Eliot Borenstein, “Informing Ourselves to Death: Conspiracy and Fantasy in Postmodern Russia“
Thursday, 27 May 2021, 19:15 CET
Senatssaal of Humboldt University
Unter den Linden 6
10117 Berlin
GERMANY
Introduction by Ethel Matala de Mazza
Comment by Michael Butter
Sponsored by:
The Mosse Foundation
Institut für deutsche Literatur
Humboldt University
Mosse Lectures
Description: In the USSR, information was a scarce resource shared only sparingly with the population at large; now Russians are awash in a flood of information. Yet each scenario proved conducive to unfettered suspicion and widespread conspiracy theorizing. Now the Russian media encourage viewers to believe they are surrounded by enemies who want to brainwash them with propaganda. Post-Soviet conspiracy theories peddle heroic fantasies of a victimized nation and contradictory messages about the nature of human subjectivity.
Eliot Borenstein: Eliot Borenstein ist Professor für Russistik und Slawistik an der New York University. Unter seinen vielfach ausgezeichneten Publikationen zur politischen Medienkultur Russlands finden sich zuletzt »Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture« [2007], »Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism« [2019] und »Pussy Riot: Speaking Punk to Power« [2020]. Demnächst erscheint seine Monographie zu viralen Netzphänomenen in Russland mit dem Titel »Meanwhile in Russia…: Russian Internet Memes and Viral Video«. Borenstein ist zudem Herausgeber des Blogs »All the Russians« für das NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia«.