[ecrea] CFP Studies in Eastern European Cinema: Sports in Film

Call for submissions
Studies in Eastern European Cinema

Sports in Film

> From Olympia to Shaolin Soccer, from The Harder They Fall to Chariots
of Fire, and from Raging Bull to The Big Lebowski, cinema has
relentlessly displayed its fascination with the world of sports. As
Eastern European cinema is no exception in this regard, Studies in
Eastern European Cinema sets out to showcase its sport imaginaries.
Recognising that this topic has received little critical attention,
the special issue of Studies in Eastern European Cinema aims to fill
this gap by seeking scholarly contributions that expand our knowledge
on films about sport in the titular region.

Just like cinema itself, sport is a vast and complex social arena in
which many discourses, practices and institutions enmesh, intersect
and – no pun intended – compete. It is about games and scores, but
also about politics, economy, education, law and media; about
athletes, but also about sport fans; about professionals, but also
about amateurs; about discipline, but also about leisure. Sport
excludes and divides, yet also conciliates and includes. No social
layer is inert towards it as it intertwines with the categories of
gender, class, age, sexuality, ethnicity, and location.

The journal Studies in Eastern European Cinema aims to explore the
ways in which Eastern European films screened the sport-related
experiences in all historical periods and socio-political
constellations. According to our central premise, cinema never merely
reflected on sport, or depicted it in a disinterested way, but
actively shaped opinions and attitudes about sport. In that way, just
like sport imagery is integral to the history of cinema, cinema itself
participates in the history of sport.

The journal Studies in Eastern European Cinema encourages prospective
contributors to employ different analytical categories and
perspectives such as:

· Politics, ideology, nation: sport as the expression of nationhood or
an ideological cause; sport as a proverbial “continuation of war by
another means”; the athletes as the unofficial ambassadors of a
political/ideological system (nation, communism/socialism etc.).
· Class: sport as a marker of class belonging and a mechanism of
strengthening the class divide; sport as a vehicle for interclass
inclusion and movement;
· Gender: the various types of sport-related masculinity and
femininity; sport as a sexist, male-dominated institution that
maintains the general   status quo of male/masculine domination; sport
as a venue for the gender empowerment of women (a rise in women’s
participation in sport);
· Sexuality: sport and the heterosexual privilege; homosociality and
homosexuality;
· Body: sport as a mechanism disciplining the body; fit and able
bodies; disabled bodies; sports and illness;
· Age: sports and children; sports as a catalyst in coming-of-age
stories; sports and youth delinquency;
· Media fame and sporting celebrity: films about or inspired by
particular sport stars; films about the sport fame and notoriety in
general; films that cast actual sport celebrities.

As this is by no means an exhaustive list, feel free to expand it in
accordance with your own theoretical interests and the films that you
would like to showcase.

Deadline for articles (6,000-7,000 words): 30/07/2015

Please direct enquiries to the editors:

Ewa Mazierska ((EHMazierska /at/ uclan.ac.uk)), or
Elzbieta Ostrowska ((e_ostrowska /at/ hotmail.com))


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