From Olympia to Shaolin Soccer, from The Harder They Fall to Chariots of Fire, and from Raging Bull to The Big Lebowski, cinema has relentlessly displayed its fascination with the world of sports. As Eastern European cinema is no exception in this regard, Studies in Eastern European Cinema sets out to showcase its sport imaginaries. Recognising that this topic has received little critical attention, the special issue of Studies in Eastern European Cinema aims to fill this gap by seeking scholarly contributions that expand our knowledge on films about sport in the titular region.
Just like cinema itself, sport is a vast and complex social arena in which many discourses, practices and institutions enmesh, intersect and – no pun intended – compete. It is about games and scores, but also about politics, economy, education, law and media; about athletes, but also about sport fans; about professionals, but also about amateurs; about discipline, but also about leisure. Sport excludes and divides, yet also conciliates and includes. No social layer is inert towards it as it intertwines with the categories of gender, class, age, sexuality, ethnicity, and location.
Studies in Eastern European Cinema aims to explore the ways in which Eastern European films screened the sport-related experiences in all historical periods and socio-political constellations. According to our central premise, cinema never merely reflected on sport, or depicted it in a disinterested way, but actively shaped opinions and attitudes about sport. In that way, just like sport imagery is integral to the history of cinema, cinema itself participates in the history of sport.
Studies in Eastern European Cinema encourages prospective contributors to employ different analytical categories and perspectives such as:
◾Politics, ideology, nation: sport as the expression of nationhood or an ideological cause; sport as a proverbial “continuation of war by another means”; the athletes as the unofficial ambassadors of a political/ideological system (nation, communism/socialism etc.).
◾Class: sport as a marker of class belonging and a mechanism of strengthening the class divide; sport as a vehicle for interclass inclusion and movement;
◾Gender: the various types of sport-related masculinity and femininity; sport as a sexist, male-dominated institution that maintains the general status quo of male/masculine domination; sport as a venue for the gender empowerment of women (a rise in women’s participation in sport);
◾Sexuality: sport and the heterosexual privilege; homosociality and homosexuality;
◾Body: sport as a mechanism disciplining the body; fit and able bodies; disabled bodies; sports and illness;
◾Age: sports and children; sports as a catalyst in coming-of-age stories; sports and youth delinquency;
◾Media fame and sporting celebrity: films about or inspired by particular sport stars; films about the sport fame and notoriety in general; films that cast actual sport celebrities.
As this is by no means an exhaustive list, feel free to expand it in accordance with your own theoretical interests and the films that you would like to showcase.
For more information please visit http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/ah/reec-sports-in-film-call-for-papers
or email [log in to unmask] for enquiries.
Thank you,
Claire
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