent on the political power in the Balkans.

Last update: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (28.10.2019)

Course completion requirements

Course completion requirements reflects Dean´s provisions (https://www.fsv.cuni.cz/opatreni-dekanky-c-172018aj) using assessment A-F (A = 91% and more; B = 81-90%; C = 71-80%; D = 61-70%; E = 51-60%; F = 0-50%).

Main course requirements include active class participation, an in-class presentation and a final paper based on the presentation.

Students are required to consult with the instructor on the topic of their presentation, which shall correspond to one of the thematic areas covered by the movies screened in-class. After the presentation, students are required to turn in their presentation (final paper) as agreed with the instructors in written form. The papers are to be emailed to the respective instructor in a length of approximately three to five pages (including a list of consulted sources).

Attendance and active class participation are required as the course is designed as a seminar. Students are allowed to miss no more than one week. A legitimate explanation must be provided for any further absence. Should a student be unable to deliver his or her scheduled presentation, he or she is required to kindly inform the instructor well in advance so the course schedule could be changed accordingly. Failure to deliver the assigned presentation will result in failure of the course.

Students must pass all assignments in order to pass the course. Papers will be assessed based on the first draft submitted.

There is a zero tolerance in regard to plagiarism. Misconduct will result in failure of the course and further disciplinary action.

Graduating conditions:
-  attendance 10%
-  active participation to seminaries 10%
-  an essay at the end of the semester 80%.

Last update: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (28.10.2019)

Literature

James Monaco, How to Read a Film: the Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).

Dina Iordanova, Cinema of Flames (British Film Institute, 2001)

Michael Jon Stoil, Balkan Cinema (UMI Research Press, 1982)

Marija Nikolajevna Todorova, Imagining the Balkans (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

***

Horton, Andrew. 2002. "Laughter Dark & Joyous in Recent Films from the Former Yugoslavia". Film Quarterly 56: 23-28.

Horton, Andrew. 2003. "Beyond No Man's Land: Comic Tragedy and Tearful Laughter in Cinemas of the Balkans". World Literature Today 77: 30-35.

Iordanova, Dina. 1996. "Conceptualizing the Balkans in Film". Slavic Review 55: 882-890.

Iordanova, Dina. 2001. "Balkan cinema in the 90s: An overview". Afterimage 28: 23-26.

Iordanova, Dina. 2007. "Whose is this memory?: Hushed narratives and discerning remembrance in Balkan Cinema". Cineaste 32: 22-27.

Kronja, Ivana. 2006. "The aesthetics of violence in recent Serbian cinema: masculinity in crisis". Film Criticism 30: 17-37.

Michalski, Milena. 2007. "Cultural Representation of Atrocity and Repentance". Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 7: 497-508.

Slapsak, Svetlana. 2007. "Representations of Gender as Constructed, Questioned and Subverted in Balkan Films". Cineaste 32: 37-40.

Last update: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (28.10.2019)

Teaching methods

Teaching methods: exposition / course, applications / seminaries, film screenings, debates with external guests.

Last update: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (28.10.2019)

Syllabus

Besides the history of Balkan Cinematography the course focuses on the development of cinema in each of the countries accordingly:

A) Social and historical issues

1. Balkan "powder keg" - heroes and victims

2. Society in the time of authoritarian regimes

3. Social transformation after the fall of Iron Curtain

4. International intervention

5. Migration & Minorities

6. Myths & Stereotypes in Balkan history

7. Reconciliation with the past

B) Cinematographic issues in the time span:

1. The beginning of national cinematographies: late 19. & early 20. century

2. National cinematographies in the inter-war period

3. WWII

4. Post-war national cinematographies & local authoritarian regimes

5. Post-communist cinematographies & the new states of the Balkans

6. Balkan nation cinematography nowadays

Serbia

Screening 1: Ovo malo duse

Screening 2: Bure baruta

Croatia

Screening: Sorry for Kung-fu

Slovenia

Screening: Landscape No. 2

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Screening 1: No Man´s Land

Screening 2: Na Putu

Republic of Macedonia

Screening: Before the Rain

Romania

Screening 1: The Paper Will Be Blue

Screening 2: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Bulgaria

Screening: Eastern Plays 

Albania

Screening: Mao Ce Tun 

Greece

Screening: Dogtooth

Last update: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (28.10.2019)