'One foot in the grave': pregnancy and folk culture in recent Russian films. (2nd January 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- 'One foot in the grave': pregnancy and folk culture in recent Russian films. (2nd January 2022)
- Main Title:
- 'One foot in the grave': pregnancy and folk culture in recent Russian films
- Authors:
- Kaminer, Jenny
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: This article focuses on two recent Russian films – Vasilii Sigarev's Living (2012) and Natasha Merkulova and Aleksei Chupov's The Man who Surprised Everyone (2018) – that exploit the multivalent potential of the pregnant body. Both films enlist the symbolism with which Russian traditional culture has infused that body to create complex, nuanced cinematic depictions of the porousness between the realm of the living and that of the dead. The folk symbolism of pregnancy facilitates the directors' subtle critiques of contemporary Russian society, including its cynicism; casual, ubiquitous violence; and rigid gender hierarchies. These films highlight the pregnant woman's destabilising potential, one that challenges the Russian state's increasingly fervent incursion into the intimate realm separating life and death. They also prompt us to recall that feminist thinkers have turned to the pregnant body as a source of insight. With her challenge to the notion of a singular, unified body, the pregnant woman points to new philosophical models of the self – possibilities that have yet to be explored fully on screen, but towards which the two contemporary Russian films discussed in this essay may point.
- Is Part Of:
- Studies in Russian and Soviet cinema. Volume 16:Number 1(2022)
- Journal:
- Studies in Russian and Soviet cinema
- Issue:
- Volume 16:Number 1(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 16, Issue 1 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 16
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0016-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 25
- Page End:
- 43
- Publication Date:
- 2022-01-02
- Subjects:
- Russian cinema -- Vasilii Sigarev -- Natasha Merkulova & Aleksei Chupov -- pregnancy in cinema -- pregnant body -- Russian folk belief
Motion pictures -- Soviet Union -- Periodicals
Motion pictures -- Russia (Federation) -- Periodicals
Motion pictures
Russia (Federation)
Soviet Union
Periodicals
791.430947 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rrsc20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rrsc20 ↗
http://www.swetswise.com/link/access%5Fdb?issn=1750-3132 ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals.php?issn=17503132 ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/17503132.2022.2026160 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1750-3140
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 21188.xml