Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"... [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 *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
Introduction. Why Do We Need to Talk about Socialism and TV? 1
Part I. Genres of Realism and Reality
1. From Socialist Realism to Emotional Realism 27
2. Tele-education 40
3. Crime Appeal 66
4. The Great Socialist Game (Show) 83
5. Postsocialist Ethno-Racial Reality TV 108
Part II. Genres of History
6. The Historical Adventure Drama 133
7. Postsocialist Nostalgia and European Historical Drama 155
8. Commercials as Time-Space Machines 173
Part III. Genres of Fiction
9. Women and TV 187
10. Socialist Soaps 199
Part IV. Genres of Humor
11. Socialist Comedy 227
12. (Post)socialist Political Satire 242
Afterword. Afterward 257
Notes 261
Bibliography 299
Index 311
