Invention, institutionalization and renewal in Uzbekistan's national culture

Abstract

Accounts of national renewal in the republics of the former Soviet Union tend to present these regions as awakening from a long slumber of cultural repression. In this paper I argue against this notion, examining the ways that Soviet cultural institutions developed some aspects of national culture in Uzbekistan while suppressing others. The effects of Soviet institutions and ways of thinking about culture are examined in the context of contemporary cultural production in Uzbekistan, specifically the production of national holiday spectacles. Based on observation of these events and on interviews with cultural elites, I outline Soviet schemas of culture and trace the effects of these schemas on the elite's conception and presentation of Uzbekistan's national culture today.