Publication details

Letters to the Heroes: Exhibition and reception of Hanzelka and Zikmund’s travelogues in Czechoslovakia of the 1950s

Authors

SKOPAL Pavel

Year of publication 2014
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Participations. Journal of Audience and Reception Studies
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web http://www.participations.org/Volume%2011/Issue%202/5.pdf
Field Mass media, audiovision
Keywords cinema reception; socialist cinema; travelogues; cinema exhibition; popular culture in socialism
Description Drawing mainly on personal letters from cinemagoers and readers and on reports by cinema exhibitors, this essay examines the reasons for the enormous popularity of the feature-length documentary films shot by Czech travellers Hanzelka and Zikmund. The essay identifies certain modes of the movies' reception and argues that the popularity of the films was fuelled by a complex network of media products that were created around this duo (radio and newspaper reports, travel books). The example of the travelogues draws attention to the fundamental mechanisms of the distribution and reception of entertainment values in the cultural environment of the (post)Stalinist Czechoslovakia.
Related projects:

You are running an old browser version. We recommend updating your browser to its latest version.

More info