Collected Works of Velimir Khlebnikov, 3 vols. (1987-1998)
Filed under poetry | Tags: · fiction, futurism, language, literary theory, literature, poetics, poetry, theatre, zaum
“Dubbed by his fellow Futurists the “King of Time”, Velimir Khlebnikov (1885–1922) spent his entire brief life searching for a new poetic language to express his convictions about the rhythm of history, the correspondence between human behavior and the “language of the stars.” The result was a vast body of poetry and prose that has been called hermetic, incomprehensible, even deranged. Of all this tragic generation of Russian poets (including Blok, Esenin, and Mayakovsky), Khlebnikov has been perhaps the most praised and the more censured.”
Edited by Charlotte Douglas (1), Ronald Vroon (2-3)
Translated by Paul Schmidt
Publisher Harvard University Press, 1987-98
ISBN 0674140451 (1), 067414046X (2), 0674140478 (3)
xii+452 & xii+403 & x+274 pages
Reviews: Cooke (of Vol 1, SEER 1989), Yastremski (of Vol 2, SEEJ 1990).
1. Letters and Theoretical Writings (1987, 29 MB)
2. Prose, Plays, and Supersagas (1989, 17 MB)
3: Selected Poems (1998, 10 MB)
More from Khlebnikov (incl 6-volume Russian collection)
Khlebnikov on Ubuweb Sound
Peter Steiner: Russian Formalism: A Metapoetics (1984)
Filed under book | Tags: · authorship, formalism, literary criticism, literary theory, literature, metaphor, poetics, poetry
“Thirty years after its first publication, Peter Steiner’s erudite, thoughtful book remains a classic study of Russian Formalism. His “metapoetic” analysis offers a simple, clear schema for apprehending the unity of action and dynamic configuration of the Russian formalists’s program, while fully respecting the diversity of the cluster of theories they put forward. As such, it also serves as one of the best introductions to a movement that still exerts considerable influence on literary study.”
Publisher Cornell University Press, 1984
Digital edition by sdvig press, Geneva/Lausanne, 2014
Formalisms series, 1
Open access
ISBN 9782970082934
245 pages
Reviews: Richard F. Gustafson (Slavic Review, 1985), Rene Wellek (Poetics Today, 1986), Milton Ehre (Comparative Literature, 1986).
HTML
PDF (updated on 2018-6-23)
multiple formats (Internet Archive, added on 2018-6-23)
PDFs (added on 2018-9-23)
Nadezhda Mandelstam: Hope Against Hope: A Memoir (1970) [RU, EN]
Filed under book | Tags: · 1930s, avant-garde, biography, history, history of literature, literature, memory, poetry, politics, russia, soviet union, totalitarianism
“Nadezhda Mandelstam’s memoir of her life with poet Osip, who was first arrested in 1934 and died in Stalin’s Great Purge of 1937-38. The book is a vital eyewitness account of Stalin’s Soviet Union and one of the greatest testaments to the value of literature and imaginative freedom ever written.”
Publisher Chekhov Publishing Corp., New York, 1970
432 pages
English edition
Translated by Max Hayward
With an Introduction by Clarence Brown
Publisher Atheneum, New York, 1970
Fifth printing, 1983
ISBN 0689705301
xvi+432 pages
Reviews: George Ivask (Slavic Review, 1971), Simon Karlinsky (Slavic and East European Journal, 1971), Robert P. Hughes (Russian Review, 1971), Seamus Heaney (London Review of Books, 1981), Elaine Feinstein (The Independent, 2013).
Commentary: Judith Robey (Slavic and East European Journal, 1998).
Vospominaniya (Russian, 1970/1999, TXT; HTML)
Hope Against Hope (English, 1970/1983, PDF/42 MB; DJVU/7 MB)