ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 introduces the thematic and theoretical framework of the book, drawing on Walter Benjamin’s notion of phantasmagoria. Translating this notion to a communist context, the chapter argues that phantasmagoria takes on an essential methodological role through which it is possible to articulate the spectral cityscape of communist modernity. The chapter further focuses on the significance of the interior and its importance in structuring one’s subjectivity. Finally, the last section introduces the notion of an Eastern phantasmagoria to speak about specific processes of the communist condition.
