Caught In-Between: Intermediality in Contemporary Eastern European and Russian Cinema

Description

Explores the intermedial poetics of the post-communist cinemas of Eastern Europe and RussiaProvides in-depth and comparative analyses of films, with case studies covering fiction films, documentaries, avant-garde experiments, arthouse movies and mainstream cinemaCinematic case studies are drawn from Romania, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina and RussiaDiscusses different strategies of intermediality and covers the analysis of a wide range of intermedial and inter-art phenomena, including the relationship between film and painting, film and sculpture, film and photography, cinema and the graphic novel, words and images and images and musicThis collection of essays explores intermediality as a new perspective in the interpretation of the cinemas that have emerged after the collapse of the former Eastern bloc. As an aesthetic based on a productive interaction of media and highlighting cinema’s relationship with the other arts, intermediality always implies a state of in-betweenness which is capable of registering tensions and ambivalences that go beyond the realm of media. The comparative analyses of films from Hungary, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia demonstrate that intermediality can be employed in this way as a form of introspection dealing with complex issues of art and society. Appearing in a variety of sensuous or intellectual modes, intermediality can become an effective poetic strategy to communicate how the cultures of the region are caught in-between East and West, past and present, emotional turmoil and more detached self-awareness. The diverse theoretical approaches that unravel this in-betweenness contribute to the understanding of intermedial phenomena in contemporary cinema as a whole.ContributorsMelinda Blos-Jáni, Sapientia Hungarian University of TransylvaniaMalgorzata Bugaj, University of Stirling and the University of EdinburghFátima Chinita, Lisbon Polytechnic InstituteZsolt Gyenge, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and DesignHajnal Király, Eötvös Loránd UniversityBence Kránicz, Eötvös Loránd UniversityGabriel Laverdière, from Laval University, Quebec Ágnes Pethő, Sapientia Hungarian University of TransylvaniaJudit Pieldner, Sapientia Hungarian University of TransylvaniaKatalin Sándor, Babeș–Bolyai UniversityMareike Sera, Humboldt University of Berlin