Poiesis as Decision Making: Shklovsky, Tynianov, Bakhtin

This article deals with the theories of Viktor Shklovsky and Iurii Tynianov from the perspective of decision science. It outlines how these two members of the Petersburg Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOIAZ) conceived of the writer as a rational agent pursuing a specific goal, and of the means at his or her disposal to attain it. Their approaches, the article illustrates, correspond closely with two specific types of rationality: “instrumental” and “bounded.” To conclude, the essay juxtaposes the formalists’ conceptualization of poetic creativity with Mikhail Bakhtin's view on the subject, arguing that the way he conceives of the strategies available to the literary author fits the label of “interactive rationality.”

Introduction

We talk about pace. But how do we define it? This introduction suggests that one define it loosely, as something like large, forward, rhythmic, shifting, dynamic, temporal narrative movement, and then analyze it by tracking units of pacing as they move forward in literary history. As for finding the right narrative units, one may look to E. M. Forster, Viktor Shklovsky, Günther Müller, and others, but one does best to look to Gérard Genette and then trace his units backwards to the writers and critics who first developed them. Between Genette and his literary precursors, one discovers a significant literary tradition of pace. And, as for the pace of “fiction”: if pace is narrative’s most elaborate feature, fiction is narrative’s most elaborate form.

Reading, Fast and Slow

Reading literature is often contrasted to the use of digital media in terms of speed. While readers engage slowly with a book, they rush through digital environments at an ever faster pace. This article argues against a simple binary between slow/literary and fast/digital. This binary is in fact not native to the public debate about literature in the digital age but can be traced back from the digital revolution to modernist attitudes on literature, as they emerge in Viktor Shklovsky and Walter Benjamin. Drawing on results about reading speed in reading science and on current narrative theory, this article devises an alternative argument for literary reading as a process that unfolds over multiple time scales linked to different layers of meaning making. Reading literature, from this perspective, is not exclusively slow but, rather, works through a combination of both fast and slow processes. The article develops its argument through the example of Alexander Pushkin's classic novella “The Queen of Spades” and then applies this new theoretical account of multispeed literary reading to two novels engaging explicitly with the digital revolution.

THE ROLE OF CLICHÉS IN CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL AUDIOVISUAL ARTS

В данном исследовании анализируется роль клише в современных цифровых аудиовизуальных искусствах. Клише в искусстве может определяться как формула. Основываясь на подходе к формульности Джона Кавелти и Юрия Лотмана, мы анализируем роль клише в формировании виртуального пространства и гиперреального вымышленного мира, которые являются характерной особенностью культурной парадигмы постмодернистского общества. Так как клише играет важную роль в современной массовой культуре, мы приводим данные исследователя цифровой визуальной культуры Льва Мановича, который анализирует цифровую составляющую в цифровом аудиовизуальном медиуме. Тем самым впервые мы связываем подход Кавелти и Мановича в анализе современного цифрового аудиовизуального искусства. Говоря о цифровой составляющей в искусстве, следует упомянуть ее важную характеристику, которой является интерфейс, определяемый нами как формульное построение. Клише в современном искусстве является одним из главных структурных элементов художественного произведения, который влияет на эстетическую форму и содержание аудиовизуального произведения. При помощи клише мы создаем виртуальные и гиперреальные миры, которые помогают зрителю почувствовать эскапистские чувства и погрузиться в эти вымышленные миры. Также клише дает нам возможность увидеть новое в уже знакомом при восприятии искусства. Видение «нового в уже знакомом» мы определяем как прием «остранения» Виктора Шкловского. Перечисленные свойства клише проявляются во всех цифровых современных аудиовизуальных искусствах кино, видеоигры, видеоарта и видеоинсталляции, примеры которых мы приводим в нашем исследовании. In this study, I analyze the role of clichés in contemporary digital audiovisual arts. The use of clichés in the author’s high art is considered to be a manifestation of a low artistic level. But the same use of clichés in folklore and popular art is not considered to be a “primitive” performance. Clichés in art are defined as a formula. The article presents an approach to formulaic art by John G. Cawelti and Juri Lotman. This approach is the methodology of my study of the role of clichés in the creation of virtual space and hyperreal fictional world. Since clichés play a very important role in contemporary popular culture, I present the data by Lev Manovich, the researcher of digital visual culture. He analyzes the digital component in the digital audiovisual medium. Thus, for the first time, I link Cawelti and Manovich in the analysis of contemporary digital audiovisual art. Speaking about the digital component in art, I should mention that the interface, defined as a formulaic construction, is its important feature. The article states that the cliché in modern digital audiovisual art is one of the main structural elements of a work of art which affects the aesthetic form and content of an audiovisual work. Using clichés, we create virtual and hyperreal worlds that help the addressee to feel escapist feelings and get immersed in these fictional worlds. Also, clichés give us the opportunity to see the new in the already familiar in the perception of art. I define the vision of “new in the already familiar” as defamiliarization by Viktor Shklovsky. The listed properties of the cliché are manifested in all digital contemporary audiovisual arts: cinema, video games, video art, and video installation. The examples are given below in the study. The obtained results are relevant for studying the new types of digital audiovisual arts such as Internet art, interactive cinema, science art, computer art, and others. These arts are now at the stage of their formal, aesthetic and content formation. The obtained results will help to understand the new processes taking place in our postmodern society

