In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Soviet philologist, literary dissident, and university professor Viktor Duvakin made it his mission to interview the members of the artistic avant-garde who had survived the Russian Revolution, Stalin's purges, and the Second World War. Based on archival materials held at the Moscow State University Library, Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors catalogues six interviews conducted by Duvakin. The interviewees talk about their most intimate life experiences and give personal accounts of their interactions with famous writers and artists such as Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sergei Eisenstein, and Marina Tsvetaeva. They offer insights into the world of Russian emigrants in Prague and Paris, the uprising against the Communist government, what it was like to work at the United Nations after the Second World War, and other important aspects of life in the Soviet Union and Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Archival photographs, as well as hundreds of annotations to the text, are included to help readers understand the historical and cultural context of the interviews. The unique and previously unpublished materials in Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors will be of great interest to anyone who wants to learn more about this fascinating period in Soviet history.

This book aims to examine the heritage of Victor Shklovsky in a variety of disciplines. To achieve this end, we drew upon colleagues from eight different countries across the world - USA, Canada, Russia, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Hong Kong - in order to bring the widest variety of points of view on the subject. But we also wanted this book to be more than just another collection of essays of literary criticism: we invited scholars from different disciplines - literature, cinematography, and philosophy - who have dealt with Shklovsky's heritage and saw its practical application in their fields. Therefore, all these essays are written in a variety of humanist academic and scholarly styles, all engaging and dynamic.

This book examines the heritage of Victor Shklovsky in a variety of disciplines. To achieve this end, Slav N. Gratchev and Howard Mancing draw upon colleagues from eight different countries across the world-the United States, Canada, Russia, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, and China-in order to bring the widest variety of points of view on the subject. Viktor Shklovsky's Heritage in Literature, Arts, and Philosophy is more than just another collection of essays of literary criticism: the editors invited scholars from different disciplines-literature, cinematography, and philosophy-who have dealt with Shklovsky's heritage and saw its practical application in their fields. Therefore, all of these essays are written in a variety of humanist academic and scholarly styles, all engaging and dynamic.

The Poetics of the Avant-garde in Literature, Arts, and Philosophy presents a range of chapters written by a highly international group of scholars from disciplines such as literary studies, arts, theatre, and philosophy to analyze the ambitions of avant-garde artists. Together, these essays highlight the interdisciplinary scope of the historic avant-garde and the interconnected of its artists. Contributors analyze topics such as abstraction and estrangement across the arts, the imaginary dialogue between Lev Yakubinsky and Mikhail Bakhtin, the problem of the “masculine ethos” in the Russian avant-garde, the transformation of barefoot dancing, Kazimir Malevich’s avant-garde poetic experimentations, the ecological imagination of the Polish avant-garde, science-fiction in the Russian avant-garde cinema, and the almost forgotten history of the avant-garde children’s literature in Germany. The chapters in this collection open a new critical discourse about the avant-garde movement in Europe and reshape contemporary understandings of it.

This book reflects the spirit of times-when the most dramatic events of the 20th century were happening in Russia and the USSR. A transcription and translation of a 1967-68 interview with the founder of the Formalist School of literary theory, Viktor Shklovsky, this volume offers a slice of Russian micro-history, like the contributions of Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg but even more trustworthy because it relies on the living voice of that history. Through the transcription of a six-hour phono-document, the readers hear the voice of a real participant in events that for the longest time in the USSR were forbidden to discuss or write about. Shklovsky, besides being a well-known and brilliant literary theorist, was a friend and interlocutor of many famous people whose lives and deaths, up to these days, remain a mystery to us. Through these informal dialogues that are not constrained by censorship or fear, we will be able to shed some more light on the real characters, instincts, habits, and views of those people. By "listening" to these dialogues, readers will see the reflection of history in the eyes of a real witness who, in most cases, was just a good fellow citizen and suffered during those times, like thousands of others.