The Art of Czech Animation: A History of Political Dissent and Allegory (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781350194984)

The Art of Czech Animation is the first comprehensive English language account of Czech animation from the 1920s to the present, covering both 2D animation forms and CGI, with a focus upon the stop-motion films of Jirí Trnka, Hermína Týrlová, Jan Svankmajer and Jirí Barta.

Stop-motion is a highly embodied form of animation and The Art of Czech Animation develops a new materialist approach to studying these films. Instead of imposing top-down Film Theory onto its case studies, the book's analysis is built up from close readings of the films themselves, with particular attention given to their non-human objects.

In a time of environmental crisis, the unique way Czech animated films use allegory to de-centre the human world and give a voice to non-human aspects of the natural world points us towards a means by which culture can increase ecological awareness in viewers.

Such a refutation of a human-centred view of the world was contrary to communist orthodoxy and it remains so under late-stage consumer-capitalism. As such, these films do not only offer beautiful examples of allegory, but stand as models of political dissent. The Art of Czech Animation is a unique endeavour of film philosophy to provide a materialist appraisal of a heretofore neglected strand of Central-Eastern European cinema.

Author: Adam Whybray
ISBN-10: 1350194980
ISBN-13: 9781350194984
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Language: English
Published: 01/27/2022
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.94lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.64d