Simulating the past: Reenactment and the quest for truth in Russia

Abstract

Reference to the past is a significant part of the postmodern situation, where historical texts are quoted, interpreted and re-used, mostly in popular culture. Using signs and codes of the past is a way to create one's one history, or to construct a space for an escape from everyday reality. The latter activity is characteristic for a number of contemporary youth subcultures. These subcultures (living history and reenactment groups, role-play game groups, Tolkien fan groups) are engaged in different practices of reinterpreting and reenacting of the past (primarily the Middle Ages) Their activities combine constructing mythical reality, and making material objects (costume, weaponry, etc.) to create a particular image of themselves in this mythic reality. Both fantasy and historical texts are seen by members of these subcultures as a flexible blend of signs, which the members of subcultures feel free to manipulate. Thus the produced material objects and reenacted practices are simulacra, referring not to the reality of the past, but, finally, to the texts about texts about the past. The people involved in these activities mostly realize they produce simulations. Some are contented with this situation as far as material simulacra correspond with textual simulacra. Others strive to restore the lost connection with reality, making ‘authenticity’ their ultimate aim; still, they also end with hyper-real objects belonging to a past, understood and simulated in a very special way. This seems to be quite symptomatic for contemporary culture: we do not only construct the most desirable image of the past; we also develop material production of it.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 19 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.