Soviet Science Fiction Cinema and the Space Age

Natalija Majsova is assistant professor at the University of Ljubljana.

• Introduction: “To Begin With, There Must Be a Will to Remember.”Chapter 1: Soviet Space and the Battlegrounds of 20th Century Science Fiction CinemaChapter 2: Aelita’s Mark and the Many Faces of Utopia?hapter 3: The Space Futures of Socialist RealismChapter 4: The Space Age and Its Others: Soviet SF between Gagarin and GorbachevChapter 5: Little Soldiers, Perfect Aliens, and Spoilt Brats: Soviet and Post-Soviet Space Kids as Liminal AgentsChapter 6: An Explosive Expansion: Soviet SF in the 1980s and Its LegacyChapter 7: The Province Called Earth: The Trope of Outer Space in Post-Soviet Russian CinemaChapter 8: Reinterpretations of the Soviet History of Spaceflight in Contemporary Russian BlockbustersConclusion: “If It Got Recorded, It Had To Be True.” Replay, Rewatch, Remember?

For Soviet culture, space flight used to be a dream that turned reality, first on screen and later in the deed. The link between science and cinema became a testing ground for future achievements in the cosmos. Natalija Majsova's Soviet Science Fiction Cinema and the Space Age: Memorable Futures is an engagingly written study of sci-fi films about space, Soviet and post-Soviet, which studies the films through a kaleidoscope of approaches, from the cosmos as utopian space, space exploration, liminality of outer space and Othering, as well as memory. Majsova offers a refreshing break from traditional readings of science-fiction film and representation of space as she subordinates patriotic discourse to a more global approach. This book makes a great addition to studies of science-fiction film and cosmic space in Russia.