Goscilo, Helena and Strukov, Vlad (eds) Celebrity and Glamour in Contemporary Russia: Shocking Chic. (review)

Abstract

SEER, 94, 3, july 2016 536 have wished to know whether these debates spilled over into the domain of dress and fashion. This is perhaps a small quibble, for in general Houze has produced an important work that should serve as the major point of reference in the field for many years. Ashgate should also be congratulated for the production values of the book, with sumptuous colour illustrations that fully do justice to the subject. Barber Institute Matthew Rampley University of Birmingham Goscilo, Helena and Strukov, Vlad (eds). Celebrity and Glamour in Contemporary Russia: Shocking Chic. BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies, 68. Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2012. xix + 295 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. £30.00 (paperback). The collection of essays Celebrity and Glamour in Contemporary Russia: Shocking Chic is a skilfully put-together pioneering scholarly work and a valuable contribution to Russian cultural studies. It is edited by two experts in the field, Helena Goscilo and Vlad Strukov, who present the explorations of the thirst for glamour and extravagance within contemporary Russian society that resulted from the social changes of the 1990s and 2000s. Through a number of case studies, the volume aims to unveil the mysterious ‘celebrification’ machine — the internal dynamics of producing a celebrity as well as maintaining its glorified status. To examine the phenomenon from different angles, the authors offer a range of case studies. These encompass an essay on Feminism a la russe dedicated to Russian estrada diva Alla Pugacheva and her daughter Kristina Orbokaite; a work on the political celebrity of President Vladimir Putin; a contribution about perhaps Russia’s most controversial artist — painter and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli; as well as a reflection on chic places to go to such as Moscow’s Café Pushkin or Turandot. ToprovideathoroughandstructuredexplorationofRussiancelebrityculture and to reveal different layers of Russian stardom, the book is divided into five parts. The first part — ‘The Art of Politics and the Politics of Art’ — consists of two essays. In the first, Helena Goscilo focuses on Russia’s foremost celebrity — President Vladimir Putin. Putin is a figure considered to be the restorer of Russia’s stability as well as its national pride. Perhaps consequently, rather than surprisingly, the gratitude shown to him by quite a few of his followers has evolved into a cult of personality — the ‘celebrification’ of his image. This REVIEWS 537 is contrasted by the second contribution — ‘The Mistress of Moscow’ — by Michelle Kuhn who reflects on the phenomenon of a female corporate celebrity Elena Baturina. Russian oligarch and founder of construction company Inteco, Baturina’s celebrity can be regarded as a unique case of a woman doing business in ‘man’s world’. In their essay for the second part of the volume — ‘Prosaic Glamour’ — Brian James Baer and Nadezhda Korchagina discuss the extraordinary celebrity case of Russia’s ‘Conan Doyle’ (p. 75), the writer Gregorii Shalvovich Chkhartishvili. By projecting a separate existence through his pseudonym Boris Akunin, as well as hyper-personalizing his fictional character, Erast Petrovich Fandorin, this postmodern celebrity has produced the unprecedented phenomenon of the celebrity triad. What is more, due to his popularity, Fandorin is often referred to as a real person, thus pushing the semi-real Akunin into the realm of the fully unreal, and this way merging fantasy with reality. The third part of the volume — ‘Mediating Glamour: Film, Estrada, and New Media Stars’ — explores Russian film and estrada stardom. Stephen M. Norris examines one of the Russian cultural icons, the filmmaker and actor Nikita Mikhalkov. Mikhalkov is a unique example of a celebrity that combines all three major categories used to differentiate celebrities, depending on the source of their fame. He is an ascribed celebrity, as his status can be regarded as an inheritance from his famous family (he is the son of a famous Soviet children’s author and composer of the lyrics of the national anthem, Sergei Mikhalkov), but he can also be viewed as an achieved celebrity, whose success was a result of his own talent as well as that attributed to him. The fourth part of the collection — ‘Gendered Sounds and Screams of Stardom’ — explores the connection between gender and the phenomenon of ‘celebrification...