The Daily Narrative of Menzel's Life Comedy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jnme.202410401
Author(s)
Fucheng Li, Wolong Wang
Affiliation(s)
School of Literature and Media, Jingchu University of Technology, Jingmen, Hubei, China
Abstract
Along with the normalization of Czech society, the various literary bans gradually receded, freeing up social and cultural space. As a result, Jiri Menzel, who had been banned from making films for five consecutive years, was given the opportunity to create again, and the comedy of everyday life became the focus of his work. Since then, the everyday narratives pioneered by Menzel's comedies of life have been inherited and developed in contemporary Eastern European cinema, and have had a great impact on the world of cinema. In the comedy of life, Menzel believed that comedy was the feast of life and that humor was the Czech way of saluting life. The transcendence of nature, family life and ordinary reality, the display of human quarrels, games and festive gatherings are the content of the Comedy of Life. The poetic countryside, the carnivalesque dialogues, the chasing games and the ceremonial banquets are the core aesthetic features of the Comedy of Life, and the poeticization and glorification of real life are the main features of the Comedy of Life. "The poetization and celebration of real life are the sources of humor in the Comedy of Life, which form the daily narrative aesthetics of the Comedy of Life.
Keywords
Jiri Menzel; Rural-urban Dichotomy; Carousal; Life Comedy; Daily Narrative
References
[1] Chengjun Jiang. A History of Czech Literature, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2006 (01).
[2] Owen, Jonathan L. Closely Observed Bodies: Corporeality, Totalitarianism and Subversion in Jiří Menzel's 1960s Adaptations of Bohumil Hrabal.Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne Des Slavistes, 2009(04), 495-511.
[3] Hrabal B. Pabitel (L.Y .Yang&S.R.Wan, Trans). China Youth Publishing House, 2004.
[4] Bergson H. Laughter - On the Meaning of Funny (J.C. XU, Trans). Beijing Literature and Art Publishing House, 2005.
[5] Bluestone, George. Jiří Menzel and the Second Prague Spring. Film Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 1, 1990, pp. 23–31.
[6] Hrabal B. (2014). Postřižiny (S.R.Wan, Trans). Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, 2014.
[7] Vidal-Hall J. Interview: Jiři Menzel: The art of laughter and survival. Index on Censorship. 1995; 24(6): 119-122.
[8] Bakhtin M. Complete Works of Bakhtin Volume 5 (Z.W. Qian, Trans). Hebei Education Press, 1998.
[9] Hames, Peter. “Czech Cinema: From State Industry to Competition.” Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne Des Slavistes, vol. 42, no. 1/2, 2000, pp. 63–85.
[10] Wenbin Wang. The Stray Landscape of Trauma Writing — On Czech Political Reflection Cinema in the New Century, Contemporary Cinema, No. 9, 2017, 78-82.
