Literatures and Reading Communities

Photo by Natalia Samutina

Staff:

Our interest in the studies of contemporary reading is interdisciplinary and is defined by two main perspectives. The first one is a reception studies’ perspective. We are trying to pose questions about changes in contemporary reading practices: for example, the question of problematic reception of the Soviet period literature by contemporary readers; the role “classical literature” plays contemporary readers, etc. Another important perspective is the changes in literary communication, in the reading and in the forms of texts, produced by new agents, such as online communities of readers and writers. We study fan fiction and other unconventional new literatures as a new communicative and literary phenomena, applying a variety of methods, ranging from ethnographic field research to cultural sociology and cultural studies.

Our research areas include:

· Reception studies

· Cultural sociology of reading

· Fictionality in contemporary discourses

· Genre and formulaic literature

· Fan fiction and fan communities on the Internet

· Fan fiction as a form of contemporary literature

· Russian Harry Potter fan fiction community

Projects:

Status of a Document in Contemporary Culture: Theoretical Problems and Russian Social and Cultural Practices (RSFH, 2010–2012)

Publications:

Samutina, Natalia (2016). "Emotional landscapes of reading: fan fiction in the context of contemporary reading practices". International Journal of Cultural Studies. January.

Samutina, Natalia (2015). Emotional landscapes of reading. HSE Working papers. Series WP “Working Papers of Humanities”. #99.

Samutina, Natalia (2013). Velikie chitatelnitsy: fan fiction kak forma literaturnogo opyta [The Great Female Readers: Fan Fiction as a Literary Experience]. Sociologicheskoye obozrenie [Russian Sociological Review]. 12, #3.

Samutina, Natalia (2013). "The Care of the Self” in the 21st century: sex, love and family in Russian Harry Potter fan fiction. Digital Icons, #10.

Kaspe, Irina (2013). Vmesto doveriya: “rabota s documentami” v russkoy literature 2000-h [Instead of trust: ‘Document’ in Russian literature of the 2000s] in Status dokumenta: Okonchatelnaia bumazhka ili otchuzhdennoe svidetelstvo? [Status of document: final piece of paper or alienated testimony?]. Ed. Kaspe, Irina. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer Publishing House].

Kaspe, Irina (2011). The Meaning of (Private) Life, or Why Do We Read the Strugatskys? Russian Studies in Literature. Vol. 47, No. 4.

Kaspe, Irina (2011). Kuda delos’ buduschee: utopicheskoye zrenie, utopicheskoe chtenie I vospriyatie literatury Strugatskih. [Where is the Future? Utopian vision, utopian reading and reception of Strugatskys’ novels] in Puti Rossii. Buduschee kak kultura [Ways of Russia. Future as a culture]. Eds. Vakhshtein, Viktor; Pugacheva, Marina. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer Publishing House].

Kaspe, Irina (2011). Smysl (chastnojj) zhizni, ili Pochemu my chitaem Strugackikh? [The Sense of Private Life, or Why Do We Read Strugatsky Brothers?] in Kult kak fenomen literaturnogo processa. Avtor, Tekst, Chitatel [The cult as a phenomenon of the literary process. Author, Text Reader]. Eds. M. Nadyarnyh, A.Urakova. M.: IMLI RAN [The Gorky Institute of World Literature, the Russian Academy of Sciences].

Kaspe, Irina (2011). Apokalipsis-1990: "nastojaschee", "proshloe", "buduschee" v literaturnoj publicistike [Apocalypse-1990: "Present", "Past" and "Future" in Publicistic Articles] in 1990: Opyt izucheniya nedavney istorii [1990: the experience of studying the recent history]. Ed. Prohorova, Irina. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer Publishing House]. Vol. 1.

Stepanov, Boris. The Space of the City and Literary Imagination: the Legacy of Nikolai Antsiferov. Enthymema. 2014. Vol. 11.

Stepanov, Boris (2011). Kak sdelan 'Gospodin Geksogen': literaturnaya konstrukciya ideologicheskogo radikalizma i ee recepciya [How Gospodin Geksogen Was Made: Literary construction of the radical thinking and its reception] in Forum noveishei vostochnoevropeiskoi istorii i kul'tury [Forum of modern and recent history]. Vol. 8. #1.

Kaspe, Irina (2010). Kogda govoryat vesh’i: document i documentnost’ v russkoy literature 2000-h [When the Things are Talking: Document and Documentariness in Russian Literature of 2000^th]. Working paper WP6/2010/02. Moscow: State University Higher School of Economics.

