Letters to the Heroes: Exhibition and reception of Hanzelka and Zikmund’s travelogues in Czechoslovakia of the 1950s
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Participations. Journal of Audience and Reception Studies |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| 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: |