Pride and Panic: Russian Imagination of the West in Post-Soviet Film

146 Pages·2007·1.46 MB·English

by  Yana Hashamova

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Through the looking-glass of Russian national
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Pride and Panic
Russian Imagination of the West in Post-Soviet Film
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Pride and Panic
Russian Imagination of the West in Post-Soviet Film
Yana Hashamova
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First Published in the UK in 2007 by Intellect Books, PO Box 862, Bristol
BS99 1DE, UK

First published in the USA in 2007 by Intellect Books, The University
of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2007 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library.
Cover Design: Gabriel Solomons
Copy Editor: Holly Spradling
Typesetting: Mac Style, Nafferton, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-156-7 / Electronic ISBN 978-1-84150-959-4
Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press.
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C
ONTENTS
Note on Transliteration 6
Acknowledgements 8
Introduction 9
Chapter One 19
The Western Other (Foe and Friend): Screening Temptations and Fears
Chapter Two 39
The Russian Hero: Fantasies of Wounded National Pride
Chapter Three 63
Mobilizing Internal Forces: The Idealized Past and Culture
Chapter Four 83
(Im)possible Relationships: Looking for the Other
Chapter Five 97
West, East, and Russia: Ambivalence, Reflection, and Traversing the Fantasy
Conclusion 112
The West and Beyond
Bibliography 122
Filmography 130
Index 135
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N T
OTE ON RANSLITERATION
Ihaveused the Library of Congress transliteration system for all Russian names and titles except for
citations from secondary sources (e.g., Zassoursky instead of Zasurskii). Where familiar spellings for
Russian writers exist – Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. – I have opted for them.
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“
Когда в нас что-нибудь неладно, то мы ищем причин вне нас и скоро находим. Это
”–
француз гадит, это жиды, это Вилгельм… это призраки, но зато как они облегчают
наше беспокойство.
When something is wrong with us, then we look for the reasons outside us and soon we find them.
“It is the French, the Jews, Wilhelm…” – these are ghosts, but how they alleviate our anxieties.
Anton Chekhov
The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for
us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be
seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.
George Eliot
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A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
The financial support of the Ohio State University and the Center for Slavic and East European
Studies at the university, as well as the expert advice and the moral support of many colleagues
and friends made this book possible. First and foremost, I must thank Nancy Blake and Helena
Goscilo, who read and commented on drafts of the manuscript and from whom I have learned a
lot over the years. Special gratitude goes to Alberto Hahn who also read the work and who offered
excellent feedback on Melanie Klein’s apparatus. Luzmila Camacho read this manuscript twice and
was a permanent source of advice, aid, and solace. I am indebted to Dina Iordanova for her
assistance and encouragement. Delightful and insightful conversations with Charles Batson and Lori
Marso influenced this project. In Russia, I received the immense support of my Russian sister, Anna,
who opened doors for me and organized exciting meetings with actors, directors, and film critics.
Special appreciation goes toJeff Parker, Audra Starcheus, Kara Dixon-Vuic, and Robert Cagle who
read various chapters and offered helpful editing suggestions. I am happy for the opportunity to
express thanks to colleagues from the departments of Slavic and East European Languages and
Literatures, Comparative Studies, Women’s Studies, and the Interdisciplinary Film Program at the
Ohio State University for their moral support. I would like to acknowledge the professionalism of
Intellect, whicheased the publishing process.
And last, but certainly not least, this book would never have happened without the love and
encouragement of my family (my mother, Maria, Christo, and my late father). Maria, who is a
psychotherapist, gave me invaluable insights about the mental life of adolescents and the cultural
applications of adolescent psychology. My mother, who knows intimately the workings of cinema,
was my best discussant. They believed in me when I was desperate and helped me keep my sanity.
The film stills are borrowed from Séance, Russian cinema journal, and I thank Aleksei Gusev, its
editor, who authorized their use. Various ideas developed in the book (and early versions of
chapters two, three, and five) appeared first as journal articles in The Communication Review,
Consumption, Markets & Culture,The Russian Review,and Slavic and East European Journal.
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I
NTRODUCTION
In exploring Russia’s fearful adjustment to the expansion of western capital, this book relies on the
political, economic, and cultural contexts of Russia’s national cinema as the foundation of its
investigation. Russian film is a mass cultural phenomenon, one that in both its creation and its
perception exposes the intriguing dynamics of societal psychological conditions. My analysis centers
on films that illustrate Russia’s cultural and psychological ambivalence towards the rise of the West,
and uncovers a set of reactions that I identify as fantasies, anxieties, and defenses. I examine the
representation of the (western) other in films by some of the most powerful and influential Russian
directors as well as in other relevant projects by lesser-known talents. Employing an unorthodox
approach, I study changes in Russia’s identity formation and the shifting dynamics of Russian
attitudes towards the West, as I compare them to stages of individual development (adolescence
and maturity), as well as trace the slippery structure of fantasy as support of reality and ideology.
The founding of the Soviet Union divided the world into black and white, ‘good’ versus ‘evil’, and
‘us’against‘them’.The side of the Iron Curtain from which one perceived the world was irrelevant
in this division. The West and the East employed similar mechanisms for constructing the other as an
‘evil empire’ (Rogin).In the aftermath of the cold war, the West has deemed itself victorious, while
Russia has painfullystruggled with despondency.
Pride and Panic: Russian Imagination of the West in Post-Soviet Filmexamines film images, characters,
and themes in order to investigate how Russia has reacted and adjusted to the most glaring reminder
of this despondency – the expansion of western capital and culture in Russia itself. My analysis
focuses generally on Russian films produced after the collapse of the Soviet Union, paying special
attention to those made during the last five to six years – a period in which the Russian film industry
began to revive and became more market-oriented, fully reflecting social angst. In drawing on film
imagery, I address a number of compelling questions: How is the image of the other constructed in
recent Russian film? Is it possible to embrace a foreign culture and be simultaneously afraid of it?
How does this fear affect the perception of self and other in an ever-changing identity formation?
What are the fantasies and defenses that operate when national and cultural identity is in flux?
Akey common characteristic unites the films that I have chosen to examine. Each film explicitly enters
into a dialogue with the West at the level of characters and/or imagery and provocatively
problematizes the resulting relationship. Although some of these films are set in the past (The Barber
of Siberia (1999) and Of Freaks and Men (1998) take place at the turn of the last century, and