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Hollywood Film behind the Iron Curtain: Cold War Nostalgias in Chuck Norris vs Communism (2015)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 January 2021
Abstract
This article focusses on the American reception of a British–Romanian documentary about the black market for VHS Hollywood films in 1980s Romania. The film uses two different registers of nostalgia. On the one hand, it functions as an ostalgic media product that engages Eastern European viewers by building upon a sense of continuity with the socialist past. On the other hand, its surprising success in the American conservative blogosphere reveals the endurance of Cold War exceptionalist tropes. My analysis expands current discussions of post-socialist nostalgia, arguing for the relevance of the concept of ostalgia for the field of American studies.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2021
References
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