Two Anatolys and One “Angelica”: On the History of the “Southwestern Literary School”

The subject of the paper is the cultural life of Odessa in the 1910s, and the reconstruction of Anatoly Gamma’s biography, who was 21 when he died in the fall of 1918. His creative life was very short, and appeared to be almost a literary hoax. However, Gamma’s poetry reflected a radical change in the artistic paradigm after the Revolution of 1917. Here the authors reprint all the existing Gamma’s poems published in 1917–18 in the Odessa periodicals. After the tragic death of another Odessa poet Anatoly Fioletov at the age of 21, Gamma’s name happened to appear in obituaries dedicated to both poets. One of those memorial articles entitled “On Two Anatolys (Anatoly Gamma, Anatoly Fioletov)” was published in the Kharkov magazine “Muses” under the nom de plume “Angelica d’Éspré,” which the authors decipher in this essay. Most importantly, being associated with Anatoly Fioletov, Eduard Bagritsky and other Odessa poets, Gamma became a part of a cultural phenomenon that was called by Viktor Shklovsky in 1932 the “Southwestern Literary School.”

“Every Life Is Interesting…”. On Russian Literature of the First Third of the 20th Century: Selected Articles and Materials

The collection of the most significant scientific papers by Alexander Yu. Galushkin (1960–2014), the last of Viktor Shklovsky’s literary secretaries, the creator of one of the first independent philological journals in Russia “De Visu”, the long-term employee of the IWL RAS, and the head of the Literary Heritage Department, reflects the main areas of his research interests. In addition to articles and publications, the section “From the History of Russian Formalism” includes the extensive work “From Conversations with Viktor Shklovsky”. The section “From the History of Literary Life” contains articles and notes from periodicals that have become inaccessible (the old “Literaturnoe Obozrenie”, the Parisian newspaper “Russkaia Mysl”). The section “From the Documentary Biography of E.I. Zamyatin” presents materials for the book of the same name prepared by A.Yu. Galushkin on the basis of his works on Zamyatin; as an appendix, his PhD thesis “Discussion on B. Pilnyak and E. Zamyatin in the Context of Literary Policy of the Late 1920s — Early 1930s” with author’s corrections and additions is published for the first time. The collection is concluded with the bibliography of A.Yu. Galushkin’s works.

“To the Brilliant Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ...”: A Catalog of Inscriptions on the Books Donated to Mikhail Bakhtin as a Source for His Biography. Book Review: Paltina, O.A. (ed.) (2018) Izdaniya s Darstvennymi Nadpisyami v Kollektsii “Lichnaya Biblioteka M.M. Bakhtina” Natsional’noy Biblioteki Im. A.S. Pushkina Respubliki Mordoviya [Publications with Dedicatory Inscriptions in the Collection “M.M. Bakhtin’s Personal Library” in the National Library of the Republic of Mordovia Named After A.S. Pushkin]. Saransk. 264 p.

