УТОПИЯ СОВЕРШЕННОГО ЯЗЫКА: ЛИНГВОФИЛОСОФИЯ ХУГО БАЛЛЯ

Abstract

Philosophical and poetic reflection on the role of language in the era of modernism are characterized by an intense search for a new perfect language. The result of this search is a discussion about the expressive possibilities of poetic language and attempts to create new forms of poetry. The subject of the research is Hugo Ball’s theoretical views on the problem of language. One of the founders of the Dada movement, Ball creates sound poems, which should be analyzed as a reflection of the avant-garde concept of abandoning the outdated rules of ordinary language. They represent an absolute deconstruction of language, but its significance lies in an attempt for an innovative understanding of poetic creativity and its reception, which is in the spirit of the time. Ball’s reflections on poetic language are viewed in the context of the romantic philosophy of language, modern philosophy, and also in the context of philosophical thought of the beginning of the 20th century. At the heart of the radical literary experiments of the Dadaists (as well as those of the Russian and Italian Futurists) is the idea that the existing conventional natural languages are unsuitable for poetry. Hugo Ball rethinks the concept of the language norm and the principles of poetic communication between the creator of a new formation and his listener. Doubt, concerning the success of such communication, leads Ball to comment on his own hermetic texts using conventional language. The article formulates the concept of a perfect language in the understanding of Hugo Ball. The main features of Ball’s new poetic language are irrationality, magical nature and fundamentally different sound. “Poems without words” are proposed to be interpreted as metaphors which point to the idea of a perfect language behind them.