Viktor Shklovsky

Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) was one of the foremost literary critics and theorists of the 20th century. One of the founders of the Formalist movement in literary criticism, his seminal works include “Art as Method” (1917), Theory of Prose (1925), Third Factory (1926), classic studies of Tolstoy and Mayakovsky, and a memoir of the Russian civil-war era, A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs, 1917–1922 (1923).Alexandra Berlina is Postdoctoral Researcher in Literary Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Her translations of Brodsky's poems "Dido and Aeneas" and "You can't tell a gnat..." have won awards from the 'Willis Barnstone Translation Prize' and the 'The Joseph Brodsky/Stephen Spender Prize'. She is the author of Brodsky Translating Brodsky (Bloomsbury, 2014).

An extraordinary revelation of the unbelievable life and work of the man who invented formalism. Alexandra Berlina has done a great service to literature by rescuing these fragments of one of the most lively and irreverent minds of the last century. A book to return to, again and again.

• Translator’s IntroductionViktor Shklovsky: Life and WorkOstranenie and Other Key ConceptsShklovsky in the West: Reception and HeritageThe Poker of Russian Formalism: Shklovsky as ProtagonistIn FictionIn Diaries and MemoirsShklovsky’s ShortsShklovsky’s StyleSelection, Translation and Formal RemarksSection I: OPOYAZ PublicationsTranslator’s IntroductionResurrection of the Word (1914)Art as Device (1917/1919)Literature beyond “Plot” (1921/1925)Literature beyond Theme; Non-Linear InheritanceLiterature beyond Genre; DigressionsLiterature beyond Categories; Seeing like a Child Section II: Autobiographic HybridsTranslator’s IntroductionA Letter to Roman Jakobson (1922/1990)Zoo, or Letters Not About Love (1923/1965)Author’s Preface to the First EditionA Second Preface for an Old BookA Third PrefaceLetter FourLetter SixLetter EightLetter ElevenLetter SeventeenLetter Twenty TwoLetter Twenty EightLetter ThirtyA Sentimental Journey (1923)Revolution and the FrontThe Writing DeskKnight’s Move (1923)Preface OneDriving Nails with a SamovarOn “The Great Metalworker”A Thousand HerringsThe Tsar’s KitchenTeaser Stallions (1924/1990)The Third Factory (1926)The First FactoryThe Second FactoryThe Third FactorySection III: Early Soviet Criticism and Advice to Young WritersTranslator’s IntroductionThe Technique of Writing Craft (1927)Introduction: Don’t Hurry to Become a Professional WriterNewspaper WorkNarrative ProseUnfolding a TextA Few Words on PoetryConclusionHamburg Score (1928)Babel: A Critical Romance (1924)In Defense of the Sociological Method (1927)Ten Years (1927)Hamburg Score (1928)The Way I Write (1930/1990)Section IV: After the FreezeTranslator’s IntroductionOnce Upon A Time (1964)ChildhoodYouthThe Ending of YouthTales about Prose (1966/1983)A Note From the AuthorOn the Novella Some Empirical Remarks on the Methods of Connecting NovellasOn the Different Meanings of “Character” when Applied to Literary Works of Different EpochsOn the True Unity of Works of ArtWhat Happened after the Plague of 1348?On the Sense of WonderScenes of Recognition in DickensConcept RenewalLetters to Nikita Shklovsky (1965-1969/2002)05.10.196505.10.196619.04.196802.04.196920.07.1969Bowstring. On the Dissimilarity of the Similar. (1970)Energy of Delusion. A Book on Plot. (1981)Section V: On the Theory of Prose (1983)Translator’s IntroductionPreface Words Free the Soul from Narrowness: About the OPOYAZThe Rhyme of Poetry. The Rhyme of Prose. Structuralism through the Looking Glass: A FarewellThe First Unsuccessful Blueprint of a Whale: Chekhov’s “Darling”The Links of Art Do Not Repeat Each Other. Once Again, on the Dissimilarity of the Similar.SterneIn the Footsteps of Old Discoveries and InventionsThe Problem of Time in ArtThe Lungs Are for Breathing. Thoughts Out Loud.Yet Another ForewordOstranenieIn Reply to a Questionnaire[More Thoughts Out Loud]Section VI: In 60 Years: Works on Cinema. (1985)Translator’s IntroductionIntroduction (1985)On Cinema (1919)The Plot in Cinema (1923)Chaplin as Policeman (1923)The Semantics of Cinema (1925) Poetry and Prose in Cinema (1927)On Re-Editing Films (1927)Five Feuilletons on Eisenstein (1926)Talking to Friends (1939)Happy Fable-land (1948)What the Character Knows and What the Audience Knows (1959)The Emergence of the Word (1963)Return the Ball into the Game (1970)Unread Dream (1984)Instead of an Afterword: A Letter to Evgeny Gabrilovich (1984)