Studies in Eastern European Cinema

Since Brexit in the United Kingdom, the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the anti-vaccine protests during the COVID-19 pandemic, the re-election of Viktor Orban in Hungary, and the rise of nationalist political parties across Europe, populism continues to occupy a stable position in media and communication of politicians. The discourse of populism also spreads throughout creative audiovisual content (films, TV series and shows, and similar), which is influential in stimulating people’s feelings and shaping opinions and political views. This situation encourages film and media scholars to revise and scrutinize the meanings, practices, and strategies of populism in relation to audiovisual media and content.

Populism is generally defined as a political discourse or strategy with a specified agenda that legitimates itself through critiquing established elites, sympathizing with the people, and blaming others and the elites for their hardships. However, it is a much more complex phenomenon than that, and it ‘can swing in several directions depending on the prevailing political breeze’ (Graeme Turner 2010: 113). Films, as well as other creative and entertaining content, can either depict the populist movements and actors, often to parody or stigmatize them or can mirror people’s existing populist feelings and beliefs for pragmatic purposes.

This special issue of ‘Studies in Eastern European Cinema’ examines the populist and anti-populist narratives and discourses in Eastern European films, TV series and programs, visual games, citizen videos, newsreels, and other screen media. It welcomes proposals from film and media, audiovisual journalism, cultural studies, game studies, and other related fields. New methodological and critical approaches for studying populism on Eastern European screens are welcome.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

- Populist narratives in film, TV, and other audiovisual media during times of local and global crises

- Anti-populist discourse and critique of populism in film, TV, and other audiovisual media

- The representation of populist politicians and populist political movements in film, TV, and other audiovisual media

- Interrelationship of conspiracy theories and populism in nonfiction narratives

- Right-wing populist discourses on environmental issues, health, migration

- Left-wing populist discourses on capitalism, class and minorities

- Populist gender discourse in film, TV and other audiovisual media

- Comparative perspectives on populist discourses in Eastern European film, TV, and other audiovisual media

- New methodological and theoretical approaches to populist narratives and populist media research

- Populist filmmakers and their place in film history

 

Please send 200-word proposals for papers with short bios to a guest editor, Renata Šukaitytė ([email protected]), by February 29, 2024. The deadline for full articles will be August 31, 2024.

The articles will be submitted to the SEEC online editorial system and indicated as “Special Issue Article.” Instructions for the authors can be found here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=reec20.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article