Victoria O. VasilevaSchool of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
105066, Moscow, 21/4, Staraya Basmannaya str., room 416b, tel. +7 495 772-95-90 *22161, +7 915 499 1315
associate professor
PhD in philosophy
e-mail: v_chistyakova@mail.ru
The Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 in the Narratives of Popular Culture: Shifting of ReferentAbstract: The purpose of the article is to analyze the latest specifics of public image of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, formed in Russia in the 2000–2010s. We analyze Russian feature films and TV series for a wide audience, revealing different topics of this war. The choice of material is determined by the fact that it is the pieces of cinema and TV screen that are the main carriers of collective ‘memory-images’ of the certain historical events now, and it is with their help that various scenarios are most often implemented in the field of historical politics and politics memory. For the purpose of such analysis, we used the concept of the ‘site of memory’ (Pierre Nora) which is one of the key concepts of contemporary memory studies and which implies various phenomena that form the identity of a group. By developing Pierre Nora’ argument, we try to demonstrate that the ‘site of memory’ can be dynamic and that such an understanding of ‘sites of memory’ is more consistent with the vision of culture as a transforming text that is constantly re-constructed. This provision entails a review of the nature of modern popular (mass) culture and raises the question of whether popular culture is inherently conservative, or it can contain a resource for (social and ideological) changes? In analyzing new post-Soviet feature films and TV series about the Great Patriotic War, we try to demonstrate how counter-narratives and meanings expelled for a long time appear inside the dominant picture of the past. Also, the article seeks to show what the ‘war film’ can be in the conditions of the contemporary media culture.
Key words: war as a ‘site of memory’, cultural memory, feature film, war film, TV series, the Great Patriotic War, post-Soviet popular culture, narrative.
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For Citation: Vasileva, V. (2020). The Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 in the Narratives of Popular Culture: Shifting of Referent. International Journal of Cultural Research, 4 (41), 6–26. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2020_4_6
DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2020_4_6
