The Theory of Genre Worlds in Case of Russian Popular Fiction

In contemporary Russian literature, there is a specific type of genre literature about so-called “podadants”, which is the Russian word for heroes and heroines traveling to other worlds and other times. In addition to this basic motif, this is literature published in mass quantities, usually within special genre editions, which also uses elements of other fantastic genres. One of its branches, working with alternative history, often has a very nationalistic or revanchist subtext. Overall, the “podadants” genre is a complex literary and social phenomenon that cannot be grasped from just one side. One way to examine it is to take help from a publication that deals with similar phenomena, albeit in a completely different context. The authors of Genre Worlds: Popular Fiction and Twenty-First-Century Book Culture propose the concept of “genre worlds” (as sets of people and practices that operate according to established and emerging patterns of collaboration to produce texts that make popular genres recognizable) and use them to research contemporary fantasy, romance, and detective novels. Their methods, although applied to the English-language sphere of literature, can also be helpful in researching the specifics of the genre, which is inherently typical of the Russian environment.