Blockbuster History in the New Russia: Movies, Memory, and Patriotism

Seeking to rebuild the Russian film industry after its post-Soviet collapse, directors and producers sparked a revival of nationalist and patriotic sentiment by applying Hollywood techniques to themes drawn from Russian history. Unsettled by the government's move toward market capitalism, Russians embraced these historical blockbusters, packing the American-style multiplexes that sprouted across the country. Stephen M. Norris examines the connections among cinema, politics, economics, history, and patriotism in the creation of "blockbuster history"—the adaptation of an American cinematic style to Russian historical epics.

“"The book stands out among the growing film scholarship on the period by virtue of the fact that its author is an historian, which allows him to contextualize particularly well the films he analyses, and also for its valuable attention to the recent development of Russian cinema as an industry, and how that development has influenced the trajectory of Russian cinema as an art form. . . . Overall, Blockbuster History should be of great interest and value to students and scholars not only of Russian cinema, but of the cultural politics of twenty-first century Russia more generally."”

"Blockbuster History is not merely a study of the appropriation of a Hollywood genre by Russian cinema, but also, and more importantly, an analysis of modern Russia's political conflicts, protest movements, memory and national identity as seen through the prism of film." - Maria Pasholok, Times Literary Supplement, April 2013 "Norris composes a history of post-Soviet cinema in Russia while writing a history of Russian patriotic ideas... Smart, superbly researched, richly contextualized." Serguei Oushakine, author of The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia "Norris selects films that focus on the Russian past from long ago to the more recent. By situating these films in their political, economic, and social contexts, he paints a fascinating picture of present-day Russia... A superb book." Denise J. Youngblood, author of Russian War Films: On the Cinema Front

Stephen M. Norris is Professor of History at Miami University of Ohio. He is author of A War of Images: Russian Popular Prints, Wartime Culture, and National Identity and editor (with Willard Sunderland) of Russia's People of Empire: Life Stories from Eurasia, 1500 to the Present (IUP, 2012).

Seeking to rebuild the Russian film industry after its post-Soviet collapse, directors and producers sparked a revival of nationalist and patriotic sentiment by applying Hollywood techniques to themes drawn from Russian history. Unsettled by the government's move toward market capitalism, Russians embraced these historical blockbusters, packing the American-style multiplexes that sprouted across the country. Stephen M. Norris examines the connections among cinema, politics, economics, history, and patriotism in the creation of "blockbuster history"--the adaptation of an American cinematic style to Russian historical epics.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.