How to Make Good Kids with Books: Post-Soviet Parenting and the Commodification of Children’s Literature

• Anastasia Rogova ^[1]
  1. [1] University of British Columbia

     University of British Columbia

     Canadá

     
• Localización: The Soviet and post-Soviet Review, ISSN 1075-1262, Vol. 43, Nº. 2, 2016, págs. 243-261
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article examines the place of children’s books in parenting strategies in Russian families. It approaches children’s books and their circulation in post-socialist Russia as one of the cultural sites where social distinction and gender are negotiated and articulated. It argues, in particular, that the importance of children’s books in post-Soviet parenting is related to a perceived insecurity of one’s social status and aspirations for a higher, or more secure, social position for themselves and their children. Genealogically, this importance draws on the Soviet-era understanding of books as a universal cultural value equally available to every Soviet citizen, but in this post-Soviet context, this idea is internalized and appropriated by the urban middle class as a means of creating and supporting social distinction.