Open AccessGendered Quest in Recent Hungarian Fantasy Films
Author(s) -
Vera Benczik
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
hungarian cultural studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2471-965X
DOI - 10.5195/ahea.2019.365
Subject(s) - filmmaking , fantasy , movie theater , normative , storytelling , sociology , aesthetics , race (biology) , mode (computer interface) , art , gender studies , literature , narrative , political science , law , computer science , operating system
Although the fantastic in print looks back upon a tradition of commenting on issues of race and gender, films that use the mode tend to be more conservative in their approach to subverting the patriarchal script, that is, the tendency of patriarchal society prescribing certain normative behaviors based on gender while punishing deviations from these norms. While this is especially true for blockbuster movies, independent filmmaking has come to appreciate the subversive potential of fantasy. The present study will scrutinize the fantastic as a storytelling mechanism in recent Hungarian cinema, with special emphasis on the uses of the quest formula and its intersections with gender scripts in the films Hurok [‘Loop’] (2016), and Liza, a rókatündér [‘Liza, the Fox-Fairy’] (2015).