Article

Name: VIKTOR SHKLOVSKY, ROMAN JAKOBSON AND THE CREATION OF THE “FIRST THEORY OF PLOT STRUCTURING”

Authors: I. Pilshchikov, A. Ustinov

Institute for World Culture of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation; University of California, Los Angeles, USA; Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia; “Aquilon” Books & Publishing, San Francisco, USA

In the section History of Studies in Plot (Literature and Arts)

Abstract: The essay “Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Jakobson and the Creation of the ‘First Theory of Plot Structuring’” unravels the context of the Viktor Shklovsky’s paper “Speeches of Don Quixote” presented in the Moscow Linguistic Circle (MLC). Until now, the minutes of this February 15, 1920 meeting of the MLC were not known in their entirety. A recent discovery of a complete copy of these minutes in the Roman Jakobson’s Collections at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) allows to establish the circumstances of the creation of Shklovsky’s theory of artistic plot. The minutes also suggest that Jacobson took part in streamlining this “first theory of plot structuring,” as he described his friend’s works and papers of those years (1918‒1921). Plot theory became the first dominant topic in Shklovsky’s biography as a scholar. He worked on his theory of plot consistently since the summer of 1918. Considering the plot as a constructive factor in works of art, Shklovsky unfolded the general provisions of his article-manifesto “Art as a Device” (1916). He presented the first results of his research in the essay “The Connection of Plotting Techniques with General Techniques of Style,” that he published in “Poetics” (1919), the first anthology of Russian Formalism. This publication turned out to become a decisive step in establishing the OPOIAZ (Society for the Study of the Theory of Poetic Language) in the Fall of 1919. Minutes of the OPOIAZ meetings did not survive. The chronology of the Society’s work can be gleaned from the relevant publications in the “Life of Art” newspaper, as well as testimonies of its participants, in particular, the Korney Chukovsky’s diaries and later reminiscences of Jakobson. It is no coincidence that Shklovsky chose “Speeches of Don Quixote” as the topic of his presentation in the MLC. On the eve of his arrival in Moscow, he had to defend his critical positions from the attacks of the proletarian critics. On February 10, he published in the “Life of Art” a response to the anonymous feuilleton “Closer to Life” that appeared in the “Petrogradskaya Pravda.” He structured his essay as a mini-manifesto that explained the principles of the OPOIAZ’ scholarly work. The minutes of the MLC meeting February 15, 1920 demonstrate that discussion of the Shklovsky’s report centered on the issues of terminology. Rozaliya Shor drew attention to the “decomposition of the form”; Osip Brik contrasted “deployment of plot” in detective fiction against “piling up” in “realist” novels; Jakobson spoke of two types of “motivation,” a concept he borrowed from the OPOIAZ’ terminological arsenal. That discussion was quite legitimate, since, according to the Jakobson’s radical opinion, Shklovsky’s paper, just like his other “writings” on plot as the artistic device, in fact represented the “first theory of plot structuring”. These remarks suggest that Jakobson’s observations could have forced Shklovsky soon to turn to modern prose, both as a critic and as an author.

Keywords: plot theory, history of russian literary theory, russian formalism, studies of plot, opoiaz, moscow linguistic circle, viktor shklovsky, roman jakobson, korney chukovsky

Bibliography:

Belyi A. O khudozhestvennoy proze. Gorn [Horn], 1919, kn. II/III, p. 49‒55. (in Russ.)

Bogoroditsky V. A. Obshchii kurs russkoi grammatiki [A General Course of Russian Grammar]. 4th ed. Kazan, 1913, 552 p. (in Russ.)

Botz-Bornstein T. Vasily Sesemann: Experience, Formalism, and the Question of Being, preface by E. Tarasti. Amsterdam, New York, Rodopi, 2006 (On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in Baltics. 7), 133 p.

Chukokkala. Rukopisnyi al’manakh Korneya Chukovskogo [Chukokkala. Korney Chukovsky’s Handwritten Album]. Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1979, 447 p. (in Russ.)

Chukovsky K. Sobranie sochinenii [Collected Works]. In 15 vols. Intr. by V. A. Kaverin, comment. by E. Ts. Chukovskaya. Moscow, Agentstvo FTM, Ltd., 2013, vol. 11: Dnevnik 1901‒1921, 592 p. (in Russ.)

Eikhenbaum B. Literatura: Teoriya. Kritika. Polemika [Literature: Theory. Criticism. Controversies]. Leningrad, Priboy, 1927, 300 p. (in Russ.)

Eikhenbaum B. M. Dnevnik 1917‒1918 gg. Publ. and prep. of text by O. B. Eikhenbaum, comment. by V. V. Nekhotin. De visu, 1993, no. 1, p. 11–27. (in Russ.)

Eikhenbaum B. Melodika russkogo liricheskogo stikha [Melodics of Russian Lyrical Verse]. Petrograd, OPOIAZ, 1922, 199 p. (in Russ.)

Eikhenbaum B. O zvukakh v stikhe. Zhizn’ Iskusstva [Life of Art], 1920, no. 349‒350 (January 22‒23), p. 2‒3. (in Russ.)

Eikhenbaum B. O tragedii i tragicheskom. In: Zhizn’ Iskusstva [Life of Art], 1919, no. 282‒283. November 1‒2, p. 2; no. 284‒285, November 4‒5, p. 2.

Ermichev A., Litvin T. Vasilii Emilievich Sezeman. Filosofskie nauki [Studies in Philosophy], 2000, no. 2, p. 64‒65. (in Russ.)

Gindin S. I. Pervyy konflikt dvukh pokoleniy osnovateley russkogo stikhovedeniya. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Review], 2007, no. 86, p. 64‒69. (in Russ.)

