All That is Literature Melts into Non-Literature: The Radical Relativism and Utopian Evolution of Russian Formalism

• In Event: The Radical Utopianism of the Soviet Twenties I: Words

Abstract

Marshall Berman’s famous quote on modernity can be productively paraphrased when it comes to Russian Formalism. What counts as literature - the genres, the devices, the “themes” - is contingent and subject to changes as time goes by, so “all that is literature melts into non-literature”. And vice versa. This presentation will consider this radically relativized conception of literature. First, I will investigate its roots and link it with Soviet Constructivism. Secondly, I will consider the question of relativism and literary evolution and show how, contrary to popular belief, the Formalists developed a model of “slow evolution” born of a close interaction with the historical reality writers live in.

Author

• Lidia Tripiccione, Princeton U