Soviet Hieroglyphics.

" The Russian and American contributors] share a very high level ofexpertise and an impressive command of their material, which ranges from film tobillboards to currency. Everything in this book, including the introduction, isworth reading... consistently fascinating... " --Choice ..". a lightning rush of images and ideas thatconstitute inviting material for future speculation." -- Times LiterarySupplement "This collection of essays is a fine, even anexhilarating piece of work. Her brilliant analysis surveys a kaleidoscope of breaksand betweeen literature and non-print media, high culture and popularculture, homo sovieticus and homo russicus. -- Slavic and East EuropeanJournal "Of interest for scholars in several disciplines, Soviet Hieroglyphics provides many insights into recent Russian visualculture." -- Canadian Slavonic Paper These incisive essaysdescribe contemporary Russian culture under conditions of social collapse. Focusingon visual culture, the book highlights the recurrent tension between two opposingtendencies in Russia the impulse to eradicate the cultural"hieroglyphics" of the Soviet past and the compulsion to reinscribe thosesacred images onto contemporary texts.

NANCY CONDEE is on the faculty of the Slavic Department at the University of Pittsburgh. With her husband, Vladimir Padunov, she has directed the Working Group on Contemporary Russian Culture. She is co-author (with Padunov) of articles on Russian cultural politics in October, Framework, The Nation, and New Left Review and in numerous Russian publications.