Monuments Askew

An Elliptical History of the Factory of the Eccentric Actor

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by Maria Corrigan

Type

Studies

Subject

Countries > Russia / USSR

Keywords

Soviet cinema, FEKS, acting

Publishing date

2025 (August 12, 2025)

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Collection

Media Matters

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 180 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-9788430-1-1

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Book Presentation:
Monuments Askew: An Elliptical History of the Factory of the Eccentric Actor presents a cultural history of the Factory of the Eccentric Actor (FEKS), an avant-garde collective of Ukrainian artists whose unique approach to monumental history generated a new kind of cinema for a modernizing Soviet era. Often lost in the shuffle of this period, FEKS’s vibrant and experimental cinematic output initiated a youthful and cheeky overhaul of Soviet revolutionary culture. Monuments Askew reveals the foundational role of this understudied group of artists—including Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg—and uses their own theoretical contributions to undo the “foundations” of our understanding of Soviet media and arts. As a counter to a solely cinema-focused conceptualization of this era, Corrigan develops a transnational media theory of eccentricity. Defining eccentric circles as warped, irregular orbits that force a realignment of centers, Monuments Askew shows how FEKS’s body of work inspires an eccentric realignment of the pillars of Soviet visual culture, and indeed of monumentality itself.

About the Author:
MARIA CORRIGAN is an assistant professor in the College in the Visual and Media Arts Department and Comedic Arts Program at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

See the publisher website: Rutgers University Press