Russian cultural expropriation, was Re: [SEELANGS] Summary List of Russian Films with American Content

[Valentino, Russell Scott]

We could call the fact that some of the films in the American list are actually British intellectually lazy, but this (and the Russian vs Soviet) distinction seems less important than the apparently Cold War relations underlying depicting the Other, which the list helps to illuminate.

In this sense, it could be made even longer (we haven't touched TV, for instance), and it's another instance of how the Cold War shaped and continues to shape culture. In the US case, alongside Cold War civil rights (Mary Dudziak's thesis), the CIA's funding of American abstract art, the importance of "dissident" writers and artists of various kinds, the translation and championing of certain key works (Zhivago), the Cold War facilitation of Latin American "Boom" literature (Deborah Cohn's thesis), and much more in this vein, the contribution of film to a monolithic notion of that enemy over there is not surprising.

There's also a crazy Russian scientist alone in an abandoned space station in Armageddon (1998).

Russell Scott Valentino
Professor and Chair
Slavic Languages and Literatures
Indiana University
502 Ballantine Hall
Bloomington, IN 47405

On Aug 5, 2013, at 21:35, "Max Pyziur" <pyz at BRAMA.COM> wrote:

>> Dear Colleagues:
>> 
>> I was unable to post the list to SEELANGs because it is too long.
>> SEELANGers had a lot to say on this topic!
>> 
>> I therefore created a website, hosted by my unit on campus, at this
>> address:
>> 
>> http://hss.pages.tcnj.edu/american-films-with-russian-content/
>> 
>> When you access the information, if it is valuable to you, please copy the
>> text and save it to your own files, as I will not be able to maintain this
>> page on our school's website indefinitely.
>> 
>> I extend my sincere and profound thanks to all those who sent me
>> suggestions, especially Helena Goscilo.
> 
> I'm sorry, but there are problems with definitions in this list, as well
> as ongoing cultural expropriation on the part of some continuing notion of
> uber-Russia, a zombie concept.
> 
> On definitions: Dr. Strangelove and Ninochka, among a few others, deal
> with the Soviet Union, not Russia. To label them as having Russian subject
> matter is pure intellectual laziness in the present day. Sure, the
> characters interchange Russia and the Soviet Union. But do academics like
> yourself have to?
> 
> Taras Bulba is about Ukrainian cossacks. Everything Is Illuminated deals
> with recovering and acquiring personal memory in Ukraine.
> 
> Sure, "... there'll be no fighting in the War Room ... ,"
> 
> Max Pyziur
> pyz at brama.com
> 
> 
>> With best wishes,
>> 
>> Ben Rifkin
>> The College of New Jersey
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