Abstract
After a brief introduction into the phenomenon of dandyism as a deeply romantic response to the world, still present in the épatage patterns of the Russian futurists (Kharms's immediate predecessors), follows a study of various “dandyist” features to be found in Kharms's conduct, philosophy and life style, including his vestimental and nutritional habits; in his literary, aesthetic and even erotic predilections, or in his choice of friends. Other manifestations include the very choice of names, both of the OBERIu group and of Kharms's pseudonym. These features culminate in Kharms's claims “to be different” from anything and anybody, as well as in a total “aesthetisation” of his life and work. Such attitudes, unacceptable in Soviet Russia, contributed to his universal pessimism and to his final ruin.
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