Russian Television Today: Primetime Drama and Comedy

P 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?' /P P The book covers important issues in Russian television today, including: /P UL LI the reworking of new 'national' on-screen heroes /LI LI its relationship with classic literature /LI LI the revisionist portrayal of a romantic portrait of life in the Soviet era /LI LI the role of thematic elements such as love, fidelity, humour and irony /LI LI the particularly pressing problem of crime and its representation on screen as Mafia or police adventure, and its political usage by the Putin administration. /LI /UL P This book provides a detailed account of the critical issues in contemporary Russiantelevision, relating them to broader social and political developments in Russian society. /P

David MacFadyen is Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.