The Russian Language Outside the Nation: Speakers and Identities (Russian Language and Society) - Hardcover

Lara Ryazanova-Clarke

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0748668454 ISBN 13: 9780748668458

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2014

Synopsis

This is the first book to examine Russian as a minority language in different countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, over 25 million Russian speakers ended up living outside their homeland. Some remained in the non-Russian former Soviet republics which became independent states, whilst others migrated. This book explores multiple issues connected to the Russian speaker's identity as a member of a linguistic minority in the new world configuration. This topic has received little scholarly attention but it is relevant not only for Russia but also for the policy makers and societies of the destination nations. It discusses language and identity of the Russian speakers outside Russia from a sociolinguistic perspective. It contributes to the understanding of developments in Russian as it engages with different new social, political, geographical, legal and cultural environments. It launches our new series Russian Language and Society.

About this title

About the Author

Lara Ryazanova-Clarke is Senior Lecturer and Head of Russian in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures and Academic Director of the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre at the University of Edinburgh.

From the Back Cover

Russian Language and Society Series Editor: Lara Ryazanova-Clarke Books in this series examine the interrelationships between Russian language and society. As language is often a central issue within Russian culture, anthropology, history, politics and sociology, the series provides a forum for scholars across several disciplines to examine these issues and expand the field of Russian Studies. 'Making an important contribution to emerging sociolinguistics of globalisation, this wide-ranging, comprehensive, and up-to-date collection explores political and demographic causes of unprecedented expansion of Russian in the globalised world. This volume offers intriguing insights into legal, social, economic, and sociolinguistic complexities of the ongoing transformation of the Russian linguasphere.' Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University The first book to examine Russian as a minority language in different countries The collapse of the Soviet Union dramatically changed the global distribution of the Russian language. Apart from Russia, it is now spoken in fourteen successor states of the former Soviet Union, while the increased mobility of Russian speakers has expanded russophone communities across the world. Taking a broad sociolinguistic perspective, this book explores a comprehensive set of tensions which emerged from the dislocated and deterritorialised position of Russian in the contemporary world. It examines contexts for shaping Russian speakers' identities in various locations across the globe, the shifting attitudes towards Russian language outside the metropolis, emerging new global varieties of Russian, and the use of Russian language as soft power in the transnational russophone media. In order to discuss problems posed by the current stage of globalisation of Russian, a number of non-metropolitan spaces are sampled: chapters take the reader to locations which include both the post-Soviet states, specifically Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Belarus, and the countries of the traditional 'West' - Italy, the US and Israel. A thought-provoking and engaging book, it is essential reading for advanced students and specialists in Russian and Eastern European Studies, Post-Soviet Studies, Language Studies and Sociolinguistics. Lara Ryazanova-Clarke is Senior Lecturer in Russian and Academic Director of the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre at the University of Edinburgh. Cover image: from the project Artconstitution, 2003, Alexander Sigutin. Used with the permission of the artist and S.ART (Petr Vois gallery). Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0748668454
• ISBN 13: 9780748668458
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Lara Ryazanova-Clarke