THE SEARCH OF GENRE IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE OF 1920S: V. SHKLOVSKY’S ZОО, OR LETTERS NOT ABOUT LOVE AND V. MAYAKOVSKY’S ABOUT IT AS TWO VERSIONS OF ONE PLAN

Abstract

The paper attempts to prove that when considering the genre premises of V. Mayakovsky’s poem and V. Shklovsky’s novel, the formalist theory of convergence is no less effective than Bakhtin’s concept of genre memory. A comparative analysis of two texts created at the same time sheds light on the artistic features of each. Both the poem and the novel are ‘literature of exile’; both works are a dedication to the lady of the heart; in both cases, the structure of a courtly romance or a ballad in honor of the beloved is recreated. It is emphasized that the Berlin Zoo (‘Zoo’) was destined to play a special role in the creation of two works. At the same time, the image of the zoo becomes one of the expanded metaphors in the work of Mayakovsky, and not Shklovsky, while for the latter the most important reference point is V. Khlebnikov’s Zverinets. It is suggested that the ‘adult’ literature of the 1920s can draw on the achievements of literature for children. The attitude towards dialogue with tradition is manifested in the works of Shklovsky and Mayakovsky precisely in the space of playing with genre models, as well as in the movement from the verbal text to the book as an indivisible whole, which is relevant for the avant-garde. The idea of synthesis of arts manifests itself in different ways in the works of Mayakovsky and Shklovsky: the former is distinguished by an orientation towards the collage technique, which involves playing with textures, while for the latter, ‘newspaper montage’ is important. The blurring of the boundaries between fiction and document, characteristic of LEF, also determines the genre specificity of both the poem and the novel.