Lower‐Class Reading in Late Imperial Russia

Bibliographic Data

ID10482138
AuthorsSarah Badcock (0000-0003-3377-3475, corresponding author), Florence Cowan (0000-0002-5142-5418, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume82
Issue4
Pages649-667
Publication date2023-05-12
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Russian Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-0341 • E-ISSN: 1467-9434
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/russ.12497
OpenAlexW4381793700
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited14

This article demonstrates widespread engagement of lower‐class people with the written word in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Russian Empire, in rural and urban locales, in homes, workplaces, and social spaces. We explore how lower‐class people read: the daily habits, personal relationships, and social spaces that shaped engagement with texts, and especially collective reading, a widespread phenomenon that extended the reach of the written word to less‐ or non‐literate audiences. Many lower‐class Russians experienced reading as a collective, public, aural activity, not a solitary, private, internal one. Reading was entwined with the rhythms of everyday social life and provoked critical thought and active engagement within countless lower‐class reading groups, as evidenced by collective letter‐writing and observations of post‐reading discussions. This article therefore contributes to scholarship exploring lower‐class Russians’ conscious and meaningful engagement with the textual world, and by association with late imperial Russia’s transforming social and political spheres

Class (philosophy · Epistemology · Everyday life · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Scholarship · Social class · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Themes in Literature Analysis

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access