Victor Chklovski

Victor Borisovitch Chklovski (ВикторБорисовичШкловский) is a theorist of the literature and Russian writer , born with Saint-Pétersbourg on January 24th, 1893, dead on December 6th, 1984. He is the founder of the group of the formal Russian of Saint-Pétersbourg OPOYAZ and author of several novels in autobiographical matter. He was also critic film and author of scenarios.

Biography

Victor Chklovski is resulting from an Jewish family of Russian and German origin. Studying in letters at the University of Saint-Pétersbourg, he is in particular the pupil of the linguist Baudoin de Courtenay. He discovers with enthusiasm poetry and the futuristic sculpture . He founds in 1914 the group of Study of the Poetic Language OPOYAZ which will play a big role in the development of the Russian Formalisme. Chklovski develops in particular the concept of Défamiliarisation which will inspire the theatrical esthetics of Bertolt Brecht.

In 1914 it is mobilized, initially in Galicie and Ukraine. It returns then to Saint-Petersbourg as an instructor for the control of the armoured tanks. Member of the revolutionary Socialist party, it takes part in the Russian Révolution of February 1917. He is sent on the face of the West as a police chief of the provisional government, in Galicie then in Persia.

After the Révolution of October 1917 it engages in the fight for the re-establishment of the constituent Assembly, in the area of the the Volga then to Kiev. After the victory of the Bolsheviks it returns to Saint-Pétersbourg and obtains a safe conduct thanks to the support of Maxime Gorki. It publishes a theory of the poetic language. From 1919, Chklovski teaches at the Institute of Arts of Petrograd. In company of Ievgueni Zamiatine, he sponsors the literary group of the “Frères of Saint-Sérapion” rested by his students. It is interested in the historical evolution of the literary kinds (theory of the walk of the rider ). He marries Lusya Kordi. He takes part one moment in the fight against the White Russians. Seriously wounded following the accidental explosion of a bomb, it is repatriated in Saint-Pétersbourg in 1920. It takes again its activity of literary criticism and founds with Vladimir Maïakovski a publisher specialized in the formalism and the Futurisme.

After a reversal of the capacity Bolshevik, it is constrained with the exile in 1922. It takes refuge in Finland then with Berlin. This period is extremely productive for Chklovski: it publishes two novels and several studies. However it supports the exile badly and benefits from an amnesty in 1923 to return to Russia. During this period, it has a short connection with Elsa Triolet which one finds the echoes in his novel Zoo .

Of return to the country, it takes again its activity of essay writer, with however more difficulties. It writes in particular biographies of Leon Tolstoï, Laurence Sterne or Vladimir Maïakovski. In 1925, it publishes its councils with the young writers of the Sérapion Brothers under the title Technique of the trade of writer . Chklovski starts moreover to write for and on the cinema. It also carries out translations. In 1926 its third autobiographical novel appears the Third Factory .

The period of relative freedom of NEP brutally ends in 1930 with the come to power of Stalin. Chklovski is constrained to publish an article of retractation ( Monument of a scientific error , 1930). It will be able practically nothing any more to publish until the death of Stalin, and will be devoted more largely to the cinema. In 1944, it loses his son of the continuations of the war. After the death of Stalin, Chklovski can again publish more freely: tests on Dostoïevski (1957), Tolstoï (1963), and a new autobiographical novel, It was once , in 1964.

Chklovski dies in 1984 in Moscow. Its contemporaries described it like a man of humor, shining and voluble.

Works

Tests and biographies

Resurrection of the word , 1913 Technical
of the trade of writer , 1927
Tolstoï , 1928

Romance

sentimental Voyage , 1923
Zoo, letters which do not speak about love , 1923
the Third Factory , 1926
It was once , 1964

Scenarios of film

the bay of dead the , film of Abram Room, 1926
Three in a basement , film of Abram Room, 1927
the house of the place Trubnaia (in collaboration), film of Boris Barnet, 1928
Turskib , film of Victor Tourine, 1929
the dead house , according to Dostoïevski, film of Vassili Fiodorov, 1932
Horizon , film of Lev Kuleshov, 1932
Minin and Pozharsky , film of Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1939
Ovod , film of Alexandre Fajntsimmer, 1955
the cossacks , film of Vassili Pronine, 1961, presented to the Cannes festival.
Tri tolstyaka , film of Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg, according to Youri Olecha, 1963
Skazka O zolotom petushke , film of Aleksandra Snezhko-Blotskaya, according to Pouchkine, 1965
the ballade of Bering and his/her friends , (in collaboration), film of Youri Chviryov, 1970.

See too

External bonds

catalog of films (in English)

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