1st Edition
Russian Aviation, Space Flight and Visual Culture
Among the many successes of the Soviet Union were inaugural space flight—ahead of the United States—and many other triumphs related to aviation. Aviators and cosmonauts enjoyed heroic status in the Soviet Union, and provided supports of the Soviet project with iconic figures which could be used to bolster the regime’s visions, self-confidence, and the image of itself as forward looking and futuristic. This book explores how the themes of aviation and space flight have been depicted in film, animation, art, architecture, and digital media. Incorporating many illustrations, the book covers a wide range of subjects, including the representations of heroes, the construction of myths, and the relationship between visual art forms and Soviet/Russian culture and society.
PART I - Art and Architecture
1. Ever Onwards, Ever Upwards: Representing the Aviation Hero in Soviet Art, Mike O’Mahony
2. Deineka’s Heavenly Bodies: Space, Sports, and the Sacred, Helena Goscilo
3. Comic Cosmonaut: Space Exploration and Visual Satire in Krokodil in The Thaw, John Etty
4. Flying City or Housing Freed from Gravity: Ideas of Space Travel and Internationalism in G.T. Krutikov’s City of the Future, Aleksandra Idzior
5. Neo-cosmism, Empire, and Contemporary Russian Art: Aleksei Belyaev-Gintovt, Maria Engström
PART II - Film, Animation and Computer Games
6. Special / Spatial Effects in Soviet Cinema, Birgit Beumers
7. Leaving the House of Dreams: The Myth of Flight in Russian Films of the 2000s, Julian Graffy
8. Animal Aviators: Refashioning Soviet Myths in Contemporary Russian Digital Animation, Vlad Strukov
9. Screening Aviation, Mediating Memory: Andrei Kavun’s Kandahar, Anindita Banerjee
10. Simulating Sturm und Drang: Theorizing Digital Historization, Commemoration, and Participation, Vlad Strukov
Biography
Vlad Strukov is an Associate Professor in Film and Digital Culture in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds, UK.
Helena Goscilo is Professor of Slavic at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, US.
