Working with Affects and Emotions in Media Echoes of the 1990s: Nostalgia and Ressentiment in Post-Perestroika Russia 18+

Abstract

Media workers focus their efforts on engaging with the often vaguely recognized emotions and affects associated with memories of Russia’s transformative 1990s. The memory of this period is currently under the control of the state, which promotes the official discourse of the 1990s as a terrible and difficult time, claiming that it would have been better for Russia if it had never occurred. We regard memories of the 1990s as an important component of contemporary Russian politics and seek to investigate the ways in which affects and emotions, initiated by various media outlets, are managed, aiming to reveal the complex and contradictory nature of this memory. Media outlets provide audiences with media products that discursively process and reflect affective and emotional experiences rooted in the socially traumatic period of the 1990s. We analyze a variety of media products, including a documentary project (Namedni), communities associated with nostalgic perceptions of Soviet material culture (online community of amateur architecture enthusiasts Russkaia khton’ / Russian Chthon), narratives about the 1990s on social media, and stage performances about the “difficult” 1990s in Russia. These cases illustrate the various ways in which affective work engages with prevalent phenomena in Russia such as ressentiment, nostalgia, and traumatic feelings associated with memories of the 1990s. This engagement includes discursive reflection on difficult to articulate affects and emotions. We examine various methods by which the affective dimensions of ressentiment and nostalgia are discursively addressed: the aestheticization of objects associated with complex and negative feelings, the narrative revitalization of past experiences, laugh-based distancing, and the kaleidoscopic perception of the past. In doing so, we show how media outlets engage with users’ affects and emotions in constructing memory and managing the affects produced by the traumatic period of post-perestroika in Russia during the 1990s.

Text in English