Gorky M. Gruppa «Serapionovy Brat’ya» . Literaturnoe nasledstvo [Literary Heritage], Moscow, AS USSR Publ., 1963, vol. 70: M. Gorky i sovetskie pisateli. Neizdannaya perepiska, p. 561‒564. (in Russ.)

Jakobson ‒ budetlianin [Jakobson as a Futurist]. Collection of Essays. Comp., prep. of text, comment. by Bengt Jangfeldt. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1992, 185 p. (in Russ.)

Kak Moskovskiy lingvisticheskiy kruzhok voeval s Bryusovym i Potebnyoy. Comp., intr., comment. by S. I. Gindin, prep. of texts by A. Yu. Mankovskiy. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Review], 2007, no. 86, p. 70‒78. (in Russ.)

Kramova N. Poka nas pomniat... Vospominaniya i korotkiye rasskazy [Till we are remembered... Memoris and Short Stories]. Tenafly, NJ, Hermitage, 1989, 176 p. (in Russ.)

Krusanov A. V. Russkii avangard: 1907‒1932 (Istoricheskii obzor) [The Russian Avant-Garde: 1907‒1932 (A Historical Overview)]. Moscow, NLO, 2003, vol. 2: Futuristicheskaya revolyutsiya (1917‒1921), book 1, 808 p. (in Russ.)

Leontiev A. A. Peterburgskaya (Leningradskaya) shkola v yazykoznanii. Lingvisticheskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, 1990, p. 373‒374. (in Russ.)

Letters and Other Materials from the Moscow and Prague Linguistic Circles. 1912–1945. Ed. by Jindřich Toman. Ann Arbor, Michigan Slavic Studies, 1994 (Cahiers Roman Jakobson. 1), 259 p.

Literaturnaia zhizn’ Rossii 1920-kh godov. Sobytiya. Otzyvy sovremennikov. Bibliografiya [Literary Life of Russia in the 1920s. Events. Reviews of Contemporaries. Bibliography]. Ed. by A. Yu. Galushkin. Moscow, 2005, vol. 1, part 1: Moscow and Petrograd. 1917–1920, 768 p. (in Russ.)

O poeticheskom yazyke proizvedeniy Khlebnikova: Obsuzhdenie doklada R. O. Jakobsona v Moskovskom lingvisticheskom kruzhke. Intr., by M. I. Shapir. Mir Velimira Khlebnikova: Stat’i, issledovaniya 1911–1998 [World of Velimir Khlebnikov: Articles, Studies 1911‒1998]. Comp. Vyach. Vs. Ivanov, Z. S. Paperny, A. E. Parnis; ed. by A. E. Parnis. Moscow, Yazyki russkoy kul’tury, 2000, p. 90–96, 766–773. (in Russ.)

Pilshchikov I., Ustinov A. «Istoriya romana»: Viktor Shklovsky v Moskovskom Lingvisticheskom Kruzhke. Syuzhetologiya i syuzhetografiya [Studies in Theory of Literary Plot and Narratology], 2018, no. 1, p. 5‒22. (in Russ.)

Pilshchikov I., Ustinov A. Viktor Shklovsky v OPOIAZe i Moskovskom Lingvisticheskom Kruzhke (1919‒1921 gg.). Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch, 2018, N. F. Bd. 6, S. 176‒206. (in Russ.)

Shklovsky V. «Eshche nichego ne konchilos’...» [“Nothing is Over Yet...”]. Intr. by A. Yu. Galushkin, comment. by A. Yu.Galushkina and V. V. Nekhotin. Moscow, Propaganda, 2002, 461 p. (in Russ.)

Shklovsky V. «Tristram Shendi» Sterna i teoriya romana [Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy” and the Theory of the Novel]. Petrograd, OPOIAZ, 1921, 38 p. (in Russ.)

Shklovsky V. Razvertyvanie syuzheta (Roman-drama). Zhizn’ Iskusstva [Life of Art], 1920, no. 348 (January 21), p. 1. (in Russ.)

Shklovsky V. Razvertyvanie syuzheta [Unravelling of Plot]. Petrograd, OPOIAZ, 1921, 60 p. (in Russ.)

Shklovsky V. Razvertyvaniye syuzheta. II. Zhizn’ Iskusstva [Life of Art], 1920. no. 355 (January 27), p. 1. (in Russ.)

Shumikhin S. V., Timenchik R. D. Nikolsky Yurii Aleksandrovich. Russkie pisateli, 1800–1917: Biograficheskiy slovar’ [Russian Writers, 1800‒1917: A Biographical Dictionary]. Moscow, Fianit, 1999, vol. 4, p. 324‒327. (in Russ.)

Tomashevsky B. Andrey Belyi i khudozhestvennaya proza. Zhizn’ Iskusstva [Life of Art], 1920, no. 454 (May 18), p. 3; no. 458–459 (May 22–23), p. 2; no. 460 (May 25), p. 2. (in Russ.)

Tomashevsky B. O stikhe [On Verse]. Leningrad, Priboy, 1929, 328 p. (in Russ.)

Tomashevsky i Moskovskiy lingvisticheskiykruzhok. . Trudy po znakovym sistemam [Papers on Sign Systems]. IX. Tartu, TRÜ, 1977 (Uchenye zapiski Tartuskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 422), p. 113‒132. (in Russ.)

Tumelis J. Sezemaniana (Medžiaga Vosyliaus Sezemano bibliografijai). Problemos [Problems]. Vilniaus universitetas, Filosofijos fakultetas, 1984, no. 32, p. 18‒34.