“Classics” and “Classical” in Soviet Science of Literature: Formalists and Comparativists (Side Notes)

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Abstract:
This article is devoted to several specific aspects of the problem of the Soviet literary canon — the question of the semantic content of the notions of “classics” and “classical” and the ideas of “cultural inheritance” and “literary evolution” in the humanitarian thought of the 1920s. The subject of the study are the intellectual constructs of Viktor M. Zhirmunsky, Yuri N. Tynyanov, Viktor B. Shklovsky, Boris M. Eichenbaum and other early Soviet theorists, whose thinking was connected with the definition of the main parameters of not only the “former” but also the “new” culture. Through the examination of scientific-theoretical texts, taking into account the personal pragmatics of the writer and the political- ideological framework set by the authorities, we seek to discover and describe the mechanisms through which intellectual speculation was carried out that allowed the Stalinist regime to put culture at the service of its own ideological interests. The considerations contained in this article are intended, first and foremost, to shed light on the processes of redefining the “classical” literary canon that took place in the first post-revolutionary decade.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2024-5-199-221
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https://elibrary.ru/GNKMCU
Author: Dmitry M. Tsyganov
About the author: Dmitry M. Tsyganov, Researcher, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6633-3401 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: April 3, 2024
Date of Publication: July 9, 2024
Approved after reviewing : December 12, 2024
Funding Sources: The research was carried out at A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant no 20-18-00394 “Transcript: Politics and Literature. A digital archive of literary organisations of the 1920s and 1930s”, https://rscf.ru/project/20-18-00394/.
Publication Type: Research Article
For citation: Tsyganov, D.M. “‘Classics’ and ‘Classical’ in Soviet Science of Literature: Formalists and Comparativists (Side Notes).” Codex manuscriptus, issue 5. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 199–221. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2024-5-199-221
Keywords: intellectual history, classics, classical, literary canon, OPOJAZ, formalism, early Soviet humanities, ideology and philology, Stalinist culture, Viktor M. Zhirmunsky, Yuri N. Tynyanov, Viktor B. Shklovsky, Boris M. Eichenbaum.

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