Communication Technologies and Society: Conceptions of Causality and the Politics of Technological Intervention

Abstract

Jiri Menzel and The History of The Closely Watched Trains by Josef Skvorecky is the story of a modem Czechoslovakian film director and his Oscar-winning (1967) feature film. Internationally acclaimed novelist, scriptwriter, Josef Skvorecky traces Ostre Sledovane Vlaky (Closely Watched Trains/Closely Observed Traindon the Lookout for Trains/Special Priority Trains) from Bohumil Hrabal (1914 -) and his fifties novella, through the best selling novel of the sixties, to collaborative screenplay (Hrabal/Menzel) to Czech-produced film (1966, 92 minutes). With Menzel and Closely Watched Trains (1966) as twin centerpieces, Skvorecky carefully analyzes three contextual cross-sections: 1) the socio-political milieu of modern Eastern Europe, 2) Menzel's films until Postriziny (Short Cut, 1980), and 3) the tension between artist, c.f., film-maker, and state in politically narrow societies.