Publication
Title
Yugoslav(i)a on the margin : sexual taboos, representation, nation and emancipation in Želimir Žilnik’s Early works (1969)
Author
Abstract
In socialism, Yugoslav women became empowered by employment and income, but gender equality stayed rather nominal in the family domain. Such gender inequity is addressed in the works of the Yugoslav novi film/New Film (1961–72) auteurs. They occasionally turned to allegories in order to communicate political criticism. One of them was Želimir Žilnik. His most internationally lauded film, winner of the Golden Bear in 1969, is Rani radovi/Early Works (1969). It features a heroine Jugoslava (Milja Vujanović), whose name is eponymous of Yugoslav nation. Bearing in mind that in the majority of Yugoslav New Films a leading character is a man, Early Works is exceptional for having a woman as the main heroine. I will approach Jugoslava’s character: as an allegory of Yugoslavia and its revolutionary spirit, as well as a prototype of an emancipated woman, punished by rape and killing. My research studies the link in the film between Žilnik’s political critique via strong heroine as a proxy, and her objectification. By reading the film from a feminist perspective and building my arguments on close analysis, I contend that Jugoslava is concurrently empowered and disempowered, an active subject and sexually objectified object, a raped nation and a raped feminist.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Studies in Eastern European cinema. - [Bristol, UK], 2010, currens
Publication
[Bristol, UK] : Intellect Limited , 2022
ISSN
2040-350X [print]
2040-3518 [online]
DOI
10.1080/2040350X.2021.1994758
Volume/pages
13 :3 (2022) , p. 248-271
ISI
000714283400001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Women in the Wave: A content and visual analysis of the representation of female characters in Yugoslav New Cinema and Black Wave Cinema.
Publication type
Subject
Art 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
VABB-SHW
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 04.11.2021
Last edited 20.12.2024
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