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Scorched by the Fire of War: Masculinity, War Wounds and Disability in Soviet Visual Culture, 1941–65
- Slavonic and East European Review
- Modern Humanities Research Association
- Volume 93, Number 2, April 2015
- pp. 251-285
- 10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.93.2.0251
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
Drawing on images reproduced in both professional and popular publications, this article charts the changing representation of the war-damaged man in Soviet visual culture from the outbreak of war in 1941 until the reinstatement of Victory Day as a public holiday in 1965. Through such images it is shown that art followed a very different trajectory than literature or film when it came to dealing with such problematic aspects of the war experience, a disjunction that is attributed to the inherent nature of the various cultural genres. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the most dramatic shift in the depiction of the damaged man came — not in the Thaw as we might expect — but in the mid 1960s as part of a wider reassessment of the War and its legacy in Soviet visual culture.