Cultural Studies Approaches in the Study of Eastern European Cinema: Spaces, Bodies, Memories

The “spatial”, the “bodily”, and the “memory turn” in the humanities and cultural studies are well-canonized developments. These features of our being in the world are fundamental in the medium of cinema, which is an art of spaces, bodies, and memories, increasingly so today when the analogue platform has been running parallel with the digitalized method of filmmaking. The three nodal concepts define the tripartite structure of this volume, composed of an overview study and twelve case-studies of post-1989 Eastern European film and cinema. The overarching questions of space representation and construction, bodies on screen, issues of national identification in a postcolonial framework, and cinema as a form of cultural memory are explored through the lens of specific national cinemas or contemporary Croatian, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, and Romanian films. In addition to investigating the cohesive forces that mark the postcommunist Eastern European region as a coherent cultural entity in its cinematic representations, the volume also stands as a witness to the importance of transnational approaches. Review "These scholars avoid well-trodden critical paths, presenting new perspectives of the transnational element through the national cinema. Despite the differences, there is a cross-fertilization of these authors’ ideas. Therefore, the main methodological innovation of this volume consists in its approach to the sources. By broadening the canon of national cinemas to the transnational market, this collection of articles comes at a time when there is growing interest in cultural global integration. Even though the influence of postcolonial studies is mostly discussed in the background of cultural representations, the volume takes an innovative turn under the umbrella term of transnational approach, leaving the area open for further research."(Mihaela Vancea, Babeș-Bolyai University, Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, 3:1 (2017))"By revolving around the three keywords highlighted in the title, this edited volume provides fascinating snapshots of complex academic research and disparate standpoints within the field of Eastern European film."(Małgorzata Bugaj, University of Edinburgh Studies in Eastern European Cinema, 03.08.2017)"[The collection at hand is a highly eclectic snapshot of the work done by current film scholars in East-Central Europe. The scope of the articles spreads from major theoretical issues of interpretative methodology, canonization, and genre typology to very specific, close readings of individual films. [...] [A]s a whole they are indeed successful in combining formalistic readings of spaces and their embodiments with questions of representation related to issues of the nation, gender, and the postsocialist condition."(Lilla Tőke, City University of New York, Hungarian Cultural Studies. e-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, Volume 10 (2017))"The present volume – where almost all the authors are natives of the countries they study – is another proof that this new generation of Eastern European film scholars is ready to participate in and contribute to this discourse. [...] It has fine examples of how different texts that concentrate on similar themes and discuss films that come from the same geopolitical region are able to support each other’s argumentation."(Teréz Vincze, Contact Zones: Studies in Central and Eastern European Film and Literature 1 (2018))"The contributors of the volume are not just proficient in English but contribute well-argued film analyses with the help of a cultural studies theoretical framework. The relevance of the postcolonial approach and its rich intersections with postsocialist layers are justified not explicitly but embedded in their selection of films and topics (in many cases related to power). Since there is no room for a comprehensive overview of the whole volume, let me highli