Development of the “literary evolution” concept by Yuri Tynyanov in the works of Sergei Averintsev

Since the concept of “literary evolution” proposed by Yuri Tynyanov could not be applied to the late Soviet official literature, Sergei Averintsev using this concept examined the relationship between philosophy, sophistry, rhetorics and everyday consciousness in classical Greece. Tynyanov's theory of “parallel series” turned out to be productive for the reconstruction of the tasks of the ancient philosopher and for the interpretation of Plato's dialogues. According Averintsev, Plato acted within the sophistic field, creating irreducible terminology and untranslatable phrases as a moment of the entire further evolution of Western literature. Consideration of Russian formalism as the context of Averintsev's thought proves his contribution to the discussion of Platonism as a tool for posing philosophical problems and of the perspective of philosophy in the postcolonial discussion.

The Images of Nature in Wordsworth’s and Al-Bohtory’s Poetry: A Comparative Study of Selected Poems

This study tackles the representation of nature in poetry, mainly in Wordsworth’s and Al-Bohtory’s poems. This study is based on the theoretical and analytical approaches of Russian Formalism that focuses on studying the linguistic aspects of the literary texts. Russian Formalism studies texts through “structures, imagery, syntax, rhyme scheme, paradox, personification and other literary devices” (Bressler, 2011, p. 49). The significance of the study lies in its purpose to introduce a comparison between two different poets whose cultural backgrounds, languages, traditions and societies are different. Wordsworth sees nature as the perfect place for tranquility and pleasure. He emphasizes that man and nature as basically adapted to each other, and the mind of man as the machine of depicting nature. Wordsworth states that this pleasure comes from the human’s interaction with nature in its fascinating images of Spring, flowers, clouds, horses, rivers, castles, seas, gardens, and animals generally. Al-Bohtory also presents nature as a place of pleasure and peace; he accentuates the profound relationship between nature and man, and how nature is admired by humans in its beautiful views. He explains that the beautiful images of nature affect the human’s mind and soul. Al-Bohtory portrays most of his poems in marvelous images of nature, such as Spring, horses, clouds, rivers, animals, castles, seas, and flowers. These two poets seek to glorify nature and its magnificent impact on humans’ life and pleasure.

Russian Formalism vs Germanic Formalism: exploring the concept of European Formalism

This comparative reading of two conceptual corpora, Russian formalism and Germano-Austrian or Germanic formalism, begins with the idea that the European formalism presents a coherent unit. The continuity of this program authorizes such a comparative reading. The comparative analysis of formalisms in Europe could be a research program aimed at an epistemological reading of the phenomenon of European formalism at the turn of the 20th century. This program deals with a rereading of two conceptual fields–Russian formalism and Germanic (Germano-Austrian) formalism. This study seeks to contextualise the formalist project within the knowledge of its time by showing its genetic links with the disciplines of this period and by introducing it as an epistemological fact. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the growth of psychologism in aesthetic theories, constitutes a reaction against the dominant scientific positivism in the “humanities” of this period. Stemming from the tensions between “aesthetics from below” and “aesthetics from above,” European formalism expresses and achieves a heterogeneous aesthetic program, halfway between “experimental science” and the “science of lived experience.”

THE AIMS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE RUSSIAN FORMALISTS IN THE YEARS 1913-1925

The formalist groups which were active in Russia between the years 1913 and 1925 initiated the formalist method. This method has been shown to have had very significant consequences for the development of the humanities and to a certain degree also for the social sciences in the twentieth century. Although formalism was originally intended only as a method of research, it gave rise - even if indirectly and over many decades - to new conceptions in art and science as a whole. We will now examine the chief basic principles of Russian formalism as revealed in the sources of the period and we will look at its achievements from the vantage-point of more than a hundred years after it began.

What is Videogame Formalism? Exploring the Pillars of Russian Formalism for the Study of Videogames

This article provides a general overview of the theoretical foundations of formalism to assess their usefulness for the study of videogames and thereby establish grounds for a more robust approach. After determining that formalism has been used as a go-to term for a variety of ontological and methodological approaches in game studies, this article draws more specifically from Russian Formalism to use the label for a functionalist approach interested in how formal devices in videogames work to cue aesthetic responses. Through an exploration of three pillars of Russian Formalism, a videogame formalism emerges that focuses on the workings of the game as a machine while still taking the aesthetic player response as the methodological starting point and acknowledging the importance of synchronic and diachronic historical perspectives in establishing the functioning of game devices.

Literary Theory as Radical Historicism?

This article highlights how the premises of the radical historicism of Galin Tihanov’s book The Birth and Death of Literary Theory (2019) are conditioned by developments within literary theory itself. For Tihanov, changes in literature’s perceived usefulness undermine the dominance of its perceived uniqueness, bringing about the demise of theoretical discourses aimed at determining that uniqueness. Exploring the tensions within Russian formalism and Prague structuralism that made possible the abandonment of the adherence to the doctrine of literary autonomy through specific uses of language, the author connects Tihanov’s notion of “regimes of relevance” with the concept of “regime” developed by Jacques Rancière. The intersection of these two theorizations of “regime” pinpoint the paradox at the heart of literary theory: the attempt to pose the question of artistic autonomy and specificity produces the dissipation of what was holding this autonomy together.

Translating Readings

Situated at the intersection of literary theory and translation theory, the paper deals with the history of foreign literary theory in 1980s Czechoslovakia. Focusing on both the published works and the archival legacy of Czech literary scholar Vladimír Macura (1945–99), it studies the peculiar intertwining of reading, commentary, and translation involved in the reception of foreign language theory from Russian Formalism to North American deconstruction, the translation of which had been hindered for ideological or political reasons, as well as its mediation through Macura’s publication of paraphrasing excerpts in his 1988 “Guidebook to International Literary Theory”.

Stanisław Pigoń and Manfred Kridl. Two concepts of literary research at the Stefan Batory University

The article presents two different methodologies of eminent USB professors and lecturers: Stanisław Pigoń (1921-1931) and Manfred Kridl (1931-1939). Stanisław Pigoń, taking over the Department of Polish studies in Vilnius University, after Józef Kallenbach, continued traditional philological research on romantic literature, with particular emphasis on Mickiewicz and his Vilnius years. Pigoń’s interest included: the Philomatic environment, the issues of the Kaunas-Vilnius “Dziady” and research on location of the so-called Konrad’s cell. In turn prof. Kridl introduced the modern “integral method” to Vilnius Polish studies, derived from Roman Ingarden’s theory of literary work, research on the issues of the style and structure of the poem and Russian formalism. Both educated a group of eminent scholars (Czesław Zgorzelski, Maria Renata Mayenowa, Irena Sławińska, Maria Rzewuska and others).