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Book Cover for: Meanwhile, in Russia...: Russian Internet Memes and Viral Video, Eliot Borenstein

Meanwhile, in Russia...: Russian Internet Memes and Viral Video

Eliot Borenstein

The Russian internet is a hotbed for memes and viral videos: the political, satirical and simply absurd compete for attention in Russia while the West turns to it for an endless reserve of humorous content. But how did this powerful cyber community grow out of the repressive media environment of the Soviet Union? What does this viral content reveal about the country, its politics and its culture? And why are the memes and videos of today's Russia so popular, spreading so rapidly across the globe?

Award-winning author Eliot Borenstein explores the explosive online movement and unpicks, for the first time, the role of mimetic content and digital activism in modern Russian history up to the present day.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
  • Publish Date: Feb 24th, 2022
  • Pages: 160
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.00in - 5.00in - 0.44in - 0.63lb
  • EAN: 9781350181533
  • Categories: Russia - GeneralModern - 21st CenturySocial History

About the Author

Borenstein, Eliot: -

Eliot Borenstein is Professor and Chair of Russian & Slavic Studies, Interim Chair of East Asian Studies, Collegiate Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Senior Academic Convenor for the Global Network at New York University, USA. Before coming to NYU, Borenstein directed the Fulbright Program for the Russian Federation and taught at the University of Virginia, USA. His first book, Men without Women: Masculinity and Revolution in Russian Fiction, 1917-1919, won the AATSEEL award for best work in literary scholarship in 2000. In 2007, he published Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture, which received the AWSS award for best book in Slavic Gender Studies in 2008.

A 2009 Guggenheim recipient, Borenstein wrote Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism (2019), which received the 2020 AATSEEL Book Prize and the 2020 Wayne S. Vucinic Book Prize. His other books include Pussy Riot: Speaking Punk to Power (Bloomsbury, 2020), and Meanwhile, in Russia... Russian Internet Memes and Viral Video (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Norris, Stephen M.: - Stephen M. Norris is Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Russian History and Director of the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University (OH), USA. He is the author and editor of seven books, including A War of Images: Russian Popular Prints, Wartime Culture, and National Identity, 1812-1945 (2008) and Blockbuster History in the New Russia: Movies, Memory, Patriotism (2012).
Jones, Polly: - Polly Jones is Professor of Russian at University College, Oxford, UK. She has published extensively on Soviet literature and memory politics, including two monographs Myth, Memory, Trauma (2013) and Revolution Rekindled (2019), several edited volumes, including The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization (2006) and numerous articles. She is embarking on a new collaborative project about the concept of the '101st kilometre' in Soviet penal policy and practice.

Praise for this book

Eliot Borenstein's portrait of online creativity in Russia is deft, witty, and thought-provoking, it makes you laugh and it makes you learn. A short book with a big impact.
Catriona H M Kelly, Professor of Russian; Lecturer at Merton College, University of Cambridge, UK
By plunging into the world of Russian internet memes, Eliot Borenstein offers a visually exciting, highly readable, humorous and, at the same time, truly original and profound history of Russian culture in the first decades of the 21st century. A pleasure for anyone interested in contemporary Russia, this book has unique educational value - any course based on it will be a hit.
Mark Lipovetsky, Author of Postmodern Crises: From Lolita to Pussy Riot, Columbia University, USA