Format: on Shaninka campus
Language: Russian
Moderators: Ekaterina Blatova (EUSP student), Vladislav Rumyantsev (EUSP postgraduate student), Polina Pelyagina (EUSP postgraduate student)

The academic study of texts has been marked by the publication of «First Steps Towards the History of Reading» (Darnton, 1989), that can be considered programmatic for the development of a new branch of humanities knowledge known today as the history of reading. The main goal of this field is to understand the context in which a text exists, including socio-political factors and cultural foundations that influenced the reader's perception of it at the time it was created. By examining the environment of a text, we can gain a deeper understanding of it and its impact on society. This approach extends beyond traditional forms of media such as books and magazines, and includes the broader graphosphere (Franklin, 2019), which encompasses all forms of visible writing that influence readers. This includes not only printed materials, but also digital media and other forms of communication. By exploring the graphosphere, we can better understand how texts shape our perceptions and influence our lives.

The materialized text involves not only the author in the process of its creation. Publishers, editors, and translators, among others, make a choice for a particular text for various reasons. These decisions may be influenced by factors such as censorship, the desire to satisfy contemporary demands, or to provoke discussion and interest. The reader of the text also makes choices based on trends, personal tastes, or affiliation with a particular community. The reader's perception is the most elusive and at the same time one of the most significant aspects in the history of reading. The problem of finding and verifying sources becomes crucial here, which is why works in this area often take the form of case studies. In light of this feature of the field, we turn to the concept of the «imaginary reader,» which emphasizes the potential variability in reading experiences. In this section, we want to focus on the reader's perception of a text, whether it is the direct reader or an indirect one, such as a censor, translator, or editor.

The purpose of this section is to have an interdisciplinary discussion on the role of text in shaping social, cultural, and political contexts related to the figure of the reader. We invite philologists, historians, art historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and other humanities researchers to discuss how text exists before and after publication, including the actors and strategies that allow it to reach readers in various forms. We also want to explore how readers find and respond to texts, as well as how other participants, such as censors and booksellers, influence the audience and reading practices. Expanding the scope of this discussion, we aim to include research on texts that exist not only in print publications but also in other contexts, such as the city, buildings (graffiti), screens (subtitles), and more. We hope to gain a deeper understanding of how texts are received and interpreted by different audiences.