The twelfth Балканские чтения [Balkan Readings] conference, which took place in Moscow on 26-27
March 2013, had as its unifying theme the Balkan
picture of the world from the perspective of the five human senses. Twenty-eight
papers were presented, reporting on interdisciplinary studies in the areas of religion,
mythology, magic, ritual, literature, folk poetry, folk music, drama, artistic
performance, cuisine etc with a focus on sensory perception, cognition and
language. A number of papers discussed linguistic evidence in support of the
underlying unity of the five senses (synaesthesia). Papers differed in
perspective: some were theoretically inclined or took a broad comparative
perspective (S. M. Tolstaia, N. N. Kazanskii, T. A. Mikhailova, U. Dukova & P. Assenova,
T. V. Tsiv’ian, D. Burkhart), others had elements of comparison (D. S. Ermolin,
A. A. Novik, I. A. Sedakova, M. M. Makartsev) or dealt with aspects of a
specific tradition - Ancient Greek (M.
Evzlin, T. F. Teperik, L. I. Akimova, Ia. L. Zabudskaia), Modern Greek (O. V. Chekha, F. A. Eloeva, A. A. Novokhatko, K. A.
Klimova, A. V. Tunin & V. A. Panov),
Latin (A. V. Grosheva), Romanian (A. A. Romanova, I. Stahl, N.
G. Golant), Albanian (A.V. Zhugra, M.
V. Domosiletskaia), Bulgarian (G. V.
Grigorov), Serbian (N. V. Zlydneva)
and Slovene (M. Mencej).
The conference proceedings have appeared in: Макарцев, М. М., И. А. Седакова, Т. В. Цивьян (eds.) Балканская
картина мира sub specie пяти человеческих чувств. Москва: Институт славяноведения РАН, Центр
лингвокультурных исследований «Balcanica», Университет Дмитрия Пожарского, 2013, 184 с. (Балканские чтения 12. Тезисы
и материалы) ISBN
978-5-7576-0270-7.