Renata Litvinova’s star persona

Abstract

Despite the attention that scholars and critics have paid to Renata Litvinova, the construction of her performance persona has not been traced diachronically and systematically. This article explores the sources of her images in order to formulate their common signifier, the idea that is essential for Litvinova’s role as a star. In communication with her audience, Litvinova exploits a consciously constructed image of her life to perform in the public sphere. Using a variety of media platforms – films, advertising and music videos, television broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, social events and professional activity – Litvinova has created an image that contains a multiplicity of meanings, combining permanent and changeable notions. In her core meaning, she arguably translates the importance of individuality as well as the existential need to love and be loved, and its inevitable finale – death. Moreover, reflecting historical circumstance, Litvinova’s persona splits into oppositional doubles: the dandy-style figure versus the fashionista. These two images emerge as antonyms in cultural and cinematic texts. The doubling nature of Litvinova’s persona simultaneously brings the audience into past and present, reflecting a historical split: the fall of the Soviet Union and the birth of contemporary Russian culture.