The British Myth of Russia

This book is devoted to the problem of perceiving and describing the national Other. It is focused on the British myth of Russia as a product of such perception and description, and considers this myth a particular semiotic structure developed in British culture and a sustainable mental unit of collective British consciousness. Expressed in images, stereotypes, judgements, and plots, the myth of Russia is shown here to have been formed gradually, based on the ideas engendered by complex cultural, historical and sociopolitical context of different epochs.

It describes all major stages of shaping the myth of Russia in British culture, and analyses the specific nature of all semantic layers, correspondent to these stages. The book explores the forms the myth takes in British fiction, and will appeal to specialists in imagology, comparative studies, English literature and intercultural communication, as well as to a much wider audience.