Appropriating History: The Soviet Past in Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian Popular Culture edited by Matthias Schwartz and Nina Weller

Popular media plays an important role in collective imaginations of history. The volume investigates this phenomenon by examining examples from Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian popular cultures. The contributors analyse the strategies of dramatisation, emotionalisation and personalisation of the past in mainstream films, TV series, novels, comics, computer games and music videos.

The case studies discuss how "entertaining" media formats process dramatic events and ruptures such as the Second World War, the Gulag, the Chernobyl disaster or the downfall of the Soviet Union and propagate neo-imperialist and nationalist appropriations of the past. The volume provides new insights into Eastern European cultures in times of political conflicts and digital revolution.

Paperback