“Guilty of Being Free”
An Intellectual vs. Soviet Penal System (Prison Letters and Drawings of Sergei Parajanov)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22201552 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tigran Simyan (0000-0001-9534-3505, Yerevan State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 197-216 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-11 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Changing Societies and Personalities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2587-6104 • E-ISSN: 2587-8964 |
| Publisher | Ural Federal University (PUBLISHER • RU) |
| DOI | 10.15826/csp.2022.6.1.170 |
| OpenAlex | W4281623462 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 6 |
Sergei Parajanov was one of the most innovative directors of postwar Soviet cinema, which made him suspect to the Soviet authorities and eventually led Parajanov to serving a prison sentence. This article discusses how the trauma of Parajanov’s prison experience was reflected in the textual and visual output (letters, drawings and collages) that he created during his imprisonment out of the materials at hand. The study relies on comparative-historical and semiotic methods. Parajanov’s homosexuality made his position in prison precarious and ambiguous. He went through a variety of occupations and laboriously navigated both the prison hierarchy and Soviet penal system’s vigilant control. However, by his own count, Parajanov crafted 800 objects during his imprisonment. The article explores the recurring motives such as the crane hook, halo, and a hunched posture. This imagery is placed in the context of Parajanov’s everyday life in prison and is interpreted in the light of his textual documents from that period
Criminology · Imprisonment · Political science · Prison · Sociology · Suspect · Total institution · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture
Digital tools for public policy reflection
Creative use of objects as signs in cinema
Public sector audit and influence the investment institutional background during a pandemic
The Transition from the Formation of a Mixed Party Elite Based on Local Ethnic Groups and Client-Patronage Clan Relations in the Soviet Republics of Central Asia to National Bureaucratic Ethnocracy in the Post-Soviet Period
| Citations per year | 1.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |