The third international conference "Oriental Readings: Religions, Cultures, and Literature", held on February 4-5, 2016 at the Gorky Institute of World Literature (RAS), was dedicated to the memory of N. I. Nikulin, a prominent Vietnamese scholar who for a long time headed the Department of Oriental and African Literature of IMLI. Two previous conferences were organized in memory of other outstanding Russian Orientalists-B. B. Parnikel and I. S. Braginsky, who made a significant contribution to the development of the eastern direction of literary studies in our country. But the memory of those who have worked with these scientists for a long time, and those who are grateful to them and master the literature of distant countries and continents, lives in the hearts of people. Today, this tradition is continued by the new heads of this division of the Institute-N. V. Zakharova and A. S. Balakhovskaya. At a difficult time for academic science, they managed to unite many researchers scattered in various scientific and educational centers of our country and abroad, who are already rare, one might even say that they have become unique subjects of humanitarian knowledge in areas, topics, problems of development and modern evolution of literatures, cultures and religions of Asian and African countries. And to bring together, by expanding the horizons of humanitarian interdisciplinarity, to introduce modern research into the circle not only of the "traditional cycle", but also of acute relevance, means to help expand the reference points and provide new opportunities for the research of the younger generation, which was sufficiently represented at the "Eastern Readings".

PROZHOGINA Svetlana Viktorovna-Doctor of Philology, Professor, Chief Researcher of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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The Eastern Readings included several sections: "Late Antiquity and Byzantium"; "China, Japan, Mongolia"; "Africa", "Southeast Asia", and "The Middle East". A wide range of regions is evidence of the real achievements of Russian Orientalists and Africanists.

The plenary session was opened by IMLI academic supervisor A. B. Kudelin, who made a report on the concept of "imitation" in medieval Arabic poetry. Nguyen Huy Son (Institute of Literature, Hanoi) spoke about the half-century of N. I. Nikulin's service to science and culture in Vietnam. The scientist, who would have turned 85 today, not only brought up a whole school of Russian Orientalists and Africanists over three decades, whose works adequately represent the results of the formation of new research directions in the XX - early XXI centuries, but also became the main literary critic of Vietnam, which indicates a significant contribution of the Russian school to the study of national literature in this country.

At the plenary session, E. M. Diakonova (IMLI)also presented "cross-cutting" motives of the influence of one national culture on another about the Japanese theme in the culture of the Russian Silver Age. She connected different aesthetic principles of distant countries, united them with a common love of beauty and sophistication of the image and Russia's idea of the East as a "paradise lost".

Equally interesting was the report of E. N. Kulikova (Institute of Philology SB RAS, Novosibirsk) on the image of Africa in N. Gumilyov's poetry. Based on the examples of the collection of his poems "Tent" and "African Diary", N. Gumilev's new concepts of Russian historical identity, which combines both Western and Eastern features, were considered. The researcher emphasized that the poet saw a world not only defined by personal impressions, but also fictional, where reality is reinterpreted and conditioned by the poetic coupling of images.

The report of V. V. Remarchuk (ISAA MSU) dealt with translations of works by major Vietnamese poets and philosophers T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, N. Gumilev, A. Akhmatova, K. Simonov. T. V. Kudryavtseva (IMLI) considered the role and place of Middle and Middle Eastern poetry in the latest versification of German-speaking poets (1900-2000), noted features of perception of traditional models of versification by modern German and Middle Eastern poets (natives of Iran and Turkey) who write in German.

The large-format problems of the plenary session devoted to the interaction of cultures of different peoples were replaced by more specific problems of regional development of Asian and African literatures in the work of specialized sections. Thus, at the section "Late Antiquity and Byzantium" in the report of A. S. Balakhovskaya (IMLI), the legend of the vineyard of the widow of Theognost in the Byzantine hagiography of John Chrysostom was analyzed. According to the researcher, this narrative exposes the lawlessness and arbitrariness of the imperial power, despite the "proclaimed symphony" of church and state. It was this pathos of denunciation that was in demand in hagiography, and the legend became an indispensable attribute of all the lives of John Chrysostom.

In a report by T. L. Alexandrova (Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University of St. Petersburg State University) on the work of Empress Evdokia, it was noted that the fascination with only the facts of the historical biography of the Empress often distorted the meaning of her work. It is necessary to link the historical context and biography of Evdokia, which will help to better understand the nature of her work and clarify many historical parallels.

