The Politics of Fantasy
eBook - ePub

The Politics of Fantasy

Magic, Children's Literature, and Fandom in Putin's Russia

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Politics of Fantasy

Magic, Children's Literature, and Fandom in Putin's Russia

About this book

What happened when J. K. Rowling's mega-blockbuster—born in the United Kingdom and launched to global heights by Hollywood and the full force of Western marketing—came knocking on President Putin's door? The arrival of boy wizard and international star Harry Potter in a recently neoliberal Russia was enormously influential, but neither smooth nor uncontested. The franchise quickly became a lens that focused Russian ambitions and fears during an era characterized by both the hegemony of globalized popular culture and a nationalized conservative backlash. 

With crisp, engaging prose, Eliot Borenstein leaps from Harry Potter into an exploration of the culture wars and moral panics sparked in Russia by Western-inspired children's literature, extending back into the Soviet period and through the invasion of Ukraine. As cultural products pitched ostensibly to children, the Harry Potter books and films became the perfect objects for criticism, translation, adaptation, parody, attack, mimicry, and meme-making, allowing Russians to carve out their own space in the worldwide market of magical multiverses.

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Yes, you can access The Politics of Fantasy by Eliot Borenstein in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Russian Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Note on Translations and Transliteration
  8. Introduction: Confessions of a Reformed Pirate
  9. 1 The Arrival of a Franchise
  10. 2 The Fantasy Genre Controversy
  11. 3 The Cheap Knock-Offs
  12. 4 The Rise of Fandom
  13. 5 The Russian Culture Wars
  14. 6 The Transgender Russophobic Satanic Wizard
  15. 7 The Dark Lord Putin
  16. Conclusion: The Cruel Optimism of the Wizarding World
  17. Notes
  18. Works Cited
  19. Index