The publication of the catalog of publications with dedicatory inscriptions is of great importance for the research of various aspects of the personality, biography and work of Mikhail Bakhtin. It provides new opportunities for clarifying and even revising certain facts of his biography. The authors note that despite all the efforts of Bakhtin’s studies, his biography in many respects remains a mixture of real facts and various legends, and the task of creating a complete biography of the thinker is still far from being solved. The review highly appreciates the new publication, which reveals the potential of the collection of Bakhtin’s library and especially books with dedicatory inscriptions as a source of historical and biographical information. It values any facts that can shed light on Bakhtin’s daily life, his relationship with official academia, academic and research institutions, the degree of his recognition in the academic environment, the impact of his ideas on his contemporaries and younger generations of scholars. The first book in the list of donations to Bakhtin is dated 1943, and the most recent was given to him shortly before his death on February 1, 1975. The review introduces new documents, such as the inscriptions of Nikolai Lyubimov, a translator of the novel by Francois Rabelais, and Gennady Pospelov, a theorist and historian of literature. To a great extent, the history of the inscriptions becomes the story of the reception of Bakhtin’s ideas, the attitude to his works and personality during several decades. This allows a researcher not only to clarify the specific facts of Bakhtin’s biography, but also to understand some features of various periods of his life. The catalog contains 234 inscriptions on 227 books and 5 journals, each of which is valuable for researchers. It includes the illustrations and photographs of the books and journals containing these inscriptions, which increases the value of this book. So, if needed, a reader can compare the existing inscriptions and the proposed decryption. Each of the inscriptions given in the book deserves to be studied and considered in the context of Bakhtin’s biography and works. Bakhtin’s full biography has not yet been created, and the catalog allows not only clarifying certain facts of his biography and surrounding, but also clarifying certain scenarios of Bakhtin’s relationship with formalists (Viktor Shklovsky, Lydia Ginzburg), with the scholars of the Moscow-Tartu Semiotic School (Yuri Lotman, Vyacheslav Ivanov), and with the representatives of official Soviet literary criticism (Leonid Timofeev, Alexander Revyakin). The review examines the inscriptions of Bakhtin’s colleagues and students, Bakhtin’s inner circle and their acquaintances (Ivan Kanaev, Judith Kagan, Mikhail Alpatov), and Bakhtin’s “younger circle” (Vadim Kozhinov, Sergey Bocharov, Georgy Gachev). The authors draw the reader’s attention to a remarkable detail of the digital era – the electronic version of the publication which has been available on the website of the National Library of the Republic of Mordovia named after A.S. Pushkin since 2020.

Introduction

This chapter gives a brief history of and defines the term “elemental materialism” as a culturally rooted recognition of the power of matter and things to shape human bodies and selves, which is a prominent feature in the Soviet system of signification that regulated the production of meanings on a daily basis. The chapter raises the question on the place of elemental materialism in the ideological landscape of late socialism. It explains that a focus on things, on their ability to organize society, communities, and human bodies and selves can account for a more complex understanding of historical change in modern societies in general. The chapter discusses approaches to the study of material objects, and previous studies that have been done for body and material culture. It talks about studies done by Bronislaw Malinowski and Igor Kopytoff, Pierre Bourdieu and Daniel Miller, and Sergei Tretiakov and Viktor Shklovsky. Finally, it discusses materiality as an integral part of the study of Soviet politics.

Resisting Clarity/Highlighting Form: Comparing Vanguard Approaches in Poetry and Programming

This article contributes to the study of an esoteric programming language, brainfuck. It proposes a novel view that brainfuck embodies a poetic turn in computer programming, which could be viewed in relationship to Giambattista Vico's historical concept of ricorso—return to an earlier age that Vico, without derogation, identified as barbaric and characterized by the prevalence of poetic forms. Ricorso presupposes a previous existence of an analogous form of communication, which resurfaces in a transformed but recognizable shape in the current time. This article suggests that this older form of poetics is the Russian Futurists' Zaum poetry theorized by the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky among others.