Voiceless Vanguard: The Infantilist Aesthetic of the Russian Avant-Garde

316 Pages·2014·1.77 MB·English

by  Sara Pankenier Weld

Voiceless Vanguard
Northwestern University Press
Studies in Russian Literature and Theory
Series Editors
Robert Belknap
Caryl Emerson
Gary Saul Morson
William Mills Todd III
Andrew Wachtel
Voiceless Vanguard
THE INFANTILIST AESTHETIC OF
THE RUSSIAN AVANT- GARDE
Sara Pankenier Weld
northwestern university press / evanston, illinois
Northwestern University Press
www .nupress.northwestern .edu
This book has been published with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation.
Copyright © 2014 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2014. 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
Weld, Sara Pankenier, author.
Voiceless vanguard : the infantilist aesthetic of the Russian avant-g arde /
Sara Pankenier Weld.
pages cm. — (Northwestern University Press studies in Russian literature and
theory)
ISBN 978-0-8101-2984-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Russian literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Avant- garde
(Aesthetics)—Russia (Federation)—History—20th century. 3. Literature,
Experimental—Russia (Federation)—History and criticism. 4. Arts, Russian—
20th century. 5. Voice in literature. 6. Children in literature. 7. Children in art.
I. Title. II. Series: Studies in Russian literature and theory.
PG3026.E98W45 2014
891.709004—dc23
2013050522
o The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For David

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction From Voicelessness to Voice 3
Part I. Infantile Primitivism
Chapter One Infant Art: Mikhail Larionov, Children’s
Drawings, and Neo- Primitivist Art 19
Chapter Two Infant Word: Aleksei Kruchenykh, Children’s
Language, and Cubo- Futurist Poetics 62
Part II. Infantilist Aesthetics
Chapter Three Infant Eye: Viktor Shklovsky, the Naive
Perspective, and Formalist Theory 105
Chapter Four Infant Mind: Daniil Kharms, Childish Alogism,
and OBERIU Literature of the Absurd 156
Conclusion The End Point of the Infantilist Aesthetic 208
Notes 217
Bibliography 273
Index 297

Illustrations
Figure 1. Untitled (Cubist Girl), drawing by child, grade six,
Buckingham Elementary School, Pennsylvania 9
Figure 2. Miting detei (Children’s Protest), poster by Aleksei
Komarov, 1923 12
Figure 3. Vselenochku . . . (Universelet . . .), Mikhail Larionov, 1912 20
Figure 4. Anonymous child’s drawing, 1913 36
Figure 5. Tsyganka v Tiraspole (A Gypsy Woman in Tiraspol),
Mikhail Larionov, 1909 38
Figure 6. Bogomater’ Vladimirskaia (Virgin of Vladimir), Russian
Orthodox icon, eleventh or twelfth century 40
Figure 7. Soldat na kone (Soldier on a Horse), Mikhail Larionov,
1910– 11 42
Figure 8. Venera (Venus), Mikhail Larionov, 1912 44
Figure 9. Osen’ zheltaia (Yellow Autumn), Mikhail Larionov, 1912 45
Figure 10. Zima (Winter), from the Seasons cycle, Mikhail Larionov,
471912 47
Figure 11. Portret N. S. Goncharovoi (Portrait of N. S. Goncharova),
Mikhail Larionov, 1913 55
Figure 12. Woman in a Hat, interior design for Pomada (Pomade),
Mikhail Larionov, 1913 57
Figure 13. Golova vostochnoi zhenshchiny s tolstoi sheei (Iz tsikla
“Puteshestvie v Turtsiiu”) (Head of an Eastern Woman
with a Thick Neck [From the Cycle “Travel to Turkey”]),
Mikhail Larionov, ca. 1928 59
Figure 14. Chort i rechetovortsy (The Devil and the Speechcrafters),
cover design by Olga Rozanova for book by Aleksei
Kruchenykh, 1913 63
Figure 15. Portret A. E. Kruchenykh (Portrait of A. E. Kruchenykh),
Mikhail Larionov, 1912 64
Figure 16. “Bosikom na krapive” (“Barefoot on the Grass”), visual
poem in Vasily Kamensky’s Tango s korovami (Tango
with Cows), 1914 75
ix