E-Book Overview
Geneva, Lausanne: Sdvig Press, 2014. — 247 p. — ISBN : 978-2-9700829-3-4.
Russian Formalism, one of this century's most important movements in literary criticism, has received far less attention than most of its rivals. Examining Formalism in light of the most recent developments in literary theory, Peter Steiner offers in his work the most comprehensive critique of the movement to date. This is an extremely useful book, one that anyone interested in Russian Formalism and modern critical theory will want to read. It will not replace Victor Erlich's magisterial study, also called Russian Formalism (1955), but it will certainly be a companion to it. Erlich was a pioneer, describing in broad outlines and comprehensive detail the history, doctrines, and practice of a critical movement yet unknown in the West and still suppressed in its native land. Steiner has had the advantage of a number of important studies, including of course Erlich's. and three decades during which Russian Formalism, through its off-spring, Structuralism, has become part of our critical discourse. Where Erlich is extensive, touching all bases hut lingering on few, Steiner is intensive, probing with admirable critical acumen and impressive erudition the theoretical principles, their provenance and their place in modern intellectual history.PrefaceWho is formalism, what Is she?The three metaphorsThe Machine The Organism The SystemA SynecdocheZaum’ Verse ExpressionThe developmental significance of russian formalism
E-Book Content
formalisms
Peter Steiner
RUSSIAN FORMALISM A METAPOETICS
sdvig press Geneva | Lausanne
ISBN : 978-2-9700829-3-4 © 2014 sdvig press Place de la Louve 3, 1003 Lausanne www.sdvigpress.org For the 1st Edition – © 1984 Cornell University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form (electronic, recording, etc.) without prior written permission of the publisher. Digital version in Open Access: www.sdvigpress.org/pub-101439
Table of Contents
Preface
7
1 Who Is Formalism, What Is She?
13
2 The Three Metaphors
39
The Machine
39
The Organism
60
The System
85
3 A Synecdoche
117
Zaum’
119
Verse
145
Expression
168
4 The Developmental Significance of Russian Formalism
205
Bibliography
231
Index
241
Blond hair, good look’n’, wants me to marry, get a home, settle down, write a book— ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Too much monkey business, too much monkey business, –CHUCK BERRY
Preface
It has been almost thirty years since this book was published and, as might have been expected, the responses it has received were far from uniform. I myself have questions about some of its conclusions and yet I think that most of its critics have misunderstood my theoretical intentions. No doubt, I am partially to blame for not making my assumptions clear and I would like to take this opportunity to correct some problems. Not surprisingly, it was the subtitle of the book—A Metapoetics— that has generated most of the disputes. The responses can be reduced to three basic approaches. Is it legitimate to treat the literary-theoretical discourse of the Formalists in terms of poetic tropes? In what sense is my method truly “metapoetic” and how does it differ from any other presentation of Formalist theories within the general frame of intellectual history? And finally, can a tropological typology (however complex) present historical phenome