<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The present study carries out a comparative/contrastive analysis of two ways of contemporary Hungarian and Romanian film discourse, namely magic realism and micro-realism, and will focus on the representation of the woman in the contemporary films entitled Witch Circle (Dezső Zsigmond, 2009),exploring a subversive female mythologem of a confined traditional community, that of the Csángó people, Bibliothéque Pascal (Szabolcs Hajdú, 2010),which creates a private mythology, materialised in form of surrealist images, of the female self interpreting herself out of her conditions, and Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu, 2012), drawing its topic from a real event -reality generating fiction-that inspired Tatiana Niculescu Bran’s Deadly Confession [Spovedanie la Tanacu), Judges’ Book [Cartea Judecătorilor), as well as Zsolt Láng's The Monasteryr of Protection (Az oltalom kolostora). Beyond dealing with related female patterns, the films imder discussion are engaged in mediating collective and private mental representations, as well as in creating film narratives with the convergent feature of juxtaposing the real and the mythical. The films approach the topic from distinct possibilities of cinematic representation and offer, in my view, a complementary and intercultural image of the woman trapped between the East and the West, between social and religious institutions and victimised by the stereotypical view of society. </p></abstract>

The present study carries out a comparative/contrastive analysis of two ways of contemporary Hungarian and Romanian film discourse, namely magic realism and micro-realism, and will focus on the representation of the woman in the contemporary films entitled Witch Circle (Dezső Zsigmond, 2009),exploring a subversive female mythologem of a confined traditional community, that of the Csángó people, Bibliothéque Pascal (Szabolcs Hajdú, 2010),which creates a private mythology, materialised in form of surrealist images, of the female self interpreting herself out of her conditions, and Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu, 2012), drawing its topic from a real event -reality generating fiction-that inspired Tatiana Niculescu Bran’s Deadly Confession [Spovedanie la Tanacu), Judges’ Book [Cartea Judecătorilor), as well as Zsolt Láng's The Monasteryr of Protection (Az oltalom kolostora). Beyond dealing with related female patterns, the films imder discussion are engaged in mediating collective and private mental representations, as well as in creating film narratives with the convergent feature of juxtaposing the real and the mythical. The films approach the topic from distinct possibilities of cinematic representation and offer, in my view, a complementary and intercultural image of the woman trapped between the East and the West, between social and religious institutions and victimised by the stereotypical view of society.

Representations of Female Alterity in Contemporary Hungarian and Romanian

Sapientia University, Miercurea Ciuc Department of Humanities

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

{"article-title":"Representations of Female Alterity in Contemporary Hungarian and Romanian"}

The present study carries out a comparative/contrastive analysis of two ways of contemporary Hungarian and Romanian film discourse, namely magic realism and...

Representations of Female Alterity in Contemporary Hungarian and Romanian

Published Online: May 30, 2014

Page range: 95 - 110

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2014-0008

Keywords
magic realism, micro-realism, real vs. mythical, stereotypes, female identity and alterity

© 2014

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Representations of Female Alterity in Contemporary Hungarian and Romanian

Published Online: May 30, 2014

Page range: 95 - 110

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2014-0008

Keywordsmagic realism, micro-realism, real vs. mythical, stereotypes, female identity and alterity

© 2014

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords
magic realism, micro-realism, real vs. mythical, stereotypes, female identity and alterity