Publication details
„Momentary Cocknitive Disorder“ : Zany Rhetoric on the Czecho-Slovak Film Database
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Mainstream success of the Czecho-Slovak Film Database (ČSFD), a loosely moderated website enabling pseudonymous fans to freely post their reviews, has raised many issues regarding the state of Czech film criticism. One of the key problems repeatedly addressed both by established critics and local media has been the popularity of a controversial ČSFD user named ‚verbal‘ who performs the identity of a mentally retarded manchild, frequently combines word play and hate speech, and blurs the line between fannish excitement and mocking sarcasm. Drawing on Sianne Ngai’s aesthetic category of zany, such mischievous film reviews can be characterized as a form of rhetoric that is highly performative, hyperactive and self-reflexive about its status as unpaid affective labor. Although fans like verbal put themselves in stark opposition to any sort of authority, normality and cultural establishment, they do not only disrupt contemporary critical practice. As this paper will argue, their zaniness can be also seen as the perfect manic embodiment of the precarious nature of cultural criticism in the digital age with all its contradictions and excesses. |
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