Description
Book SynopsisHaunted Dreams is the first comprehensive study in English devoted to cultural representations of adolescence in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Jenny Kaminer situates these cultural representations within the broader context of European and Anglo-American scholarship on adolescence and youth, and she explores how Russian writers, dramatists, and filmmakers have repeatedly turned to the adolescent protagonist in exploring the myriad fissures running through post-Soviet society.
Through close analysis of prose, drama, television, and film, this book maps how the adolescent hero has become a locus for multiple anxieties throughout the tumultuous years since the end of the Soviet experiment. Kaminer also directly addresses some of the pivotal questions facing scholars of post-Soviet Russia: Have Soviet cultural models been transcended? Or do they continue to dominate? The figure of the adolescent, an especially potent and enduring source of
Trade Review
A profound and multi-faceted analysis, a deep insight into Russian culture. In light of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, the importance of engaging with the discussions and conclusions initiated by Kaminer's book becomes ever more necessary.
* International Research Society for Children's Literature *
For students and scholars of youth studies, this book is an essential starting place. The lucid and succinct descriptions of film and drama, in particular the cinematic oeuvre of Anna Melikian, understudied until now, nestle these contemporary works neatly within the Slavic Studies field through approaches that continue to be of interest.
* Russian Review *
Jenny Kaminer's Haunted Dreams provides an excellent examination of contemporary Russian cultural productions featuring young people across diverse popular genres. She reinforces her discussions with sophisticated presentations of historical contexts and comparative analyses of primary sources.
* International Research Society for Children's Literature *
Jenny Kaminer's excellent new book, Haunted Dreams, turns our attention to fantasies of adolescence in post-Soviet culture by assembling an archive of literature, film, drama, and television in which the adolescent—that awkward state between childhood and adulthood—is made visible as a cultural construct.
* Slavic Review *
With elegant, engaging prose, Haunted Dreams is a major academic accomplishment and a valuable reference point for subsequent studies of post-Soviet, and indeed global, adolescence.
* Modern Language Quarterly *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. The Ghost of Adolescence Past
2. Adolescence as Nightmare
3. Violent Imaginings
4. Specters in the Schoolhouse
Conclusion
