Dramaturgy: The State-Socialist Mode of Production
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| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | To start comparative research of East-Central European film industries, we need, among others, to define the state-socialist mode of production, its systemic variations and socio-cultural expressions. But there is no methodology specifically developed to do so. Thus, we can draw on Janet Staiger’s work on Classical Hollywood Cinema, still the most fundamental model to analyze film production, and try to ask the same set of questions and identify significant differences. I propose to supplement the Staiger’s approach with a socio-cultural perspective, inspired by John Caldwell’s concept of production culture, and ask not just how films were made, but also who made them, what did it mean to be a filmmaker – the question which seems to be of high importance in countries where so-called cadres (orig. professional revolutionaries) was a keyword and political screening a key instrument for human resource management. I suggest to start with 2 sets of interrelated issues that would help us understand what dramaturgy was and what systemic role did dramaturgical and production units play. First, I propose political-economic analysis of the paradoxical role of sp-called production, creative and dramaturgical units and of dramaturgy in the state-socialist modes of production: Why all the centralized systems established some kind of units and how they attempted to use them to better control both ideological and economic risks? How come that the semi-independent units not only made the system more efficient, but also allowed for limited creative freedom that brought new, unprecedented risks to the system? Why certain systems favoured dramaturgical units, while the other ones creative or even production units? The second step of such a research program would be a socio-cultural analysis of so-called “production cultures” that developed in and around the units – to study how creativity as collaborative action operates within restrictive system of state-owned studios. |
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