Taking the new wave out of isolation: humour and tragedy of the Czechoslovak new wave and post-communist Czech cinema

摘要

A comparison between different eras of Czechoslovak and Czech society, interrogating to what extent Czech culture continues a strand of subversion through humour in the face of various and often conflicting overarching political narratives during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Explores to what extent any socio-political system generates oppression regardless of the overarching political narrative? To what extent does subversion from within the system actually help to uphold the status quo? udWhile the production of subversive films under the Nazi and Communist regimes suggests scrutiny of the oppressive, overarching system, inclusion of post-Communist and pre-Nazi film analyses is an attempt to demonstrate how Czech culture has a tradition of subversion against overarching socio-political conditions, regardless of the ideological banner. Using the feminist doctrine of écriture feminine presented by Hélène Cixous, another question proposed by how these films communicate with their wider socio-political environment is: do they achieve the goal of destroying the overarching system, or do they merely serve as disruptions to the status quo?udWith the focus on humour as a defence against tragic circumstances, and my argument that it is the main weapon deployed by Czechoslovak filmmakers, this question will be aimed at the darkly-comic trope of Czech culture, querying: how effective is laughing in the face of adversity in combating oppression?