A.V. Anashkin (St. Petersburg State University) in his report "Epistolary traces in Byzantine church canonical and legal erotapocrises of the 1st XI century" investigated the question of the genre nature of canonical "questions and answers", considered on the basis of the canonical answers of Metropolitan Nikita of Irakli. According to the speaker, the text is based on a long-lasting correspondence, which determined the genre nature of the canonical "questions and answers".

P. K. Dobrotsvetov (Moscow Theological Academy) devoted a speech to the reconstruction of the logic of the principles of exegesis of Clement of Alexandria (150-215), whose main feature of his work was a tendency to allegorism. In accordance with the spiritual-allegorical interpretation, which is combined with the stoic concept of what is subject to moral judgment, the author of the work "Who of the Rich will be saved" concludes that both wealth and poverty

1 Medieval genre of Christian Byzantine exegesis "questions and answers" (a kind of commentary).

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they can be "good" and "evil", and "indifferent", and thus, according to the speaker, Clement of Alexandria refutes the commonness of common ideas about wealth "as good" and poverty "as evil".

The section" China, Japan and Mongolia " was attended by reports of both well-known and young scientists, which aroused considerable interest in the novelty of developments and topics. Thus, MSU ISAA graduate student N. Y. Petrenko focused on the well-known "Tale of Genji" in the gender aspect, seeing in the abundance of female characters of the work in the context of Japanese literature of the IX-XII centuries. distinctive features. Emphasizing the role, behavior, assessment of the appearance and manners of the heroines from different points of view gives the" Story " volume, dynamics, and speech characteristics of the heroines indicate different levels of education of that era.

Yu. V. Minakova (INION RAS) spoke about the Chinese poems "kangxi" in the works of the Japanese poet-monk Ryokan (1768-1830), referring to the Zen tradition in Japan, emphasizing the uniqueness of the poetic cycles about the Lotus Sutra, the combination of different genres in Ryokan poetry, as well as his use of images of Li Bo and Du Fu.

S. V. Nikolskaya (ISAA MSU) drew attention to such a question as the reader's interest in the writer's personality on the example of the collection of short stories by the Chinese San Mao (1943-1991) about the everyday life of the desert inhabitants, where the importance of human communication and love is affirmed, and the loss of a loved one becomes equivalent to the loss of the meaning of life. To the researcher, this example seems to embody the trinity of communication between the author, narrator and reader.

N. Kirnosova (Kiev National University). Taras Shevchenko University) dedicated her speech to the "concept of stupidity" in the works of the contemporary Chinese writer of Tibetan origin Alai, who received the Mao Tung Prize in 2005 for his novel "Settling Dust". According to the speaker, the originality of Alai's interpretation of the traditional concept of Chinese literature is manifested in its ambiguity: the writer evaluates the hero's actions in such a way that stupidity in the system of generally accepted values today is, on the contrary, wisdom.

The subject of the post-graduate student A. S. Trunova (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) is "family romance" in Chinese literature, which has received worldwide recognition in such samples as" Plum Flowers in a golden vase "(XVII century) and" Dream in the Red Chamber " (XVIII century). Speaking about the Chinese specifics, the researcher emphasized the special spatial and temporal characteristics associated with keeping numerous concubines in the house ("Plum Blossoms"); the boldness and openness of love descriptions, the detailed display of hereditary relationships in aristocratic families ("Dream in the Red Chamber") and the authors ' undisguised sympathy for female characters.

In the report of N. V. Zakharova (IMLI) On journalism in China at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which laid the foundations for a new literary style, it was noted that periodicals began to appear in China due to the activities of Christian missionaries. They were intended for a limited audience, primarily for Chinese youth who received a classical Confucian education, unlike the intellectuals of the previous generation. At the beginning of the 20th century, essays of the "new style" appeared in periodicals, expanding the subject matter, becoming more relevant and moving away from strict aesthetic canons.

The report by Ni (an independent researcher) spoke about the role of Chinese words in Korean poetry in creating a special image with several meanings. It was emphasized that Chinese characters had a significant impact on the development of Korean culture and Confucian philosophy.

