Film and Identity in Kazakhstan

Soviet and Post-Soviet Culture in Central Asia

Rico Isaacs (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

350 Seiten

2022
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-25229-5 (ISBN)

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Cinema and nationalism are two fundamentally modern phenomena, but how have films shaped our understanding of the creation -the 'imagining' - of Central-Asian nations? Here, Rico Isaacs uses cinema as an analytical lens to explore how the Kazakh national identity has been constructed and contested. Drawing on an analysis of Kazakh films from the last century, and featuring new interviews with directors and critics involved in the Central Asian film industry, his book traces the construction of nationalism within Kazakh cinema from the country's inception as a Soviet Republic to a modern independent nation.Isaacs identifies four narratives since the collapse of the Soviet Union: a warrior-like 'ethnic' narrative rooted in the 18th Century struggles against the Mongolian Oirat tribes; a 'civic' inspired narrative cemented in the Stalinist deportations of the 1930s and 40s; a religious narrative founded within the mystic and philosophical religion of Tengrism and the cult of the Sky God; and a socio-economic narrative which roots Kazakh nationhood and identity in contemporary social divisions, the lived day-to-day experiences of ordinary citizens and the struggles they face with authority.
These last two tropes demonstrate how cinema has emerged as a site of dissent against the country's authoritarian regime under President Nazarbayev. Film and Identity in Kazakhstan advances our understanding of Kazakhstan and nationalism by demonstrating the multiple and inessential character of each, and illustrates the important role of cinema in contesting political power in the post-Soviet space.

Rico Isaacs is Associate Professor of Politics at University of Lincoln, UK. His research focuses on nation-building and institutions in post-Soviet Central Asia. He writes regularly on Central Asian politics and culture.

Chapter one: From Constructed to Contested Nations: Theorising and analysing nation and cinema
1
Chapter Two: Kazakh Khanate to Kazakh Eli: Nation-Building in Kazakhstan in Historical and Political Context
40
Chapter Three: Between two worlds: Kazakh film and Nation-building in the Soviet era
75
Chapter Four: The Disruption of Time: the Kazakh New Wave 1985-1995
109
Chapter Five: Naked in the Mirror: the ethno-centric narrative of Kazakh nationhood
150
Chapter Six: May the Grass Never Grow at Your Door: the civic conception of nationhood in Kazakh cinema
186
Chapter Seven: ‘Hymn to Mother’ - Tengrism, motherhood and nationhood
211
Chapter Eight: The Steppe, disorientation, division and corruption: social and economic visions of modern nationhood
241
Conclusion
289
Notes
309

Erscheinungsdatum	16.03.2022
Zusatzinfo	20 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	138 x 216 mm
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
ISBN-10	1-350-25229-8 / 1350252298
ISBN-13	978-1-350-25229-5 / 9781350252295
Zustand	Neuware