Homo Viator in Contemporary European Comedy Movies

Homo Viator in Contemporary European Comedy Movies explores the popular yet critically underexamined theme of travel and vacation in European comedic cinema, while also engaging with urgent topics such as migration, displacement, and the refugee experience across various comic genres. Despite the commercial success of these comedies produced after 1989, scholarly engagement with them has remained limited. Authors Artur Skweres and Adam Domalewski aim to fill this gap by examining how humor becomes a powerful lens through which Europe laughs at, negotiates, and reimagines its borders. Structured in two parts, the book first focuses on the figure of the traveler (homo viator) and their pursuit of meaning, transformation, and comic adventure. The second part turns to comedies centered on migrants and refugees, revealing how comic genres can interrogate and even challenge dominant narratives of exclusion, adaptation, and mobility. Unlike many traditional and contemporary media platforms that often adopt clear political stances and dismiss opposing perspectives, the comedies discussed in this book offer a space where conflicting discourses can coexisthighlighting comedy's unique ability to approach sensitive and contentious issues in a playful yet thought-provoking manner. This study shows that comedy provides a rich framework not only for exploring movement and migration-related themes, but also for addressing broader issues such as family dynamics, spiritual growth, economic struggle, and shifting urbanrural relationships.

Provides perspectives on some of the most famous film comedies in recent history of European cinema Explores the largely unexamined yet widely popular theme of travel and vacation Analyzes British, French, Italian, Spanish, and German films, it will interest researchers of European comedy

Autorentext

Artur Skweres (D.Litt.) is Associate Professor at the Department of English Studies, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts in Kalisz, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. He has participated in numerous international conferences and has received Prize of the Rector of Adam Mickiewicz University in 2011 and 2020. His interests include English and American literature, media ecology, film adaptations, and drawing. His recent publications include the monographs The relationship between oneiric and pragmatic play in Mark Twain's works (Poznan: Adam Mickiewicz University Press, 2019) and McLuhan's Galaxies: Science Fiction Film Aesthetics in Light of Marshall McLuhan's Thought (2019) published by Springer as a part of Second Language Learning and Teaching. Issues in Literature and Culture series edited by Miroslaw Pawlak.

Adam Domalewski is a graduate of Film Studies (2014) and Theater Studies (2012), Doctor of Arts (2018), and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Film, Media and Audiovisual Arts at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland. He is also a critic of contemporary theater. His research interests include film and religion studies, as well as contemporary European cinema, with a particular focus on the depiction of migration and diasporic issues. He has published papers in numerous academic journals, including Ekphrasis, Kwartalnik Filmowy, Images, and Panoptikum. In the realm of comedy and film, he is the author of the paper "Towards a Multicultural Community: The Accommodation of Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the 'Migrant Comedy' Genre."

Inhalt

Introduction.- Homo Viator as a comic character in the tradition of contemporary European cinema.- Part I: The hero's journey.- Making the journey towards one's ideals.- The journey of an idealized hero.- The journey of a flawed hero.- Part II: The hero's destination.- Homo viator on the run.- The destination and its discontents.- Journeying towards the land of opportunity.- Conclusion.