E. A. Osminina (MGLU) addressed a topic related to the image of China in the poetry of K. Balmont, known for his love of exoticism. The researcher's conclusion is that art and poetry - the world of the imaginary-inspired K. Balmont much more than personal impressions or even scientific observations of the real world during his Harbin trip in the spring of 1916.

Nishido Kitaro (1870-1945), an important figure in Japanese intellectual history, is the subject of a report by E. L. Skvortsova (IB RAS). In its interpretation, the Japanese philosopher was neither a representative of the nationalist wing of the Kyoto school of philosophy, which extolled the traditional culture of imperial Japan, nor its antipode, but rather a "moderate" thinker who objectively assessed the problems of Japanese culture.

New drama of the Mongols in the XX century and the works of S. Buyannemekh (1907-1987) - the topic of the report of O. A. Sapozhnikova (MSU). She drew attention to the fact that it was during this period that the tradition of enlightenment emerged, the role of the writer was strengthened, and the first national poetics "Gates of Literature"was created. Mongolian literature appealed to the feelings and thoughts of the common man,

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showing how difficult it is to establish a new way of social life, a new public morality. Thanks to the efforts and creativity of Buyannemekh, Mongolian literature has acquired a unique national flavor.

At the "Southeast Asia" section, many reports were presented, touching upon the problems of both traditional and modern culture. E. S. Kukushkina's speech (MSU) was devoted to the use of the collision of the Malay medieval "Tale of Hang Tuah" in the realistic and post-realist interpretation of modern authors. Some of them sought to portray the real problems of life, while others saw in the medieval conflict a purely religious meaning, saturating the text with Islamic allusions. The speaker concludes that different references to the same source show the dynamics of changes in creative methods that are characteristic of the accelerated type of development of modern literature.

Indonesian problems were discussed in the report of ISAA graduate student Yu. S. Yershova, who studies the course of sastra vanga ("aromatic literature") in the context of modern prose (1990-2010). The current themes, stylistics, and linguistic forms of this type of prose indicate that there is a surge of feminist literature in Indonesia that raises the issue of the status of women in the country, the problems of polygamy, and the need to address previously taboo motives such as sex and domestic violence. Gender aspects of contemporary prose in Indonesia are becoming increasingly resonant in society.

The work of the Indonesian writer Janar Maesa Ayu (early 2000s) was analyzed by a graduate student M. V. Frolova (MSU ISAA), who studied zoomorphic images of the characters of her stories. Partly reminiscent of animal tales, the symbolic images of the "Jakarta bestiary" of the writer, according to the speaker, in addition to the gender aspect, demonstrate the features of postmodernism, the naturalness of the movement "from nature to man" in traditional culture, changing to the opposite - "from man to nature", turning people into animals - inhabitants of the "jungle" of the metropolis of Jakarta.

The report of the Vietnamese scholar Tao Tuan Anh (Institute of Literature of the Academy of Social Sciences of Vietnam), based on published materials on the process of perception of Leo Tolstoy's work in Vietnam, shows the process of perception of aesthetics and philosophy of the great Russian writer in the course of modernization of Vietnamese society and its culture. French translations of Leo Tolstoy's work expanded and enriched the artistic world of the Vietnamese people, and contributed to the renewal of their language and literature.

N. E. Geronina (IMLI) analyzed the nature of disputes among Vietnamese literary critics about the periodization of the history of medieval literature. Once upon a time, the compilers of ancient Vietnamese anthologies arranged their collected works according to the dynastic chronology. But the modern authors of A Brief History of Vietnamese Literature (1957) "divided" the literature of the feudal era into two large periods: from the XIII to the XV century and from the XVI to the middle of the XIX century. In recent years, there has been a new surge of interest in the problem of periodization in connection with plans to create a multi-volume history.

A. A. Sokolov (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) considered the question of the formation of a new Vietnamese literature, in the process of which Nguyen Van Vinh, a journalist, writer, and translator (1882-1936), played an important role. His vivid creativity contributed to the creation of modern literature - prose genres of short stories and novels, as well as the birth of modern drama and theater. Wang Vinh consistently advocated the modernization of Vietnamese society, actively promoted the achievements of European science and became a kind of bridge between East and West, connecting their cultures.

