Eastern European Animation Between Art and Politics, 1945-1990.

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Eastern European animation yielded some of the most influential schools, animators, and works, defined by distinctive technologies of imagination, systems of film production, and cultures of reception. This project examines Czechoslovak, Polish, and Soviet animated film of the Cold War era from a new vantage point. Focusing on “independent animation,” a paradoxical phenomenon in the context of centralized state-run film industries, this study reveals the contradictions in the medium’s cultural roles: on one hand, animation functioned as a vibrant platform for political and social critique; on the other, it was instrumentalized by cultural politics to advance the states’ interests both within and beyond the Eastern Bloc. The forthcoming monograph analyzes works by animators both world-famous and virtually unknown: Jiří Trnka, Andrei Khrzhanovsky, Katarzyna Latałło, Jaroslava Havettová, Jiří Barta, Nina Shorina, and Piotr Dumała. With a special focus on space as a narrative device, the project contributes to the theory and history of an underdeveloped aspect of animation studies as well as to historical questions about the organization and control of space in a communist society. This transnational and interdisciplinary project brings together the fields of animation studies, cultural studies, and the political history of Eastern Europe.