Leiden University Student Repository

Wilson, James (2020)

Imagining Mnogonatsional'nost': The Representation of a Multiethnic Nation in Contemporary Kazahkstani Film

Master thesis | Russian and Eurasian Studies (MA)

This thesis analyzes the representation of Kazakhstan as a multiethnic nation in contemporary Kazakhstani cinema. Although much has been made of how the state has attempted to build the image of Kazakhstan as inherently multiethnic, in focusing on film, this thesis hopes to go some way to exploring the representation of Kazakhstani mnogonational'nost' (multinational-ness) at the popular level. In doing so, the thesis argues that there are several competing representations of 'multiethnic Kazakhstan'. One, arguably the more prominent, represents Kazakhstani mnogonational'nost' in a totalized, essentialized and depoliticized manner reminiscent of Soviet categories of nationality. Other emerging representations, meanwhile, appear to offer more complexity.

Kazakhstan

film studies

film

multiculturalism

mnogonational'nost'

postcolonial studies

Author

Wilson, James

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Boele, Otto

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en