What Was Stalinist Masculinity and Why Did It Change? -- Being a Dad Is Not for Sissies -- Fathers versus Sons, or, the Great Soviet Family in Trouble -- The Trouble with Women: Consumerism and the Death of Rugged Masculinity -- Our Friend the Atom? Science as a Threat to Masculinity -- De-Heroization and the Pan-European Masculinity Crisis
Summary
"Men Out of Focus charts conversations and polemics about masculinity in Soviet cinema and popular media during the liberal period--often described as "The Thaw"--between the death of Stalin in 1953 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The book shows how the filmmakers of the long 1960s built stories around male protagonists who felt disoriented by a world that was becoming increasingly suburbanized, rebellious, consumerist, household-oriented, and scientifically complex. The dramatic tension of 1960s cinema revolved around the male protagonists' inability to navigate the challenges of postwar life. Selling over three billion tickets annually, the Soviet film industry became a fault line of postwar cultural contestation. By examining both the discussions surrounding the period's most controversial movies as well as the cultural context in which these debates happened, the book captures the official and popular reactions to the dizzying transformations of Soviet society after Stalin."-- Provided by publisher
Analysis
1960s cinema
Khrushchev
Stalin
de-Stalinization
gender studies
global sixties
masculinity and film
masculinity crisis
soviet film
soviet masculinity
thaw
world cinema
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes
Description based upon online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed January 25, 2021)
