La politica degli oggetti. Cianfrusaglie, feticci e marionette nel cinema di Jan Švankmajer
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13129/2240-5380/15.2025.73-84Parole chiave:
Jan Švankmajer, Surrealism, Stop-motion animation, Anti-anthropocentrism, Political allegoryAbstract
This article explores the political and ontological centrality of objects in the cinema of Jan Švankmajer, interpreting his work as a radical anti-anthropocentric project rooted in militant Surrealism. Through stop-motion animation, everyday objects—tools, utensils, toys, puppets, and organic matter—acquire agency, disrupt narrative logic, and challenge hierarchies between human and non-human realms. Drawing on philosophical reflections on “things,” the essay argues that Švankmajer’s animated artifacts operate as political allegories: initially critiquing the oppressive structures of communist Czechoslovakia and later expanding toward a broader denunciation of consumerism and identity erosion. From early shorts such as The Flat to feature films like Alice andLittle Otik, objects progressively decenter the human subject and propose a hybrid, relational ontology in which organic and inorganic forms coexist beyond anthropocentric frameworks.
Dowloads
Pubblicato
Fascicolo
Sezione
Licenza
Articles and conference papers published in Mantichora are distributed under the terms and conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Correspondingly, authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
