Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book studies various ways of satirical protest in today's Russia, addressing the complex questions of the limits of the allowed humor, oppressive mechanisms deployed by the State and pro-State agents, as well as counterstrategies of cultural resistance. What forms of satirical expression are there? Is there a State-sanctioned satire? Can satire be associated with propaganda? What is relation of myth with satire? Is satirical protest at all effective?--these are some of the central questions the authors tackle in this book. The first part presents an overview of the evolution of satire on stage, on the Internet, and on television on the background of the changing post-Soviet media landscape in the Putin era. Part Two consists of five studies of satirical protest that fully or partially managed to escape repression in music, in poetry and as action-based protest.
Synopsis
Part OneChapter 1. The Evolution of Censorship in Russia
Chapter 2. The Evolution of Satire in Russia
Chapter 3. Satire on post-Soviet TV: From "Puppets" to Puppets
Chapter 4. KVN: A TV Show Larger than Television
Chapter 5. Joking Apart: Russian Humor of the Digital Era
Part Two
Chapter 5. Monstrations' and 'Shimmering': Absurdist Popular Protests, by Daniel Leiderman
Chapter 6. Beyond Subversive Affirmation: The New Dissent Art in Russia, by Klavdia Smola
Chapter 7. The mediality of satirical protest in Putin's Russia: "Grazhdanin poet", by Annelie
Bachmaier
Chapter 8. Conservative Imperfection: Satire and New Populism of Leningrad, by Maria Engstr m
Epilogue. Beyond Satire, by Aleksei Semenenko