Kaspe, Irina (2010). Certificate of What? Document and Documentation in Russian Contemporary Literature. Russian Review. Vol. 69. #4.

Samutina, Natalia (2009). Oni eto my. Fantastika i etika Fedora Svarovskogo [They are We. The Fantastic and the Ethics in the Poems by Fyodor Svarovsky] in Svarovsky, Fedor. Puteshestvenniki vo vremeni [Time-travelers]. M: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer Publishing House].

Kaspe, Irina (2009). Govorit tot, kto govorit “ya” (Diskussiya “Aksiologiya pamyati v literature”) [The discussion “Axiology of Memory in Literature”]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer]. #96.

Kaspe, Irina (2009). Klassika kak kollektivnyj opyt: literatura i teleserialy [The Classic as Common Experience: The TV-series and Literature] in Savelieva, Irina; Poletayev, Andrey, eds. Klassika i klassiki v sozial'nom i gumanitarnom znanii [Classics and Classicists in Modern Social and Humanitarian Disciplines]. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer Publishing House].

Kaspe, Irina (2008). Chteniye kak privatnyi opyt (Materialy kruglogo stola “Kultura i media”, MGU, oct. 2007) [Reading as a Private Experience (Materials of the International Workshop “Culture and Media”, Moscow State University, oct. 2007)]. Inostrannaya literatura [Foreign Literature]. #9.

Stepanov, Boris (2008). Literaturnyy skandal i politicheskoe voobrazhenie: A. Prochanov i ego “Gospodin Geksogen” [Literary scandal and political imagination: A. Prohanov and his "Gospodin Geksogen"]. Politiya. #50.

Kaspe, Irina (2007). Smysl (chastnoj) zhizni, ili Pochemu my chitaem Strugackikh? [The Sense of Private Life, or Why Do We Read Strugatsky Brothers?]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer]. #88.

Kaspe, Irina (2007). Manuscripts Are Kept Forever: Televised Series and Literature. Russian Studies in Literature. Vol. 43, #4.

Kaspe, Irina (2006). Rukopisi khranjatsja vechno: teleserialy i literatura [Manuscripts are Preserved Indefinitely: TV Serials and Literature]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer]. #78.

Kaspe, Irina (2005). Iskusstvo otsutstvovat: Nezamechennoe pokolenie russkoj literatury [Art of Absence: The Unnoticed Generation of Russian Literaturе]. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer Publishing House].

Kaspe, Irina (2005). Ot "molodosti" k "nezamechennosti": literaturnoe pokolenie v poslerevoljucionnoj emigracii [From "Youth" to "Unnoticedness": Literary Generation in Post-revolutionary Exile] in Pokolenie v sociokulturnom kontekste XX veka [Generation in the sociocultural context of the twentieth century]. Eds. N.A. Khrenov. M.: Nauka [Science].

Kaspe, Irina (2004). Proza Borisa Poplavskogo i ideja emigrantskogo soobschestva [The Fiction of Boris Poplavsky and the Idea of the Émigré Community] in Russkoe Zarubezhe: priglashenie k dialogu [Russian Diaspora: an invitation to dialogue]. Ed. L.V. Syrovatko. Kaliningrad.

Kaspe, Irina (2002). Begstvo ot vlasti: Literaturniy Zhurnal v Emigrazii i v Internete. “Chisla” (Parizh) i “TextOnly” [Escape from Power: Literary Magazine in a Foreign Land and Cyberspace: “Chisla” (Paris) and “TextOnly.ru”] in Kultura i vlast. Forum nemezkih i rossiyskih kulturologov [Culture and power. German and Russian cultural studies Forum]. Eds. K. Eimermacher, G.A. Bordyugov, I. Grabowsky. M.: AIRO-XX.

Kaspe, Irina (2001). Fenomen “aktual’noy literatury” v rossiyskoy kritike [The Phenomenon of the “Actual Literature” in Russian Reviews of Books]. Neprikosnovenniy zapas [Reserve Stock]. #16.

Kaspe, Irina (2001). Narod za Garri Pottera (The People for Harry Potter). Inostrannaya literature [Foreign Literature]. #5.

Kaspe, Irina (2001). Orientaziya na peresechennoy mestnosti: Strannaya proza Borisa Poplavskogo [Cross-country Orientation: Strange Fiction by Boris Poplavsky]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer]. #47.