No end in sight : Polish cinema in the late socialist period / Anna Krakus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Krakus, Anna, author.

Contributor:

John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

Series:

Series in Russian and East European studies

Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Poland--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Political aspects--Poland--20th century.

Motion pictures--Political aspects.

History.

Poland.

Physical Description:

xiv, 263 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Other Title:

Polish cinema in the late socialist period

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2018]

Summary:

"Anna Krakus details how conceptions of time, permanence, and endings shaped major Polish artistic works. She further demonstrates how film and literature played a major role in shaping political consciousness during this highly charged era. Despite being controlled by an authoritarian state and a doctrine that demanded ideological conformity, artists were still able to portray the unsettled nature of the political and psychological climate of the period and an undetermined future. In analyzing films by Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Wojciech Has, and Tadeusz Konwicki, Krakus identifies their shared penchant to defer or completely eschew narrative closure, whether in plot, theme, or style. Krakus calls this artistic tendency 'aesthetic unfinalizability.' As she reveals, aesthetic unfinalizability was far more than an occasional artistic preference or a passing trend; it was a radical political act. The obsession with historical teleology saturated Polish public life during socialism to such a degree that instances of nonclosure or ambivalent endings emerged as polemical responses to an official ideology of inevitable utopian endings"--Back cover.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Final Cut: Poiesis and Production History p. 32

Chapter 2 Life Keeps Ending: Immortality and Resurrections p. 63

Interlude Rebuilding the Capital p. 107

Chapter 3 "But It Is Our Country": Building a Nation p. 110

Interlude A Sweatshop Romance p. 149

Chapter 4 It's about Time: Plots about Aimless Movement p. 151.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-254) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

ISBN:

9780822964612

0822964619

OCLC:

1016013565