The Origins of Russian Literary Theory: Folklore, Philology, Form

322 Pages·2022·3.202 MB·English

by  Jessica Merrill

The Origins of Russian Literary Theory
Northwestern University Press
Studies in Russian Literature and Theory
Series Editors
Caryl Emerson
Gary Saul Morson
William Mills Todd III
Andrew Wachtel
Justin Weir
The Origins of Russian
Literary Theory
Folklore, Philology, Form
Jessica Merrill
northwestern university press / evanston, illinois
Northwestern University Press
www .nupress .northwestern .edu
Studies of the Harriman Institute
Columbia University
The Harriman Institute, Columbia University, sponsors the Studies of the Harriman
Institute in the belief that their publication contributes to scholarly research and
public understanding. In this way the Institute, while not necessarily endorsing
their conclusions, is pleased to make available the results of some of the research
conducted under its auspices.
Copyright © 2022 by Northwestern University. Published 2022 by Northwestern
University Press. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Nawmes: Merrill, Jessica E., author.
Title: The origins of Russian literary theory : folklore, philology, form / Jessica
Merrill.
Other titles: Studies in Russian literature and theory.
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2022. | Series:
Northwestern University Press Studies in Russian literature and theory |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022000292 | ISBN 9780810144903 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780810144910 (cloth) | ISBN 9780810144927 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Formalism (Literary analysis)— History. | Russian literature—
History and criticism— Theory, etc. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM / Russian
& Former Soviet Union | LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Eastern (see
also Russian & Former Soviet Union)
Classification: LCC PN98.F6 M47 2022 | DDC 801.950947— dc23/eng/20220105
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000292
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Note on the Text ix
Introduction The Philological Paradigm 3
Chapter One Comparative Philology 37
Chapter Two The Author as Performer 70
Chapter Three The Psychology of Poetic Form 110
Chapter Four Inside the Moscow Linguistic Circle:
Poetic Dialectology 146
Chapter Five Structuralisms 180
Conclusion Formalism and Philology in the
Twenty- First Century 217
Appendix 233
Notes 235
Bibliography 275
Index 297

Acknowledgments
This book has been profoundly shaped by the generous help of colleagues, by
inspirational working groups, and by critical institutional funding. The final
shape of the manuscript owes much to the expert advice of Galin Tihanov,
who patiently read multiple drafts of the book. I also owe a huge thanks to
Ilya Kliger for his probing questions and observations, and for general advice
along the way. I am much indebted to Peter Steiner and Igor Pil’shchikov for
their numerous valuable suggestions and corrections on draft chapters. Igor
Pil’shchikov also provided invaluable aid in making the archive of the Mos-
cow Linguistic Circle much more easily accessible to me. I want to thank
Gabriella Safran for her careful reading of an early draft, and her encourage-
ment in the revision process. An important thank- you is owed to Kevin Platt
and the members of the Penn History Kruzhok for their incisive feedback on
a draft of the introduction in spring 2019.
My thinking on the legacy of Russian Formalism has been deeply in-
formed by a number of collaborative scholarly groups. First among these is
the Historical Poetics Working Group. In particular, my participation in two
important conferences organized by Boris Maslov, in 2015 and 2016, had a
considerable impact on my understanding of the nineteenth- century origins
of modern literary theory. I want to thank all the members of this group for
their continued help and inspiration. I am also indebted to the Archaists
and Innovators working group, organized by Serguei Oushakine and Mark
Lipovetsky in 2018, for their shared enthusiasm for rethinking the legacy of
Viktor Shklovsky. A formative influence was a yearlong seminar on Formal-
isms in 2012– 13, hosted by the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers Uni-
versity. I want to thank its directors, Jonathan Kramnick and Jonah Siegel,
and the Fellows for introducing me to debates in English on the concept of
form and new formalisms. Finally, I would not have been able to write this
book without a Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in the Humanities at Stanford
University. This gave me the time and resources to conduct new research,
and the opportunity to discuss my ideas with a group of inspiring colleagues
led by R. Lanier Anderson and J. P. Daughton.
vii
Acknowledgments
The seed for this book was planted when I was a graduate student in
the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department at UC Berkeley. My first
forays into the fields of literary theory, philology, and folklore were expertly
guided by Harsha Ram, Alan Timberlake, Viktor Zhivov, and Ronelle Alex-
ander. Even as I undertook to write a new book after the PhD, the lessons I
learned from my dissertation advisor, Irina Paperno, have proven to be con-
tinually relevant, and needed. I want to thank her again here for her peerless
mentorship over the years.
The completion of this book was made possible by the all- around
support I have received from Columbia University. I want to thank Ronald
Meyer, and acknowledge the generosity of the Harriman Institute in the form
of two Faculty Publication Grants. Junior Faculty Development and Cham-
berlain leaves from Columbia in 2019– 20 gave me time to complete a final
round of revisions. Most importantly, my colleagues in the Slavic Languages
Department have been a continual source of support and encouragement.
Very special thanks are reserved for Kirsten Painter for her expert editing
and huge help with manuscript preparation, and to Irina Finkelshtein for
her no less heroic work deciphering and transcribing archival materials. I
am also deeply grateful for all of the work of my editors at Northwestern
University Press, and to Jessica Hinds-Bond for the index. My research has
also been supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project number
16- 18- 10250.
viii
Note on the Text
We are following a modified Library of Congress transliteration system in
this volume. To make the body of the main text more readable to a general
audience, first and last names ending in - ii have been changed to - y, such as
Anatoly or Shklovsky rather than Anatolii or Shklovskii. We have also, for the
sake of readability, collapsed - iia endings to - ia. For the same reason, names
beginning with iu- or ia- , such as Iurii and Iazykov, have been changed to
Yury and Yazykov. Names are given in their standard English form when
one exists. Bibliographic references, including the notes, follow the standard
Library of Congress transliteration system. Unless otherwise noted, the au-
thor is responsible for the translations offered in this text.
ix