Through the looking-glass of Russian national cinema, Pride and Panic explores Russia's anxious adjustment towards the expansion of Western culture. Russian film is shown, in both its creation and perception, to expose the intriguing dynamics of societal psychological conditions. Using specific film examples, the book delves into the subterranean recesses of Russian national consciousness, exposing an internal ambivalence and complex cultural reaction towards the rise of the West. These fears, fantasies and tremulous anxieties are examined through the representation of the West in films by both established and lesser-known Russian directors. Using a highly original and unorthodox approach, the author parallels the shifting dynamics of attitudes and identity in Russia, caused by globalization, to stages of development in an individual human psyche. The book cohesively unveils the psychological turmoil experienced by Russia towards a change in global relations. A text of particular interest to scholars, students and readers involved with contemporary film and, in particular, Russian cinema and culture.

Yana Hashamova, Associate Professor of Slavic Studies, is Director of the Center for Slavic and East European Studies at the Ohio State University. She is also Associate Faculty member of the Departments of Comparative Studies, Film Studies, Women's Studies, and the Mershon Center for International Security. Her co-edited (with Helena Goscilo) volume Cinepaternity: Fathers and Sons in Soviet and Post-Soviet Film came out from Indiana University Press (March 2010). She has also co-edited (wiith Helena Goscilo) a special section 'Women in War: Mobilisation, Manipulation, and Marginalisation on the Eastern Front', ASPASIA: International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and South Easterneuropean Gender and Women's History (April 2010). In addition, she has published numerous articles in the areas of Russian and East European film, drama, comperative literature and the arts, critical theory and gender studies.