The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism (Culture & the Moving Image) Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism (Culture & the Moving Image) Book

For half a century, the cold war between the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union defined world politics. And then, in 1989, everything changed. The Warsaw Pact disintegrated, the USSR collapsed, and the Berlin Wall came down. Soon there was (almost) no communist culture left on the planet, just the cultural detritus of a "Communist utopia which, in fact, never existed." J. Hoberman of the Village Voice sifts through the wreckage of that culture, in a series of illuminating essays that take on everything from the Socialist Realist art movement to the novels of Victor Serge. Among the highlights is his "History of Communism in Twenty-Four Scenarios," a batch of film reviews that draws a line through Sergei Eisenstein's October ("the Soviet equivalent of the Sistine Chapel") and the original 1950s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the Reagan-era Red Dawn. There's also a splendid essay on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted by the U.S. government of giving H-bomb secrets to the Reds and--amidst much controversy--executed, and who, Hoberman concludes, "were framed for an activity that all available circumstantial and psychological evidence suggests that they committed." It's one of the most effective displays of Hoberman's grasp of history and culture, not to mention his erudite wit: "Someone must have denounced Julius Rosenberg, for without his having done anything wrong, he was arrested one fine evening by the FBI." --Ron HoganRead More

from£23.99 | RRP: £19.99
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £36.00
  • Product Description

    For most of the twentieth century, American and European intellectual life was defined by its fascination with a particular utopian vision. Both the artistic and political vanguards were spellbound by the Communist promise of a new human era so much so that its political terrors were rationalized as a form of applied evolution and its collapse hailed as the end of history. "The Red Atlantis" argues that Communism produced a complex culture with a dialectical relation to both modernism and itself. Offering examples ranging from the Stalinist show trial to Franz Kafka's posthumous career as a dissident writer and the work of filmmakers, painters, and writers, which can be understood only as criticism of existing socialism made from within, "The Red Atlantis" suggests that Communism was an aesthetic project, perhaps the aesthetic project of the twentieth century.J. Hoberman, staff writer for the Village Voice, writes on film and culture for the "Voice", the "Voice Literary Supplement", "Artforum", and other publications. His books include "Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds" (Temple, 1995) and "Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Movies and Other Media" (Temple, 1991), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award in criticism. He is an Adjunct Professor of Cinema at the Cooper Union.

  • 1566397677
  • 9781566397674
  • J. Hoberman
  • 2 March 2000
  • Temple University Press,U.S.
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 315
  • New edition
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.