Hesitant Histories on the Romanian Screen

Description

This book argues that hesitation as an artistic and spectatorial strategy connects various screen media texts produced in post-war Romania. The chapters draw a historical connection between films made during the state socialist decades, televised broadcasts of the 1989 Romanian revolution, and films of the new Romanian cinema. The book explores how the critical attitude of new Romanian cinema demonstrates a refusal to accept limiting, binary discourses rooted in Cold War narratives. Strausz argues that hesitation becomes an attempt to overcome restrictive populist narratives of the past and present day. By employing a performative and mobile position, audiences are encouraged to consider conflicting approaches to history and social transformation. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-9 Hesitation as an Interpretive Strategy....Pages 11-50 Modernism Under Construction: Romanian Films on Filmmaking in the Ceaușescu Years....Pages 51-82 Television as a Factory of History: The Broadcast of the 1989 Romanian Revolution....Pages 83-114 Contesting the Canon of the Past: State Socialism and Regime Change in New Romanian Cinema....Pages 115-156 Outcasts, Fugitives, and Migrants: Mobility and the Social Production of Space....Pages 157-182 Sanatorium Romania: Regulating the Body in the Hospital, the Prison, and the Convent....Pages 183-207 The Crisis of Masculinity in Post-socialist Society....Pages 209-238 Epilogue: Authorial Films and Genres, Festivals, and Audiences....Pages 239-247 Back Matter....Pages 249-257