Men Out of Focus

The Soviet Masculinity Crisis in the Long Sixties

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by Marko Dumančić

Type

Studies

Subject

Countries > Russia / USSR

Keywords

USSR, 1960s, Soviet cinema, masculinity, sociology

Publishing date

2021

Publisher

University of Toronto Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 344 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches (16 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4875-0525-7

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Book Presentation:
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.

About the Author:
Marko Dumančić is an associate professor of Russian and East European History at Western Kentucky University.

See the publisher website: University of Toronto Press