Soviet Self-Hatred: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism in Contemporary Russia Borenstein Eliot
Soviet Self-Hatred: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism in Contemporary Russia Borenstein Eliot Soviet Self-Hatred examines the imaginary Russian identities that emerged following the collapse of…
Specifikacia Soviet Self-Hatred: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism in Contemporary Russia Borenstein Eliot
Soviet Self-Hatred: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism in Contemporary Russia Borenstein Eliot
Soviet Self-Hatred examines the imaginary Russian identities that emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union. They are the sovok (the Soviet yokel); the New Russian (the despised, ridiculous nouveau riche), the vatnik (the belligerent, jingoistic patriot), and the Orc (the ultraviolent savage derived from a deliberate misreading of Tolkien's epic). Eliot Borenstein shows how these identities are best understood as balanced on a simple axis between pride and shame, shifting in response to Russia's standing in the global community, its anxieties about internal dissension and foreign threats, and its stark socioeconomic inequalities.Through close readings of Russian fiction, films, jokes, songs, fan culture, and internet memes, Borenstein identifies and analyzes four distinct types with which Russians identity or project onto others.