MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

The continuing political development between Russia and Ukraine has afforded a new generation of political theorists and journalists alike to rekindle the flames of Cold War rhetoric. An examination of prior political discourse between the Soviet Union and the United States might offer an indication of what to expect. The reception of Alan Sherman’s 1964 work Peter and the Commissar illustrates the process through which a satirical work of popular culture comes to function as diplomatic discourse and as such can point towards the possible reception of similar statements in the modern political world.

Sherman’s adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev’s 1936 composition for children, Peter and the Wolf, exists as a cultural object which serves a political function in the realm of popular culture. Sherman’s appropriation simultaneously negates the Soviet understanding of the musical and literary themes while supporting American conceptions of intellectual property and bureaucracy. As such, tracing the changes made by the American comedian, as well as the Soviet reactions to them, reveals how works of popular culture can function as unofficial diplomatic statements.

In order for statements to be received by audiences as intended, mutually intelligible symbols must be used. In the adaptation from Prokofiev to Sherman, the musical material from the Soviet composition, as well as popular understandings of the wolf as a literary figure, together provide the symbols which allow for diplomatic communication. This paper establishes the wolf as an effective metaphor for political actors and bodies of the United States and Russia. Contemporary examples of the employment of lupine metaphors in popular discourse reveal that the lessons gleaned from the performance and reception of Sherman’s work continue to be relevant, and can provide a cautionary tale for how various actors in contemporary Russo-American diplomatic relations might change and behave in response to similar declarations.