CEFRES Team

Anastasia Mamaeva – Research & CV

“References to French, American and British Popular Cultures in Czechoslovak cinema, 1969–1982″

Contact : anastasia.mamaeva(@)cefres.cz

Research Area 2: Norms and Transgressions

From political thrillers to burlesque adaptations of Belle Époque dime novels, references to French, American and British pop culture characters and tropes abound in the Czechoslovak cinema of the “offensive normalization” era. In line with recent works on the concept of “porous Iron Curtain” and the remapping of Cold War media Anastasia’s PhD thesis aims to show that pop culture references abide by their own rules and travel along different routes than those indicated by the political maps of the time.

It also studies generic choices as another and less explicit type of reference, often a place of triangular cultural transfers—to be found in some of this cinema’s most creative and sophisticated works released during this paradoxical period. Last but not least, it analyzes the ways these references participate in building identities and maintaining cultural continuities in national and Central European history as well as polemize with the contemporary late-Soviet “imaginary West”.

CV

Education

  • 2021 till present: PhD candidate, UMR Eur’ORBEM (Sorbonne University — CNRS), UMR CNRS 5319 Passages, Paris
  • 2020–2021: MA Slavic Studies, Central Europe, Sorbonne University, Paris
  • 2017–2019: Master 1 Philosophy, Collège universitaire français in Saint Petersburg
  • 2005–2010: MA Applied and Experimental Linguistics, Moscow State Linguistic University

 Recent Teaching Experience

  • 2024: Introduction class and screening of Lemonade Joe (Limonádový Joe, Oldřich Lipský, 1964), as part of the cycle Central European Cinemas. Cult Films for undergraduate students (L1-L3 level)—Sorbonne University
  • 2023: Introduction class and screening of Dinner for Adele (Adéla ještě nevečeřela, Oldřich Lipský, 1978), as part of the cycle Central European Cinemas. Cult Films
  • 2022: Screening and discussion of Killing the Devil (Vražda ing. Čerta, Ester Krumbachová, 1970), as part of lecture cycle Women Directors of Central European Cinemas for undergraduate students—Sorbonne University

 Recent Academic Activities

  • 2024: scientific conception and organization of international workshop Normalized, Normalizers, and Their Cinemas: Czechoslovak and Soviet Films in the 1970s, Eur’ORBEM, with the participation of independent and Charles University scholars Lucie Česálková, Igor Gulin, Jonathan Owen

 Screenings

  • 2024: Riders in the Sky (Nebeští jezdci, Jindřich Polák, 1968), screening and discussion with Jonathan Owen—as part of a joint lecture cycle on Central European Cinematography for undergraduate students of Inalco and Sorbonne University—Inalco, Paris
  • 2023: “Days of Betrayal (1973): An Accidental Camp Classic”, a commented screening of Dny zrady (Otakar Vávra) organized with the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv)—Ponrepo, Prague

 Recent Publications

  • 2024: “Le Secret d’un grand conteur (1971) et les transferts culturels franco-tchécoslovaques”, Romanistica Comeniana, Bratislava, Comenius University