[Commlist] CfP Spies and Secret Agents on Eastern European Screens

Call for Papers
Spies and secret agents on Eastern European screens
Special issue of Studies in Eastern European Cinema

While various generic manifestations of popular cinema in Eastern Europe 
have attracted increasing scholarly attention, as testified, for 
instance, by special issues of SEEC devoted to sci-fi and musicals, a 
research gap can still be observed regarding the espionage genre in the 
region, despite the fact that some of the Eastern European titles of 
this variety have become box office hits. The lukewarm academic interest 
in Eastern European spy thrillers thus far can perhaps be partly 
explained by the low cultural prestige of the genre and its assumed 
adherence to the hegemonies and realpolitik of the Cold War – implicit 
preconceptions that the proposed special issue is designed to address.

The height of the Cold War in the 1960s obviously produced favourable 
conditions for a flood of filmic spies and counter-spies on both sides 
of the Iron Curtain. In addition to investigations of the socialist 
secret agents on screen – both cinematic and televisual, this special 
issue strives to provide a platform for research on representations of 
the secret services and intelligencers in the changing political 
contexts of the 20th and 21st centuries – from the first appearances of 
spies in silent cinema to the most recent, post-communist renderings of 
undercover operations in both fictional and documentary form of the 
moving image. Here, the character of the spy is interpreted in a 
multifaceted way, ranging from international spies, agents of domestic 
secret services and industrial espionage to various types of 
investigators on a clandestine mission.

Aside from screen stories with a central focus on clandestine affairs, 
we also encourage studies on works that present secret agents in a range 
of generic frameworks, such as historical dramas, biopics or comedies.

Some of the possible topics and approaches include:
- The espionage genre and cinematic secret agents before World War II
- Spy films and Cold War
- Post-communist spies and post-communist portrayals of socialist secret 
agents
- Non-fictional representations of spies and clandestine affairs
- Gender dynamics of the espionage genre
- The shifting transnational currents and conventions of the spy 
thriller, including those in the West
- Comparative studies of the spy genre in the cinemas of Eastern Europe 
and the rest of the world
- Genre hybridization
- Auteurs of spy films
- Production histories and patterns related to the genre

Equally encouraged are submissions of case studies of single films (or 
authors), comparative analyses of screen works from two or more Eastern 
European countries and surveys of on-screen clandestine affairs in the 
context of various political systems in a particular national cinema or 
sub-region.

Please send 200 word proposals for papers with short bios to 
(eva.naripea /at/ ra.ee) <mailto:(eva.naripea /at/ ra.ee)> by 1 October 2021. The 
deadline for full articles is 3 January 2022.
Communication and Media Studies Scholars are welcome.
No Payment from the authors will be required

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