Brief history

The Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (ITFR of the SAS) is an immediate successor of the Department of Theatre and Film of the SAS which was established on 1 April 1990, following a resolution of the Presidium of the Slovak Academy of Sciences No. 18, of 22 February 1990. It was a successor of SAS workplaces for theatre and film research, namely: Theatre Department of the Institute of Slovak Literature (1953 – 1969 and 1970 – 1973); Theatre and Film Institute (1969 – 1970); Theatre and Film Research Section of The Institute of Research on Art (1973 – 1990). Based on the resolution of the SAS Presidium No. 320, of 1 July 2010, the current name of the organisation was adopted, i.e. The Institute of Theatre and Film Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Purpose and scope of activities:

1. The Institute covers basic research in theatre, film radio and television arts. Its research tasks are focused on the theory and history of culture, i.e. the history of Slovak theatre and film culture, on drama arts theory and on the relationship between Slovak and foreign drama arts.

2. Research findings are implemented in: art research, a more broadly conceived history of Slovakia, international cooperation projects, art practice of Slovak theatres, film and other media and also pedagogical practices of the institutions of higher education.

3. The Institute conducts expert and counselling activities largely through critical and evaluation activities of the individual staff members of the Institute and also through their presence in committees and advisory bodies of the sector of culture, education and science.

4. The Institute runs doctoral studies pursuant to the generally binding legal provisions.

5. The Institute provides for the publishing of the findings of scientific and research activity in periodical and non-periodical publications. The publishing of periodical and non-periodical publications is governed by the resolutions of the SAS Presidium.


Current research activities:

1. Complex and systematic research on current artistic and societal functions of Slovak theatre within a changing Mid-Eastern Europe with regard to societal changes caused by the Velvet Revolution in 1989 to the present day. Slovak theatre culture, artistic and generational poetics of creative professionals, theatre institutionalisation in the context of close foreign cultures and trends, while taking into account both common and different conditions as well as historical connections – national cultures in terms of the direction and overlap of cultures in European countries (specific Slovak-Russian, Slovak-Polish and of course Slovak-Czech relations and inspirations; and also vice versa Russian-Slovak, Polish-Slovak and Czech-Slovak relations and inspirations).

2. Defining the character of changes in the Slovak film industry (representations, values, narrative schemes, rhetoric, the relationship between film and social reality), linking institutional film history to film aesthetic and creating a new periodisation of current Slovak cinema as part of the of the European cinema, cultural and research trends in film studies. Interdisciplinary research into the influence of engaged documentary filmmaking on film theories and studies, Anglo-American and French genre classification in comparison to Slovak documentary film.

3. Research into the so-called new institutionalised and national history of young Slovak theatre (professionalised since 1920) against the backdrop of the history of Central Europe, including older history of Central Europe, with particular attention to Czech and Slovak history, which despite the existence of common statehood since 1918 also developed separately from each other.

4. Research on the non-national theatre – schools, poetics, creative professionals, works, basic research linked to the international research context.

5. Post-traditional and popular cultural phenomena as part of new theatre history and theory: post-dramaturgy, post-drama and post-tradition – Slovak and Czech tendencies in the context of contemporary Central European and Western European culture and their theoretical treatment.

6. New identities as a form of social and political communication (minority cultures and art, minority vs majority), community theatre, theatre of marginalised groups (feminist theatre and drama, theatre by people with disabilities), engaged theatre in Slovakia as part of supported European cultural policy and artistic diversity. Constructing and deconstructing national identity in contemporary Slovak film and theatre – pros and cons of the regional perspective.

7. (Approach based on film and theatre studies involving interdisciplinary overlap – ethnology, social anthropology, culturology or the study of culture.)