Advancing public dialogue surrounding the issues of migrants and refugees, the volume explores the dynamic representations of the recent movement of people from and through the Balkans. It investigates how people within the Balkans view their others, how the West regards the Balkans, and how emigrants from the Balkans reflect upon their experiences as members of cosmopolitan diasporic communities. Highlighting latent tensions between center and periphery and furthering the discussion of racialization related to the Balkans, the collection exposes contradictions in social values, which give rise to national anxieties. Approaching mobility from multiple disciplines, the volume examines several instances of border flows in media, literature, and culture in general, flows of ideas and people. To analyze mobility to, from, and in the Balkans requires one to address the issue of difference, otherness, and race as it relates to South East Europe and as it is understood and reproduced in both transnational and local forms. The racialized category of "migrant" necessitates an understanding of how transnational concepts of race translate into constructs of whiteness and blackness and inform subject positions of the individual and motivate discourses of racialization within communities.

Journalists and policy-makers in the West have often assumed that the religious and ethno-national heterogeneity of the Balkans is the underlying reason for the numerous problems the area has faced throughout the twentieth century. The multiple and turbulent political transitions in the area, the dynamics of the interaction between Christianity and Islam, the contradictory and constantly shifting nationality policies, and the fluctuating identities of the diverse populations continue to be seen as major challenges to the stability of the region. By exploring the development of intricate religious, linguistic, and national dynamics in a variety of case studies throughout the Balkans, this volume demonstrates the existence of alternatives and challenges to nationalism in the area. The authors analyze a variety of national, non-national, and anti-national(ist) encounters in four areas-Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania-traditionally seen as "hot-beds" of nationalist agitation and tension resulting from their populations' religious or ethno-national diversity. In their entirety, the contributions in this volume chart a more complex picture of the national dynamics. The authors recognize the existence of national tensions both in historical perspective and in contemporary times, but also suggest the possibility of different paths to the nation that did not involve violence but allowed for national accommodation and reconciliation.

Investigating the genesis of the prosecuted "crimes" and implied sins of the female performing group Pussy Riot, the most famous Russian feminist collective to date, the essays in Transgressive Women in Modern Russian and East European Cultures: From the Bad to Blasphemous examine what constitutes bad social and political behavior for women in Russia, Poland, and the Balkans, and how and to what effect female performers, activists, and fictional characters have indulged in such behavior. The chapters in this edited collection argue against the popular perceptions of Slavic cultures as overwhelmingly patriarchal and Slavic women as complicit in their own repression, contextualizing proto-feminist and feminist transgressive acts in these cultures. Each essay offers a close reading of the transgressive texts that women authored or in which they figured, showing how they navigated, targeted, and, in some cases, co-opted these obstacles in their bid for agency and power. Topics include studies of how female performers in Poland and Russia were licensed to be bad (for effective comedy and popular/box office appeal), analyses of how women in film and fiction dare sacrilegious behavior in their prescribed roles as daughters and mothers, and examples of feminist political subversion through social activism and performance art.

This book examines film and media representations of the social, political, and economic issue of human trafficking, one of the most dramatic challenges of today's globalized world. Hashamova productively combines fieldwork in NGOs in southeastern Europe, social science data, and the analysis of Western and East European anti-trafficking films and media and their reception in the United States and the Balkans. Her book identifies a disconnect between the global flow of trafficking images and their local comprehension. The critical analysis of documentaries, feature films, video clips, and NGOs' media materials and the responses they elicit from spectators reveals the flaws of these products and the ideological structures present both in them and in their audiences. Acknowledging the uneven quality and impact of all films and media products, the book, guided by trauma theory, concludes with an examination of their relative ineffectiveness and inability to shock the viewer and create a citizen ready to take action against trafficking. The author seeks to explain why, despite substantial attention to the problem, communities continue to react with indifference and denial, and turn a blind eye to the problem. Screening Trafficking: Prudent or Perilous offers fresh insights to readers interested in human trafficking and its representations as well as to policymakers who need to make in well-informed decisions.

This wide-ranging collection investigates the father/son dynamic in post-Stalinist Soviet cinema and its Russian successor. Contributors analyze complex patterns of identification, disavowal, and displacement in films by such diverse directors as Khutsiev, Motyl, Tarkovsky, Balabanov, Sokurov, Todorovskii, Mashkov, and Bekmambetov. Several chapters focus on the difficulties of fulfilling the paternal function, while others show how vertical and horizontal male bonds are repeatedly strained by the pressure of redefining an embattled masculinity in a shifting political landscape."

Discursive practices during war polarize and politicize gender: they normally require men to fulfill a single, overriding task - destroy the enemy - but impose a series of often contradictory expectations on women. The essays in the book establish links between political ideology, history, psychology, cultural studies, cinema, literature, and gender studies and addresses questions such as - what is the role of women in war or military conflicts beyond the well-studied victimization? Can the often contradictory expectations of women and their traditional roles be (re)thought and (re)constructed? How do cultural representations of women during war times reveal conflicting desires and poke holes in the ideological apparatus of the state and society? Geographically, focuses on the USSR / Russia, Central Europe, and the Balkans; historically, on WWII; the secessionist war(s) in Chechnya (1994 - 96, 1999 - ); and the Bosnia / Croatia / Serbia war (1992 - 95).

Since the fall of Communism, Russians have struggled to reconcile their social traditions with a flood of Western cultural imports. Contemporary Russian cinema has latched on to the resulting confusion and ambivalence, mining societal upheaval for revolutionary cinematic topics. Yana Hashamova explores this largely uncharted territory in "Pride and Panic."

A groundbreaking study, "Pride and Panic "probes cinematic representations of the unsettled Russian national consciousness, a complex cocktail of fear, anger, and anxious uncertainty. Hashamova examines the works of both established and lesser-known Russian directors, and she draws thought-provoking parallels between these evolving social attitudes in contemporary Russia and the development of an individual human psyche. The cultural impact of globalization, the evolution of the Russian national identity, and the psychology of a society all intertwine in this fascinating study of the connections between film and political consciousness.

"Hashamova speaks to a wide constituency of readers. The accessibility of "Pride and Panic" commends it as a course reader and handbook for undergraduate students of contemporary Russian film and culture. It can be recommended as a good introduction for members of the general public keen to know more about Russian cinematography and its bearing on the complex identities emerging in post-Soviet Russian today."--Galina Miazhevich, "Russian Journal of Communication""" "Yana Hashamova offers an important contribution and her analysis is recommended for all levels of interest in post-Soviet Russian cinema, from academic film scholar to cineaste."--Lars Kristensen, "Senses of Cinema""" "Shows a close reading of a voluminous amount of literature, thoughtful viewings of the films, and the ability to bring quite diverse subject matter and approaches together into a fascinating study of Russian film at the millennium. The scope of this book and its reflective quality should be of interest to scholars and students of Russian history, culture, and film. It is well worth reading."--Alexandra Heidi Karriker, "Russian Review""" "Political ideology, psychoanalysis and cinema come together in Yana Hashamova' reading of Russian national identity as developed and expressed through film."--Trina R. Mamoon, "Canadian Slavonic Papers"

"Lucid and eminently accessible, "Pride and Panic" differs from other studies of contemporary Russian film in its theoretical framework, which incorporates psychoanalysis, gender, and concepts of alterity and community to analyze Russia's post-Soviet embattled cinematic reconstruction of masculine and national identity. An absorbing read, the book pursues its argument of comprehensive politico-social trauma with consistency and conviction."--Helena Goscilo, University of Pittsburgh