Социалните орбити на "Междузвездни войни"
The social orbits of the Star Wars Beyond the East and the West

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the social lives of the Star Wars fi lm trilogy by George Lucas in socialist Bulgaria. In so doing, the purpose is to contribute to the writing of the history of Bulgarian socialism. Considering both state repertoire policies and viewers experiences indeed leads us to offer a complex image of East-West cultural exchanges during the Cold War that goes beyond the alternative between Eastern “opposition” to and/or “imitation” of the West. More specifi cally, I argue fi rst that, although Bulgarian and Soviet movies were given priority in cinematic repertoire, from the 1960s onwards the growing pursuit of profi tability, the desire to fulfi l the tastes of a diversifi ed audience and the longing for international recognition favored the selective import of Western Sci-fi movies. The release of Star Wars mirrors those choices. Second, the decoding of Western feature fi lms by Bulgarian audiences cannot be reduced to a mere political act of resistance, a reading “in between the lines”. The popular success of the Star Wars has to be interpreted in relation to the popularity of a science fi ction genre, whose historical and geographic developments did not espouse the spatial and temporal cleavages of the Cold War. Finally, if for some audiences fascination with Star Wars was part and parcel of their search for an alternative utopia, others still were engaged in a metaphysical quest for meaning that approached science (fi ction) through its mysteries.

• Details
• Contents