Thai issues were discussed in the report of PhD student K. B. Volkova (MSU ISAA) "Nation, Religion, King: the politicization of Thai Drama during the reign of Rama VI (1910-1925)". Siam, faced with internal problems, tried to overthrow the absolute monarchy and establish democratic forms of government. But the king tried to educate Siamese people to change their social conditions by politicizing the popular theatrical drama in the country, and made the popular spectacle a means of promoting his political and social ideas. A new conversational drama was created, in which, along with traditional dance theater, existing slogans were introduced to this day, uniting Thais in a triad: "nation-religion-king".

In the 1920s, the ethnic Khmer community in South Vietnam developed a new form of theater designed for a mass audience, using music and a conversational genre. Currently in Cambodia, this theater is known as "basak", and a graduate student

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ISAA (MSU) I. N. Shmeleva noted that the eclecticism of the form contributed to the renewal of the theater and loyalty to tradition, from which many stories related to the aesthetic values of the peoples of Southeast Asia are still drawn.

The "Middle East" section presented reports that reflect new aspects of studying the literatures, cultures and religions of the Middle East.

M. A. Alontsev's speech (RSUH) dealt with "direct" and "indirect" apologetics in Sufi hagiography at the end of the tenth century. The researcher stressed that "direct" apologetics are not the only source of legitimization of the Sufi movement. Equally important was the use of the extensive tools of "indirect" apologetics in the practice and theory of early Sufism, for example, stories about the prophetic inspiration of Sufis and initiations that took place in a dream or during prolonged seclusion, etc.

A well-known researcher of Sufism, M. L. Reisner (ISAA MSU), in her report "On dreams in the Persian Qasida of the XI - XII centuries", argued that "dream" is not only a literary genre, it is most often "embedded" in large genre forms and "adapts" to the reality in which it is incorporated. Persian Qasids of the XI-XII centuries. They provide extensive material that demonstrates the functional use of the dream motif as a method of organizing the composition and structure of the text.

N. B. Kovyrshina (Gymnasium No. 1257, RUDN University) presented a report on the modern short story in Jordan, which showed the rise of this small genre against the background of the development of the novel. Preserving national traditions and using the achievements and artistic achievements of other literatures, small literary forms offered the Jordanian reader a new perspective on "known" problems, and in the context of the "Arab Spring" and military conflicts, they showed the tragedy of breaking the "natural course" of history. Having the utmost laconism and the property of "conjecturing" situations, the Jordan story, saturated with elements of artistic expression, has won a wide readership.

PhD student A.V. Berezina (MGIMO(U)) spoke about the literature of Iran, which is increasingly being formed in the women's environment The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation), considering that this phenomenon is connected with the objectively changed role of women in the Muslim world. Iranian women writers, as the speaker showed, are increasingly penetrating the deep facets of the female soul, but they do not avoid acute social issues.

E. A. Krivets (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) dedicated her speech to Copts and Coptic culture. She noted that the concepts of "Coptic language", "Coptic history", etc.that exist in the scientific world and are related to the concept of "Copt" are used in different meanings and content. The ancient Egyptian language, the Christian period of Egypt's history, the country's cultural achievements at that time, and the Egyptians who deviated from Orthodox Christianity to Monophysitism are called Coptic at the same time. However, according to E. A. Krivets, Copts are an integrated part of the Egyptian nation, which has religious cohesion, preserves its own customs, its own Christian worldview, but has become a confessional minority as a result of historical trials.

The Africa section focused on North Africa, Mali, and sub-Saharan culture.

The report of N. D. Lyakhovskaya (IMLI) noted new phenomena in the literature of Ivory Coast, related to the appeal of writers to the history of the war in Vietnam, which, like the Ivory Coast, fought with the French colonialists. E. A. Ryauzova (IMLI) emphasized the importance of the appeal of the Portuguese authors of the XVII century to the East (China), this later stimulated the emergence of colonial literature in the Portuguese colonies of Africa, and then the emergence of African and national literatures proper.

