Russian Television Today

Primetime Drama and Comedy

• Author(s): David MacFadyen,
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 256
• ISBN_10: 1134096143
  ISBN_13: 9781134096145
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / Russia / General , Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General , Social Science / Sociology / General , Social Science / Media Studies , Social Science / Regional Studies , Social Science / Human Geography , History / General ,

Description:...

Examining the role of dramatized narratives in Russian television, this book stresses the ways in which the Russian government under Putin use primetime television to express a new understanding of what it means to be Russian, answering key questions of national identity for modern Russians in dealing with their recent history: ‘What really happened to us?’ and, accordingly, ‘Why?’

The book covers important issues in Russian television today, including:

• the reworking of new ‘national’ on-screen heroes
• its relationship with classic literature
• the revisionist portrayal of a romantic portrait of life in the Soviet era
• the role of thematic elements such as love, fidelity, humour and irony
• the particularly pressing problem of crime and its representation on screen as Mafia or police adventure, and its political usage by the Putin administration.

This book provides a detailed account of the critical issues in contemporary Russian television, relating them to broader social and political developments in Russian society.