Searching for Female Creativity in Socialism and Its Paranoid Caricature: The Case of Czech Artist Ester Krumbachová
Abstract
The lecture deals with the life and work of a female artist and costume designer Ester Krumbachová, whose career and life was deeply touched by the return of "normal" socialism after the Soviet invasion to Czechoslovakia in 1968. The lecture focus on the problems of distinctive female creativity which Krumbachová had explored all her life alone or together with film director Věra Chytilová during 60ties.The film Murdering the Devil (Vražda ing. Čerta, 1970), directed by Ester Kumbachová, and its various media mutations (film story, radio adaptation, screenplay) could be seen as a coda to these efforts.
The era of normalisation did not make any efforts in deepening of the specific feminine creativity and subversive power possible. The article also follows the return of "normal" dull and banal feminity epitomized by a symbol of the normalisation Jiřina Bohdalová - who Krumabachova used in her film in 1970 in a clearly opposite subversive way.
The film involves three elements - elaborate mise-en-scene, buzzing orality, philosophical humour - which present exciting traces of the intellectual and artistic life of Ester Krumbachová. This film was chosen precisely because it allows us to unravel the transitional period in which the creative atmosphere of the Sixties still lingered but the basic features of normalization were already prefigured.
The study also aims to show the diversity of Krumbachová's work, the reasons why the film was not received well in its era and in what ways it can be important for current theoretical research.