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This book presents a new perspective on how Russia projects itself to the world. Distancing itself from familiar, agency-driven International Relations accounts that focus on what 'the Kremlin' is up to and why, it argues for the need to pay attention to deeper, trans-state processes over which the Kremlin exerts much less control. Especially important in this context is mediatization, defined as the process by which contemporary social and political practices adopt a media form and follow media-driven logics. In particular, the book emphasizes the logic of the feedback loop or 'recursion', showing how it drives multiple Russian performances of national belonging and nation projection in the digital era. It applies this theory to recent issues, events, and scandals that have played out in international arenas ranging from television, through theatre, film, and performance art, to warfare.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
List of contents
Introduction 1. Well-Mannered Aliens Brandishing New Truths: Putin's 'Polite Green Men' and the (Non)-Occupation of Crimea 2. Projecting Russia on the Global Stage: International Broadcasting and Recursive Nationhood 3. A Little Girl Dreams of Kiev: Projection as Abjection, the Invalid Nation and Russia's 2017 Eurovision (Non)-Performance 4. Film Narrative and Cultural Diplomacy: The (Not So) Peculiar Cases of Ovsianki and Belyi tigr 5. Double Agents: Russia's Intercultural Mediators and the Articulation of the Global 6. Pussy Riot goes West: Re-staging the New Gulag for a Global Audience Conclusion
About the author
Stephen Hutchings is Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester, UK.
Summary
This book presents a new perspective on how Russia projects itself to the world. Distancing itself from familiar, agency-driven International Relations accounts that focus on what ‘the Kremlin’ is up to and why, it argues for the need to pay attention to deeper, trans-state processes over which the Kremlin exerts much less control.
