Post-Yugoslav Literature and Film: Fires, Foundations, Flourishes

by Gordana P. Crnkovic

Overview

The 1990s violence in the Former Yugoslavia, the worst in Europe since World War II, triggered the conversion of multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and cosmopolitan areas of idiosyncratic and independent socialism into regions of xenophobic nationalism, wars, and, afterwards, Western-style democracy and capitalism. Unified by their artistic response to these cataclysmic changes, post-Yugoslav literary works and films have much to offer the wider world.

Crnkovic reveals select post-Yugoslav literary and cinema works as groundbreaking exploratory achievements of global relevance. She presents post-Yugoslav literature and film as art that makes us aware of previously unconsidered things that bring us wars, and those that constitute part of the tapestry of peace. She foregrounds the radical potential of art to change and enrich the global landscapes of concepts, sensitivities, and politics. As such her book is important not only for those interested in this region, but also for all those wanting to discover and engage with world literature and cinema, and willing to encounter the potential of great new art to illuminate and challenge the world we live in.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441171771
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/02/2012
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Gordana P. Crnkovic is Professor of Slavic and of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Her writings include Imagined Dialogues: Eastern European Literature in Conversation with American and English Literature (2000), over 30 articles on literature and film, as well as texts from the experimental video Zagreb Everywhere.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Pronunciation Guide x

Introduction: Post-Yugoslav Literature and Film, and a Different Kind of Knowledge 1

1 Foundations I: While Falling Asleep: A Trace of the Moment in Yugoslavia 11

2 Play and the Language of Community Against Rumor and the Guns: Alenka Mirkovic's 91.6 MHz 40

3 Reclaiming Charisma, Resetting the Senses: Vladimir Arsenijevic's In the Hold 63

4 The Ethics of Listening and the Grounding of a Child: Milcho Manchevski's Before the Rain 79

5 Foundations II: Eternal Realms and Individual Victims in Ivo Andric's Ex Ponto and Unrest 107

6 "The Truthful Road to Me": Short Takes on Six Bosnian Films 127

7 Under the Star of Orwell: Jurica Pavicic's Plaster Sheep and Ante Tomic's Nothing Should Surprise Us 154

8 The Museum Spills Out on the Square, the Past's Challenge to the Present: The Films of Vinko Brešan 175

9 I am You and You are Me: On Liberating Anti-Nationalism 202

10 Pleasant Distractions: The Danger of Close-ups and Maja Weiss's The Border Guard 223

11 Foundations III: Success vs. Logic: Miroslav Krleza's On the Edge of Reason 245

12 Anarchists Today: The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon 260

Bibliography 280

Index 291