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In:The Moving Canon(s) of Slavic Children’s Literature
Edited by Mateusz Swietlicki, Dorota Michułka and Zofia Zasacka
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 20] 2026
► pp. 158–178

Chapter 8
Different actors in contemporary canon formation

The case of teen literature in Russia

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Abstract
This chapter reexamines traditional approaches to canon formation, which focus on authors, critics, and individual works, and instead offers an approach centered on themes, protagonist agency, and narration, using post-1991 Russian adolescent fiction as a case study. We describe teen literature written since the fall of the Soviet Union, focusing on texts that characterize what we call the third wave (2018–2022). Third-wave works are told in the protagonist’s voice and feature normalization as protagonists are ordinary young teens who solve their own everyday problems. The role of the reader is emphasized; readers’ responses to the works they read influence the direction literature takes and shape the canon as it forms and develops.
Article outline
  • Russian young adult fiction, 1991–2017
  • The third wave of Russian adolescent fiction begins now
  • The teen reader and the canonization of young adult texts
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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