Mali with its traditional culture was presented in the report of P. A. Kutsenko (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences), who returned from the second expedition to the Dogon Plateau. It is rare for a true Africanist to see firsthand what you do with scientific passion and interest. Based on field research and observations, P. A. Kutsenko, after analyzing a considerable body of sources, argued that the modern traditional architecture of Mali is the result of a long evolution that began in the III century BC. Judging by the history of the construction of the mosque in Djenne, the easily recognizable Sudanese style was formed mainly in the XIII century. The architecture of the Dogon Plateau is a local variant of the Sudanese style, which was formed on the basis of local traditions and introduced by newcomers from the Niger Valley. The rapid spread of Islam among the Dogon in the last 30 to 40 years has not led to the degradation of traditional architecture

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(and culture in general). On the contrary, the traditional Dogon architecture was enriched by a relatively new type of structure - a mosque.

G. L. Kapchits (independent researcher) presented the results of a study of the Somali proverb and say foundation, in which he found 12 types of cliches. Somali paremias, the scientist believes, are various combinations of syntactic structures and motivations of common meaning, which gives rise to the imagery of proverbs, folk aphorisms, indivisible maxims, sayings, proverbs, fables, jokes, etc. A special feature is the so-called digital paremia, where not all terms are always expressed explicitly.

N. S. Naidenova (RUDN University) spoke about the linguistic means of representing artistic space in the works of the Congolese writer A. Lopez and the Guinean writer T. Monenembo, focusing on the fact that if earlier the works of African writers were performed in the traditional dichotomous "center-periphery" paradigm, where France was assigned the role of the center, and Africa-the periphery, today novelists writing in European languages have a different tendency to balance forces through the use of direct and hidden comparisons, rethinking semantics, creating associations, wordplay, building inter-variant homonymy, etc. The modern narrative also differs in a large number of stylistic variations of examples of African folklore.

V. V. Silin (Simferopol University) reflected on the definition of the national identity of Algerian French-language literature, considering it not so much from the perspective of an extensive national literary subsystem, but from the aspect of belonging to the emigrant or immigrant stratum of French literature.

In her report "Cultural anthropology of the Maghreb peoples in Berber literature monuments", M. V. Nikolaeva (Institute of Oriental Studies of Berber Folklore of Kabyliya, Moroccan Reef and Tuaregs of North Africa (2002-2009) told about the history of the creation of a seven-volume work (2002-2009) by the Institute of Oriental Studies of Berber folklore of Kabyliya, Moroccan Reef and Tuaregs of North Africa, which contains studies of the culture of everyday life, rituals and customs of the Maghreb Berbers, as well as the artistic work of modern Berber writers. It is based on materials provided to the Institute for translation into Russian by the Center for Berber Studies-the House of Human Sciences (Paris) and the foundation of the Algerian writer Mouloud Mammery, who headed the Department of Berber Studies at the University of Algiers until the events of 1974, when ethnic unrest in the country forced him to hand over his Berber archive to France. Thus, priceless records (in Latin transliteration) with subsequent translation, field studies of French and Germans turned out to be in the sphere of attention of Soviet and Russian Orientalists and served as the beginning of the creation of Russian-language anthologies of folklore and literature of the Maghreb.

S. V. Prozhogina (IB RAS) dedicated her speech to "women's literature", which in all epochs was distinguished by the presence of brilliant names of prose writers and poets (it is enough to recall the members of the French and Maghreb Academies A. Djebar, M. Taos, L. Debech, A. Greki, H. Djelida, etc.). In the last decades of the XX and XXI centuries, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia were literally stirred up by women's prose (the term "écrivaines" as a non-existent feminine gender of the definition of "writer" was born in Tunisia), which is not inferior to "male" either in the strength of artistic generalization of reality, or in the depth of penetration into the social, political and cultural problems of our time.

The struggle against political Islamism in Algeria, the" Arab Spring " in Tunisia, and the socio-democratic reforms in Morocco - all entered the "field" of modern fiction, fixing new forms of literary writing, and the appeal to traditional everyday writing as a way of self-preservation of national identity, and bold attempts at socio-political analysis and analysis. a protest. In the early 2000s, young voices filled with hope for the resumption of peaceful dialogue between East and East are increasingly heard in the Maghreb literature in connection with the strengthening of Islamism and acts of terror in the West and in the East.

The abundance of topics and problems discussed at the "Eastern Readings" indicates a huge range of opportunities for the Russian school of orientalists and Africanists. In a well-orchestrated chorus of reports - the beating of a living pulse of Oriental thought and a guarantee that the best traditions born in the bowels of the Academy of Sciences will be continued and developed in the works of young researchers.

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