Abstract

Gender, especially masculinity, is a perspective rarely applied in discourses on cinema of Eastern/Central Europe. Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema exposes an English-speaking audience to a large proportion of this region’s cinema that previously remained unknown, focusing on the relationship between representation of masculinity and nationality in the films of two and later three countries: Poland, Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The objective of the book is to discuss the main types of men populating Polish, Czech and Slovak films: that of soldier, father, heterosexual and homosexual lover, against a rich political, social and cultural background. Czech, Slovak and Polish cinema appear to provide excellent material for comparison as they were produced in neighbouring countries which for over forty years endured a similar political system – state socialism.

“Ewa Mazierska’s impressive study... intervenes in the geopolitical and historical debates that perpetually surround studies of the cinema of East Central Europe. In both senses, the book is an important contribution to this area of film studies…[Its] breadth must be counted among Mazierska’s primary achievements.”  ·  Austrian History Yearbook

“Ewa Mazierska has set herself an ambitious task with this her new well researched book…[Her] study excels in the breadth of its comparison of Czech and Polish films…The volume also makes a valuable contribution to the study of how Socialist Realism was implemented in Czech and Polish cinema.”  ·  Slavonic and East European Review

"Offering an excellent overview of masculinity - in relationship to war, fatherhood, love, and homosexuality – in Polish, Czech, and Slovak film this accessible highly interpretive work addresses a number of films and then attempts to contextualize their meaning in a larger framework…One of the greatest strengths of this work is its historical grounding... The author's subtle understanding of larger psychological forces at work ... make this a dynamic, engaging study. An invaluable resource for students of central/eastern European film studies and gender studies."  ·  Choice 

"...This is an intelligent and insighful investigation of masculinities in three unique and artistically vibrant Eastern European nations. And while the author admits to trating only select films, the breadth of films covered is nevertheless impressive."   ·  Slavic and East European Journal

Ewa Mazierska is Professor of Contemporary Cinema, Department of Humanities, University of Central Lancashire. Her publications include numerous articles in Polish and English and several books, such as Roman Polanski: The Cinema of a Cultural Traveller (I.B. Tauris, 2007), Women in Polish Cinema (Berghahn, 2006) (co-authored with Elzbieta Ostrowska), Dreams and Diaries: The Cinema of Nanni Moretti (Wallflower Press, London, 2004) and From Moscow to Madrid: Postmodern Cities, European Cinema (IB Tauris, 2003, London) (both co-authored with Laura Rascaroli). She also co-edited Relocating Britishness (MUP, 2004). Her latest title is Jerzy Skolimowski: The Cinema of a Nonconformist (Berghahn, 2010)