Valerij I.Tjupa is Professor and chair of the Department of Theoretical and Historical Poetics at the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow). He is the initiator and editor of the almanac Discourse (Novosibirsk/Moscow, 1996–2007), chief editor of the journal New philological Herald, and co-editor (with Wolf Schmid) of the international electronic Russian language journal Narratorium (http://narratorium.rggu.ru). His numerous publications include theoretical monographs and textbooks in the fields of theory of literature, theory of communication, narratology, comparative literary studies, and studies on the work of A. S. Puškin and A. P. Čexov.Contact: mailto:v.tiupa@gmail.com