TV Socialism

Anikó Imre

Published by Duke University Press 2016

TV Socialism

Anikó Imre

In the series Console-ing passions: television and cultural power

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822374466

Overview
Contents

About this book

In TV Socialism, Anikó Imre provides an innovative history of television in socialist Europe during and after the Cold War. Rather than uniform propaganda programming, Imre finds rich evidence of hybrid aesthetic and economic practices, including frequent exchanges within the region and with Western media, a steady production of varied genre entertainment, elements of European public service broadcasting, and transcultural, multi-lingual reception practices. These televisual practices challenge conventional understandings of culture under socialism, divisions between East and West, and the divide between socialism and postsocialism. Taking a broad regional perspective encompassing Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Imre foregrounds continuities between socialist television and the region’s shared imperial histories, including the programming trends, distribution patterns, and reception practices that extended into postsocialism. Television, she argues, is key to understanding European socialist cultures and to making sense of developments after the end of the Cold War and the enduring global legacy of socialism.

Author / Editor information

Anikó Imre is Associate Professor and Chair of Critical Studies in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Identity Games: Globalization and the Transformation of Media Cultures in the New Europe.

Reviews

"... [Imre] has composed an engaging and path-breaking study offering further insight into the multiplicity of phenomena long obscured behind the notion of totalitarianism."

-- David Sockol H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews

"Anikó Imre has written a field-transforming book, with implications that reach far beyond television studies."

-- Christine E. Evans European Journal of Cultural Studies

"...TV Socialism has as much to offer scholars of post-socialism as scholars of state socialism itself. Imre’s insightful analyses of often-trivialized popular television genres offer novel perspectives on key themes in post-socialist media studies such as nostalgia and nationalism."

-- Catherine Baker Feminist Media Studies

"Pathbreaking and powerfully informative."

-- Olga Mesropova Russian Review

"TV Socialism is a very fine and well written piece of research, definitely worth a read for everyone attracted by Eastern European popular culture. It offers a wonderful and always entertaining journey into the realm of socialist television, and by doing so, a journey into an audio-visual world of the past. It is a must read for anyone who is doing research in the field of television history, socialist history, not to forget those intrigued by insights into everyday socialist life."

-- Stefan Zimmermann Europe Now

"A long overdue transnational inquiry of the multiple continuities of television and socialism in Central and Eastern Europe. . . . Imre masterfully delineates contemporary Eastern European anxieties about nationalism, economy, memory, and historiography since the fall of the Iron Curtain."

-- Sebastian Heiduschke German Studies Review

“The main strength of TV Socialism lies in the analysis of programs themselves; it is here that Imre develops some of her most original and intriguing arguments, which will no doubt continue to shape debates on socialist television and its place in global television history for some time to come.”

-- Sabina Mihelj Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
INTRODUCTION Why Do We Need to Talk about Socialism and TV? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I GENRES OF REALISM AND REALITY
CHAPTER 1 From Socialist Realism to Emotional Realism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
CHAPTER 2 Tele-education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
CHAPTER 3 Crime Appeal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
CHAPTER 4 The Great Socialist Game (Show) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
CHAPTER 5 Postsocialist Ethno-Racial Reality TV Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
PART II GENRES OF HISTORY
CHAPTER 6 The Historical Adventure Drama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
CHAPTER 7 Postsocialist Nostalgia and European Historical Drama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
CHAPTER 8 Commercials as Time-Space Machines Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
PART III GENRES OF FICTION
CHAPTER 9 Women and TV Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
CHAPTER 10 Socialist Soaps Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
PART IV GENRES OF HUMOR
CHAPTER 11 Socialist Comedy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
CHAPTER 12 (Post)socialist Political Satire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
AFTERWORD Afterward Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 328
Illustrations
- Other: 20 illustrations

eBook

Published: May 19, 2016
ISBN: 9780822374466