Other Russias - Homosexuality and the Crisis of Post-Soviet Identity

Zusatztext Baer s immensely readable volume adds greatly to the scholarship on post-Soviet culture as well as gender and sexuality studies; his original and incisive analysis uncovers the ways in which discussions about (Russian) homosexuality signify the Russian populace s eclectic attempts to construct a post-Soviet identity and aesthetic. - The Russian Review " Other Russias is a fascinating study of the significance of homosexuality in post-Soviet Russian culture . . .In this first major study of homosexuality in Russian culture! Baer deftly negotiates the complexity of cross-cultural studies of homosexuality! avoiding the pitfalls of projections onto an Orientalized other and allowing Russian cultural motifs to speak on their own terms and in their own language." - Kevin Moss! Professor of Russian! Middlebury College and editor of Out of the Blue: Russia s Hidden Gay Literature ."With restless curiosity! Baer entertains as he tells us what homosexuality means in contemporary Russian culture. Other Russias explores not only what a globalizing Western eye has made of queerness in Moscow (and beyond)! but what Russians themselves have made of the sexual other in their midst. Baer s intelligent readings of post-Soviet high- and low-brow literature and films show how homosexuality has become an essential element in fictions of national collapse! a talisman of gender identities and literary conventions in flux. Baer s chapter on the comeback - after 74 years in the Soviet close - of Russia s spiritual homosexual restores a long-lost cultural type to the map of European culture. This book will be essential reading for all queer studies enthusiasts." - Dan Healey! Swansea University and author of Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia "Through a close reading of post-Soviet literature and film! Baer illuminates the complexities of changing assumptions about homosexuality in contemporary Russia. A fascinating illustration of the ways in which historical and cultural specificities create new ways of understanding sexuality! and a warning against too easy assumptions about sexual freedoms in twenty first century Russia." - Dennis Altman! Professor and Convenor of Politics! La Trobe University and author of Global Sex and Homosexual "Baer has written a groundbreaking study of the discourse surrounding homosexuality as a reflection of Russian post-Soviet identity from the late 1980s through the Putin presidency. Effectively deploying historical and geographical frameworks! the author juxtaposes inherently Russian associations to the notion of homosexuality as a Western import that threatens Russian male identity. Essential" - CHOICE Informationen zum Autor BRIAN JAMES BAER is Associate Professor of Russian Language, Literature, and Translation Studies at Kent State University, USA. Klappentext This book examines the unprecedented explosion of homosexual discourse in post-Soviet Russia and details how homosexuality has come to signify a surprising and often contradictory array of uniquely post-Soviet concerns. Zusammenfassung This book examines the unprecedented explosion of homosexual discourse in post-Soviet Russia and details how homosexuality has come to signify a surprising and often contradictory array of uniquely post-Soviet concerns. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction: An Embarrassment of Meanings Russian Gays/Western Gaze: Mapping the (Homo)Sexual Landscape of Post-Soviet Russia Making a Spectacle of Homosexuality: The Problem of Gay (In)Visibility The Other Within Us: Homosexual Panic and the Post-Soviet Detektiv Resurrecting the Spiritual Homosexual: Homosexuality and Russian Cultural Citizenship Perversion, Inversion, and Literary Forebears: Homosexuality and the Search for a Post-Soviet Aesthetics...

List of contents

Introduction: An Embarrassment of Meanings Russian Gays/Western Gaze: Mapping the (Homo)Sexual Landscape of Post-Soviet Russia Making a Spectacle of Homosexuality: The Problem of Gay (In)Visibility The Other Within Us: Homosexual Panic and the Post-Soviet Detektiv Resurrecting the Spiritual Homosexual: Homosexuality and Russian Cultural Citizenship Perversion, Inversion, and Literary Forebears: Homosexuality and the Search for a Post-Soviet Aesthetics

Report

Baer s immensely readable volume adds greatly to the scholarship on post-Soviet culture as well as gender and sexuality studies; his original and incisive analysis uncovers the ways in which discussions about (Russian) homosexuality signify the Russian populace s eclectic attempts to construct a post-Soviet identity and aesthetic. - The Russian Review " Other Russias is a fascinating study of the significance of homosexuality in post-Soviet Russian culture . . .In this first major study of homosexuality in Russian culture, Baer deftly negotiates the complexity of cross-cultural studies of homosexuality, avoiding the pitfalls of projections onto an Orientalized other and allowing Russian cultural motifs to speak on their own terms and in their own language." - Kevin Moss, Professor of Russian, Middlebury College and editor of Out of the Blue: Russia s Hidden Gay Literature ."With restless curiosity, Baer entertains as he tells us what homosexuality means in contemporary Russian culture. Other Russias explores not only what a globalizing Western eye has made of queerness in Moscow (and beyond), but what Russians themselves have made of the sexual other in their midst. Baer s intelligent readings of post-Soviet high- and low-brow literature and films show how homosexuality has become an essential element in fictions of national collapse, a talisman of gender identities and literary conventions in flux. Baer s chapter on the comeback - after 74 years in the Soviet close - of Russia s spiritual homosexual restores a long-lost cultural type to the map of European culture. This book will be essential reading for all queer studies enthusiasts." - Dan Healey, Swansea University and author of Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia "Through a close reading of post-Soviet literature and film, Baer illuminates the complexities of changing assumptions about homosexuality in contemporary Russia. A fascinating illustration of the ways in which historical and cultural specificities create new ways of understanding sexuality, and a warning against too easy assumptions about sexual freedoms in twenty first century Russia." - Dennis Altman, Professor and Convenor of Politics, La Trobe University and author of Global Sex and Homosexual "Baer has written a groundbreaking study of the discourse surrounding homosexuality as a reflection of Russian post-Soviet identity from the late 1980s through the Putin presidency. Effectively deploying historical and geographical frameworks, the author juxtaposes inherently Russian associations to the notion of homosexuality as a Western import that threatens Russian male identity. Essential" - CHOICE

Product details

• Authors: B Baer, B. Baer, Brian James Baer, Baer Brian James
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 19.05.2009
• EAN: 9780230612242
• ISBN: 978-0-230-61224-2
• No. of pages: 226
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Women's and gender studies; B, Gender Studies, Literature, Sociology, Europe, Cultural Studies, Society & culture: general, Media and Communication, Literature: history & criticism, Literature, general, Culture—Study and teaching, Cultural and Media Studies, general, European Literature, Biography, Literature & Literary studies, Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection