All-Russian scientific conference with international participation
«The First Chumakov Readings. Text and Reader» (Novosibirsk, April 27–28, 2018)

The conference was dedicated to the memory of Professor Yuri Nikolaevich Chumakov. The
conference began with a speech by E. I. Khudozhina about the life and scientific activity
of Yu. N. Chumakov. The general theme of the conference was related to the study of works of
fiction and documentary (memoirs, travelogues) literature in two aspects: «The reader as an intext
instance» and «The reader as a sociocultural phenomenon». Most reports were concerned
with the main topic. Attention should be paid to the speeches of О. N. Turysheva (Yekaterinburg)
and E. A. Poleva (Tomsk), reports of Novosibirsk researchers L. I. Zhurova, N. V. Konstantinova,
O. A. Farafonova, A. A. Ponomareva, E. G. Nikolaeva. The theme «The Reader as an in-text
instance» involved the reports dealing with analytical commentary as a method of reading the
text. It is of importance to highlight the report of V. E. Golovchiner (Tomsk) and the speeches
of Novosibirsk philologists Yu. V. Shatin, V. V. Maroshi, G. A. Zhilicheva, N. A. Muratova,
N. A. Ermakova, I. V. Kuznetsov, K. V. Abramova, as well as the joint report of E. V. Kapinos
and E. Yu. Kulikova. The second thematic area of the conference «The reader as a sociocultural
phenomenon» involved the reports of K. Yu. Zubkov (St. Petersburg), T. I. Pecherskaya (Novosibirsk),
T. Yu. Klimova (Irkutsk), E. V. Tyryshkina (Novosibirsk). In particular, we should
acknowledge the report by I. E. Loshchilov (Novosibirsk) co-authored with A. B. Ustinov (San
Francisco). An interesting special event of the conference was the presentation of O. A. Donskikh
(Novosibirsk) with a philosophical reflection «What did we lose by becoming readers?» At the
end of the conference, the participants exchanged their impressions and discussed the further development
of the Chumakov Readings project.