Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project has been with me for over a decade and has benefited from the insight and support of so many people that I am afraid I cannot possibly remember them all. David Bethea, Clare Cavanagh, Arlene Forman, and Judith Kornblatt, my teachers before this work began, continue to inspire me with their example and their observations. Adele Barker and Natalie Kononenko encouraged me to work on popular culture long before I ever thought to write a book on the subject. Over the years, numerous friends and colleagues provided their support along the way: Amy Singleton Adams, Ulrich Baer, Elena Baraban, Angela Brintlinger, Boris Groys, David Herman, Galina Khutorskaya, Laurie Iudin-Nelson, Martha Kuhlman, Jessie Labov, Andrea Lanoux, Judith Lobel, Birgit Menzel, Yuliya Minkova, Inga Pagava, Eric Naiman, Cathy Nepomnyashchy, Jenifer Presto, Elena Prokhorova, Dianne Sattinger, Lisa Siegel, and Ilya Vinitsky. Preliminary versions of parts of this book were presented at Colorado College, the CUNY Graduate Center, the Harriman Institute, Miami University , Notre Dame, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Colorado, the University of Virginia, and the University of Wisconsin. My research was facilitated by the generous support of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (Fulbright), IREX, New York University, and the Social Science Research Council. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Harriman Institute for paying for compiling the book’s index. Most of the work was completed after I joined the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at NYU, where I have had the rare good fortune of finding excellent colleagues who have also become my friends. Genya Altman , our departmental administrator, not only provided excellent logistical support but also served as a pop cultural guinea pig; she is perhaps the only person in my daily life who has watched more contemporary Russian movies than I have. Irina Belodedova could usually be counted on to hash out the finer points of the latest Dashkova novel, while Anne Lounsbery’s good humor and intellectual generosity always gave me the opportunity to brainstorm about my latest idea. Slavic librarian Diana Greene’s bibliographic wizardry has yet to fail her, or me. Jane Burbank, Steve Cohen, Charlotte Douglas, Anneta Greenlee, Milan Fryscak, Diana Greene, Misha Iampolski, Nancy Ruttenburg, and Yanni Kotsonis have been wonderful colleagues and fine interlocutors. Olga Bichko, Sasha Gelerman, Daniil Leiderman, Alex Morim, Elena Rosenberg, Irina Ryabaya, and Christine Wilson provided invaluable research assistance over the years. Mike Summers helped me greatly with his document scanner and his reliable good cheer. Special thanks goes to Jennifer Smith, who provided the child care that made any kind of work possible. The people at Cornell University Press have been a sheer delight. My editors, Bruce Grant and Nancy Ries, are among the most careful and thoughtful readers I have ever encountered, and my book has benefited greatly from their advice. Peter Wissoker shepherded the book through the editorial process with sensitivity and grace. During copy editing, Jamie Fuller caught more errors than I would care to admit, saving me from my own sloppiness. Karen Laun was a superb, and, above all, patient manuscript editor, putting up with all my delays while gently reminding me of the latest missed deadline. I would also like to express my gratitude to Judith Kip for indexing the book. Two friends deserve particular mention: Mark Lipovetsky, whose wideranging intellect and sheer enthusiasm helped me see this project through to the completion, and Helena Goscilo, who has shown us all that scholarship isn’t worth it if you’re not having any fun. Helena also read more versions of this manuscript than anyone should ever have to. Though writing this book was a largely solitary endeavor, I could not have even begun it without the love and support of my family. I am grateful to my parents, Deborah and Stanley Borenstein, for giving me a solid education while allowing me to watch far too much television, and for providing a model of unabashed enjoyment of the popular. I dedicate this book to xiv Acknowledgments their memory and also to my sons, Lev and Louis Bernstein, avid consumers of the best and the worst that the culture has to offer. May they never feel the need to apologize for their taste. Finally, my greatest debt of gratitude goes to Fran Bernstein, who saved me, and continues to save me each and every day. Acknowledgments...