THE WEST AND THE POSTSOCIALIST OTHER: CINEMA AND CULTURAL POLITICS FROM THE 'FRIENDSHIP OF NATIONS ' TO 'TRANSNATIONALISM'

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to draw some parallels between the largely ignored, and usually vilified national cultures of the countries making up the so-called “socialist bloc” and to ask in what way the common cultural practices adopted by a large number of them during the half century of real-existing socialism affected the postsocialist space in the continuum of socialist Eurasia - that is, the areas from Eastern Europe to East Asia that were ruled from around 1949 to 1989 by a proletarian regime with roots in Marxist-Leninist ideology. The work uses primarily the Romanian, Yugoslav, and the Chinese national cinemas as case studies.