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Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture
Eliot Borenstein
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Description for Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture
Paperback. Series: Culture and Society After Socialism. Num Pages: 288 pages, 9. BIC Classification: 1DVUA; JFCA; JFFE; JFMP. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 16. Weight in Grams: 428.
Perestroika and the end of the Soviet Union transformed every aspect of life in Russia, and as hope began to give way to pessimism, popular culture came to reflect the anxiety and despair felt by more and more Russians. Free from censorship for the first time in Russia's history, the popular culture industry (publishing, film, and television) began to disseminate works that featured increasingly explicit images and descriptions of sex and violence. In Overkill, Eliot Borenstein explores this lurid and often-disturbing cultural landscape in close, imaginative readings of such works as You're Just a Slut, My Dear! (Ty prosto shliukha, dorogaia!), a novel about sexual slavery and illegal organ harvesting; the Nympho trilogy of books featuring a Chechen-fighting sex addict; and the Mad Dog and Antikiller series of books and films recounting, respectively, the exploits of the Russian Rambo and an assassin killing in the cause of justice. Borenstein argues that the popular cultural products consumed in the post-perestroika era were more than just diversions; they allowed Russians to indulge their despair over economic woes and everyday threats. At the same time, they built a notion of nationalism or heroism that could be maintained even under the most miserable of social conditions, when consumers felt most powerless. For Borenstein, the myriad depictions of deviance in pornographic and also crime fiction, with their patently excessive and appalling details of social and moral decay, represented the popular culture industry's response to the otherwise unimaginable scale of Russia's national collapse. The full sense of collapse, he writes, required a panoptic view that only the media and culture industry were eager to provide, amalgamating national collapse into one master narrative that would then be readily available to most individuals as a framework for understanding their own suffering and their own fears.
Product Details
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2007
Series
Culture and Society After Socialism
Condition
New
Number of Pages
288
Place of Publication
Ithaca, United States
ISBN
9780801474033
SKU
V9780801474033
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-43
About Eliot Borenstein
Eliot Borenstein is Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University. He is the author of Men without Women and Overkill.
Reviews for Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture
Unflinching in the face of blood, sex, and gore, Eliot Borenstein takes readers on a fascinating tour of the dark underbelly of post-Soviet pop culture. Authoritative, engaging and painstakingly researched, Overkill unearths a hidden world of deviance and desire that, in its violent intensity, rivals the most decadent productions of capitalism.
Mikita Brottman, Maryland Institute College of Art In the term 'overkill,' Eliot Borenstein deftly captures a concept that will unquestionably become an indispensable keyword for post-Soviet cultural analysis.
Nancy Condee, University of Pittsburgh Focusing primarily on pulp fiction and visual fodder, Eliot Borenstein convincingly links the success of various genres to the mood of post-Soviet moral and social 'panic.' Borenstein's superb grasp on Russian and Soviet popular culture allows him to identify continuities amid dramatic changes. Overkill is savvy, original, and has appeal for a broad array of readers.
Helena Goscilo, University of Pittsburgh Eliot Borenstein's fascinating study of excess in a time of material and spiritual scarcity raises intriguing questions about the relationship of ideology to literary form. Writing with wit, empathy, and a great familiarity with both classical Russian literature and Western mass culture, Borenstein sketches a picture of Russian culture lashing out in reaction to a shared sense of ideological impotence and embattled masculinity. Overkill conveys a visceral understanding of the cultural conditions-aesthetic impoverishment and national frustration-that facilitated the rise of Putin.
Eric Naiman, University of California, Berkeley A remarkably good book.... Whether speaking about lowbrow literature or better made works, Borenstein is a careful reader of popular culture as 'symptom,' as a visible manifestation of social dis-ease.... This book is smart and funny.... written in exactly the right tone for its content.
Slavic and Eastern European Journal
Mikita Brottman, Maryland Institute College of Art In the term 'overkill,' Eliot Borenstein deftly captures a concept that will unquestionably become an indispensable keyword for post-Soviet cultural analysis.
Nancy Condee, University of Pittsburgh Focusing primarily on pulp fiction and visual fodder, Eliot Borenstein convincingly links the success of various genres to the mood of post-Soviet moral and social 'panic.' Borenstein's superb grasp on Russian and Soviet popular culture allows him to identify continuities amid dramatic changes. Overkill is savvy, original, and has appeal for a broad array of readers.
Helena Goscilo, University of Pittsburgh Eliot Borenstein's fascinating study of excess in a time of material and spiritual scarcity raises intriguing questions about the relationship of ideology to literary form. Writing with wit, empathy, and a great familiarity with both classical Russian literature and Western mass culture, Borenstein sketches a picture of Russian culture lashing out in reaction to a shared sense of ideological impotence and embattled masculinity. Overkill conveys a visceral understanding of the cultural conditions-aesthetic impoverishment and national frustration-that facilitated the rise of Putin.
Eric Naiman, University of California, Berkeley A remarkably good book.... Whether speaking about lowbrow literature or better made works, Borenstein is a careful reader of popular culture as 'symptom,' as a visible manifestation of social dis-ease.... This book is smart and funny.... written in exactly the right tone for its content.
Slavic and Eastern European Journal