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http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/483232862

Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

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description

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  • "In this volume, international writers explore conceptualizations of what defined "East" and "West" in Eastern Europe, imperial Russia, and the Soviet Union in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributors analyze the effects of transnational interactions on ideology, politics, and cultural production, and reveal that the roots of an East-West cultural divide existed long before socialism and the Cold War. The chapters explore the complex stages of adoption and rejection of Western ideals in Eastern Europe in areas such as architecture, travel writing, film, music, health care, consumer products, political propaganda, and human rights. They describe a process of mental mapping whereby individuals "captured and possessed" Western identity through cultural encounters and developed their own interpretations. in response, political and intellectual elites devised strategies of resistance to defy these Western impositions. Socialists believed that their cultural forms offered morally and materially better lives for the masses, yet their attitude toward the West fluctuated between a sense of superiority and inferiority. But, in material terms, Western industry and technology were the ever-present yardstick by which progress was measured. The contributors conclude that the necessities of modern life and the rise of consumerism made it impossible for communist states to meet the demands of their citizens. The West eventually won the battle of supply and demand, and this the battle for cultural influence."

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  • "Electronic books"
  • "Livres électroniques"
  • "History"@en
  • "History"
  • "Electronic books"@en

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  • "Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union"@en
  • "Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union"

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