CFP: Cinematic Keywords on the Russian Middle Class: A 21st Century Digital Domostroi

[Andrew Chapman]

In October 2013 the Associated Press reported that Russia held the number one position for the highest inequality of wealth distribution amongst major countries, with 110 people owning thirty-five percent of all wealth.  While the topic of wealth inequality and the deterioration of the middle class was once largely ascribed as a feature of a neo-liberalizing, western world, Russia has had its own similar problems fashioning a middle class in the last twenty years.
 
The 1990s saw savvy businessmen rise to oligarch status, and the 2000s featured an equally dubious, yet far subtler rise of Putin’s close political allies to the ranks of Russia’s billionaires.  Yet this most recent stage, the ongoing Putin era, has also brought with it new-found stability and bourgeoisification in Russia’s major cities. 
 
Where then, does the middle class figure in the Russian Federation today, and where do we see its cultural presence?  We seek to explore the middle class in Russia through its construction in film.  How does a celluloid, or rather, a digital middle class reflect the values cultivated in Russian society today?  Is the middle class constructed from within or from outside its ranks?  Is it presented as an inclusive or exclusive group? How is its filmic representation different from its reality? How do we as scholars continue or discontinue the discussion of class categories in our analyses of contemporary Russian culture?  Our on-line project adopts the form of a digital Domostroi, recognizing that the middle class is not simply a group of people, but also represents an ideal set of values that are very much under construction and contestation.   
 
Entries should be 500-700 words and address a specific middle class value or middle class keyword through contemporary Russian film and related media.  Examples of completed keywords include: “impersonation,” “happiness,” “creative class,” and “family values.”  Please include with your entry at least one screenshot, attached separately from the word document as a .jpeg file.  Inquires to propose a new keyword should first be addressed to Andrew Chapman, Alyssa DeBlasio, and Greg Dolgopolov at Andrew.H.Chapman at Dartmouth.edu, deblasia at dickinson.edu, and gregd at unsw.edu.au.  Proposals for new keywords are due by 1 February, and entries should be completed by 15 March. 

 
Andrew Chapman
Department of Russian
6085 Reed Hall Room 201
Dartmouth College
Hanover NH 03755

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