Diaspora Reads 
Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism

Angelos Theocharis

Cover of Diaspora Reads

Click cover to enlarge

 Open access under:
CC BY-NC 4.0
CC BY-NC 4.0 logo

Transcript 35

Legenda

  Spring 2025

ISBN: 978-1-839543-07-4 (hardback)  •  RRP £95, $120, €120

ISBN: 978-1-839543-08-1 (paperback, forthcoming)

ISBN: 978-1-839543-09-8 (JSTOR ebook)

ModernEnglishRussianFictionopen

Diaspora Reads explores the role of literature and reading practices in the community life of Russian-speaking migrants in Britain. Russophone culture abounds with myths related to the special mission of literature and the writer in society. Most of them have been formed and reformed in the course of centuries, while others, like the myth of the most well-read nation, are more recent. The wider cultural myth of Russian literaturocentrism encompasses the sacralisation of highbrow literature, the idolisation of authors as heroes and martyrs, and the idealisation of avid readership. Following the discussions, games, and celebrations of a community book club in London, Diaspora Reads demonstrates how collective reading allows migrants to form shared cultural identities, forge communities, build a long-distance relationship with their homelands, and become members of a global network of readers.

Angelos Theocharis is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of Media, Culture, Heritage at Newcastle University.

Bibliography entry:

Theocharis, Angelos, Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism, Transcript, 35 (Legenda, 2025)

First footnote reference: 35 Angelos Theocharis, Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism, Transcript, 35 (Legenda, 2025), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Theocharis, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Theocharis, Angelos. 2025. Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism, Transcript, 35 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Theocharis 2025: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Theocharis 2025: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Permanent link to this title:

www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Diaspora-Reads
www.mhra.org.uk/publications/t-35