As seen in the movies : towards a cosmopolitan imagining of post-Yugoslavia
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(Published version)
Date
2012
Authors
Murtic, Mehrudin
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Type:
thesis
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Abstract
The overarching aspiration of this thesis is its contribution to the knowledge of the causes and consequences of the Yugoslav dissolution. The thesis, in particular, reflects upon socio-political events that triggered the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s and observes contemporary artistic and political strategies that may stabilise post-Yugoslav territories and envisages a time of perpetual peace and its subsequent cosmopolitan norms. It is guided by a theoretical framework that foregrounds issues extracted from continental philosophy such as cosmopolitan humanism, planetary equality and conviviality, as well as film and cultural studies that insist on ethically conscious artistic practices. The research methodology for this thesis is located in the tradition of critical theory and its interpretive perspective of reading a media text.The central focus, however, is on the variety of ways in which care about the other(s)—as one of the core concerns of cosmopolitan humanism—is approached and reflected in cinematic narratives from the region such as: Black Cat White Cat (Kusturica 1998), Gipsy Magic (Popov 1997), Grbavica (Zbanic 2006), No Man’s Land (Tanovic 2001) and Ordinary People (Perisic 2009). All these films are engaged on a level which pays close attention to their alleged socio-political implication with regards to recognition and improvement of human rights for the particular other(s) in post-Yugoslav context. In addition, the underlying significance of these films, as well as numerous other visual texts discussed throughout the body of the thesis, is in their possibility of serving as historical references for Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav social development.
The thesis suggests that a critically examined filmic text—if read with or against other socio-historical literature—may indeed become an alternative historical reference which offers yet another perspective on a particular period of time and its events. Finally, this thesis indicates that some of the discussed post-Yugoslav films have made a socio-cultural impact that goes well beyond the intentions or dreams of their authors who are making films as a form of social commentary and intervention, without the express desire to incite mass rebellion or revolution.
School/Discipline
School of Communication, International Studies and Languages
Dissertation Note
Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2012.
Provenance
Copyright 2012 Mehrudin Murtic.
Description
230 pages
Includes bibliographical references: p. 209-230.
Includes bibliographical references: p. 209-230.