‘Europe-Asia Studies’: New review of 'Nostalgia, Anxiety, Politics'

We are pleased to announce that 'Nostalgia, Anxiety, Politics: Media and Performing Arts in Egypt, Central-Eastern Europe, and Russia' edited by Tetyana Dzyadevych has been reviewed by Aijan Sharshenova (Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia) and published in the ‘Europe-Asia Studies’, 78:1, pp. 133-135. Published online: 30 Jan 2026:

[…] This fascinating collection of diverse works at the intersections of memory, nostalgia, cultural production, propaganda and political mythmaking offers an invaluable contribution to the ongoing global scholarly and public debates on how the past informs and shapes the present and the interplays of reality and imagination in matters of remembrance. Exploring collective political memory and mythmaking, entertainment and propaganda, the authors offer kaleidoscopic accounts of unique and under-researched cases. […]
This book is recommended for students and researchers of political sociology, anthropology, culture studies and political studies, as well as for any lay reader. It will be of particular interest to those who come from or study the postsocialist world, as the book’s cultural references largely originate from there. Each contribution provides a unique glimpse of collective emotions and imaginations in specific times and places.

[Extract from book review on the journal ‘Europe-Asia Studies’, 78:1, pp. 133-135. Published online: 30 Jan 2026. Reviewer: Aijan Sharshenova (Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia.) DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2025.2589625]

Find out more about the book and order your copy here: Nostalgia, Anxiety, Politics: Media and Performing Arts in Egypt, Central-Eastern Europe, and Russia

This volume shows that the cultural production of nostalgia is a major tool for structuring feelings of resentment and anxiety. The current volume is concerned with collective nostalgia as it has been elicited, channeled, and weaponized by media production agents. The book aims to analyze how the performing arts and media (music, cinema, TV, etc.) generate and shape the feeling of collective nostalgia. It shows how the cultural production of nostalgia reflects distinct social-political contexts and serves particular political purposes. The collective monograph prioritizes cases from the post-Soviet context. However, the authors do not argue that the collapse of the socialist bloc in general, and the USSR in particular, has established some unique nostalgic precedent. The book claims that mechanisms of producing nostalgia and marshaling it for political purposes are broadly similar in most (modern or postmodern) settings. It is not our intent to demonize Russia, nor do we want Russia to be our dominant frame of reference, even if, in most of our cases here, 'nolens volens' appeared first in Russia-centric post-Soviet discourse. The “Russian bloc” has been placed in the second part of the book in order to give primacy to non-Russian subjects.

Title Nostalgia, Anxiety, Politics: Media and Performing Arts in Egypt, Central-Eastern Europe, and Russia [Hardback]
Edition 1st
ISBN 979-8-8819-0060-1
Published in January 2025