A01=Eliot Borenstein
Author_Eliot Borenstein
Category=DS
Category=JBCC1
Category=JP
children's literature
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fandom
Harry Potter
J.K. Rowling
J.R.R. Tolkien
Kids vs. Wizards
Lord of the Rings
memes
Nikos Zervas
popular culture
Russia
Russian culture
Russian culture wars
Russian Federation
Russian internet culture
Russian mass culture
Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodoxy
Russian politics
Satanism
Soviet culture
Star Wars
Vladimir Putin
Product details
- ISBN 9780299353506
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 19 Aug 2025
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In this book, cultural historian Eliot Borenstein asks what happened when J. K. Rowling's mega-blockbuster, born in the United Kingdom and launched to global heights by Hollywood and the full force of Western marketing, came knocking on President Putin's door. The arrival of boy wizard and international star Harry Potter in a recently neoliberal Russia was enormously influential but neither smooth nor uncontested. The franchise quickly became a lens that focused Russians' national ambitions and fears during an era characterized by both the hegemony of popular culture and a conservative backlash.
With crisp, engaging prose, Borenstein leaps from Harry Potter into an exploration of the culture wars and moral panics sparked by the development of Western-inspired children's culture, extending back into the Soviet period and through the invasion of Ukraine, guiding us along a path as treacherous and intriguing, with as many surprising characters, dark corners, and historical side streets, as the wizarding world's Diagon Alley. As cultural products pitched ostensibly to children, the Harry Potter books and films became the perfect objects for criticism, translation, adaptation, parody, attack, mimicry, and meme-making, allowing Russians to carve out their own space in the worldwide market of magical multiverses.
With crisp, engaging prose, Borenstein leaps from Harry Potter into an exploration of the culture wars and moral panics sparked by the development of Western-inspired children's culture, extending back into the Soviet period and through the invasion of Ukraine, guiding us along a path as treacherous and intriguing, with as many surprising characters, dark corners, and historical side streets, as the wizarding world's Diagon Alley. As cultural products pitched ostensibly to children, the Harry Potter books and films became the perfect objects for criticism, translation, adaptation, parody, attack, mimicry, and meme-making, allowing Russians to carve out their own space in the worldwide market of magical multiverses.
Eliot Borenstein is a professor of Russian at New York University and the author of several books, including, most recently, Unstuck in Time: On the Post-Soviet Uncanny and Soviet Self-Hatred: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism in Contemporary Russia.
