Introduction . The current problem of mastering Mikhail Bakhtin's rich scientific legacy is to fix the unified approach that, albeit implicitly, provides a paradigmatic unity to the extremely wide range of topics proposed by the thinker and the diverse set of concepts he synthesized. Methodology and sources. Emerging within the broad framework of the “linguistic turn”, which set the basic trend for the development of the humanities in the 20th century, Bakhtin’s theory methodologically accumulated all the approaches associated with this turn, including phenomenology, ontology, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, Russian formalism, and structuralism. Results and discussion . The broadest range of humanities phenomena – from linguistics, communication theory, and the concept of the novel to specific works of art – is induced by Bakhtin’s paradigm of understanding along the trajectory of “logic – grammar – poetics”. In this algorithm, the “normative” center is first identified, which, in its self-identity and pronominal immobility, appears in the absolute status of an “eternal” substance; then, in relation to the “logical” center, the “grammatical” existence of the dynamically active periphery is described in terms of the uncertainty of immediate becoming. In the modus of poeticization, this dichotomy, in which one side claims subjectivity and dominance, while the other plays the role of a dependent but predicate-rich entity, forms an alliance on the path of “poetic” abolition of the immanent dichotomy of center/periphery, without eliminating the ontological tension between them, which is filled with the energy of transcendent meaning. Conclusion . Bakhtin's linguo-ontological approach clarifies the presence on the same axis of the field of logical descent, which synthesizes the pole of the monological subject in its domination over the present world and the other as its predicate relative to the pole of I/is, and the poetic ascent in the modus of the dialogical equivalence of the metaphorization of the predicative world, in which it condenses into an aesthetic image, and the metonymization of the egocentric subject, which shifts the latter to the periphery of poetic contemplation.

The article contrasts Roman Jakobson’s and Boris Yarkho’s approaches to evolutionary theories used to explain linguistic and literary development. Jakobson’s work, grounded in nomogenetic principles, linked language and organic life through metaphor, emphasizing the universal patterns of evolution in both domains. By contrast, Yarkho, a follower of Darwin and Mendel, treated literature metonymically—as a homological extension of life. Yarkho’s approach sought order on the large scale, as in population biology, relying on a comparative-statistical method, in which he anticipated Digital Humanities. Meanwhile, Jakobson’s approach, despite being based on scientifically outdated Nomogenesis, aligned with Schrödinger’s work in What Is Life?, which explored the regularities of living systems. Schrödinger’s predictions about the molecular basis of life, including the aperiodic crystal structure, foreshadowed the discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, a breakthrough that Jakobson celebrated as a confirmation of his biological metaphors for language.

Abstrak: This article analyzes Mahmoud Darwish’s poem جندي يحلم بالزنابق البيضا through Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of defamiliarization within the framework of Russian Formalist theory. The poem reveals the inner conflict of a weary soldier who dreams of peace symbolized by the white lily. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, this study explores how Darwish’s poetic language—rich in metaphors, paradoxes, and imagery—transforms conventional meanings of purity and heroism into reflections on trauma, loss, and existential struggle.The white lily, which traditionally represents innocence and peace, becomes a contradictory symbol bridging beauty and suffering, life and death. The findings indicate that Darwish employs defamiliarization techniques to challenge familiar discourses of nationalism and war, compelling readers to reinterpret universal concepts such as “homeland” and “victory” in more personal and human terms. Ultimately, Darwish’s aesthetic strategy not only deepens the reader’s emotional engagement but also encourages critical reflection on the human condition amid conflict.

The study explores Elizabeth Bishop's poem One Art (1976) using a bridged approach, combining Russian formalist theories and Geoffrey Leech's stylistic framework to provide a multifaceted analysis of the selected poem. This study aims to demonstrate that the poem’s true artistic value, arguing that a comprehensive understanding of the poem requires a combination of these approaches beyond solely lens analysis. Both approaches shed light on the text itself. Also, this study fills a gap in current literature, using a qualitative descriptive method, it offers an in-depth analysis of the text’s formal elements, such as defamiliarization, figurative language, and form integrated with stylistic elements like graphological, lexical, and discoursal levels, by giving a better understanding of both structure and emotional content. Based on the findings of this study, it has been determined that formalism and stylistics do not oppose but rather complement each other. It examined how fabula and syuzhet work together and focused on defamiliarization as the poem’s main impact. It revealed the villanelle structure and Bishop’s stylistic choices defamiliarize the experience of loss, revealing a complex struggle rather than mastery, and highlighting the use of formalist and stylistic analysis to confront human suffering.

This article explores the lyrical output of H. P. Baxxter, frontman of the German electronic band Scooter, through the lens of modernist poetry and the theoretical frameworks of Russian formalism, Czech and French structuralism, and theories of intertextuality. While Baxxter’s lyrics are often dismissed as boasting or emblematic of mass consumerism, the essay challenges this view by examining their poetic qualities. It highlights how these texts, through self-referential declarations, heavily coded intertextual collage, and surprising, defamiliarizing juxtapositions, force the listener to engage in active and conscious interpretation. The discussion addresses the difficulty of defining poetry, arguing that neither traditionally associated features, such as rhyme, rhythm, or decorative language, nor authorial intent suffice. Instead, the article considers alternative criteria, namely the concepts of “defamiliarization” and “intertextuality,” to assess the poetic quality of Scooter’s lyrics. Ultimately, the analysis suggests that Baxxter’s texts can be understood as a form of modernist poetry, fulfilling the ideals set down in T. S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent.”

This research study examines theoretical reception trends and their aesthetics in the arts and literature. First, we will present the contributions of Russian Formalism and its leading thinkers. Next, we will move on to semiotic theory, exploring the perspectives of its philosophers and theorists on reception and its significant interpretative implications. We will then explore structuralist theory’s interpretative views on the essence of reception from a structural perspective. After that, we will discuss phenomenological theory, outlining the key contributions of its thinkers and their major ideas on reception and aesthetics, as well as their view of the recipient’s influence on the visual arts and literature. We will then move on to German theory, presenting the essential ideas and perspectives of its proponents on optics and the aesthetics of reception. Finally, we will conclude with a psychological theory and its scientific perception of the aesthetics of reception. Postmodern thought has achieved a revolutionary transformation of the concept of reception by empowering the recipient in creative work and elevating their role, which had previously been marginalised in the creative processes of the arts and literature. This shift engages with the system governing creativity in general and is closely linked to the aesthetics of reception. Examining its effects and illuminating the cognitive concepts that have emerged from various theories focused on the aesthetics of reception is therefore necessary. This involves tracing the impact resulting from the authority of individuals and audiences and considering both as integral to the horizon of reception. This creates a rich and fertile environment for studying the formation of multi-sensory aesthetic taste.

In the context of profound globalization and digital revolution, this research aims to explore the fundamental challenges that artificial intelligence technology brings to the evaluation criteria of world literature and the theoretical reconstruction path. The technological logic of AI tends to dissolve the literariness derived from Russian formalism and continuously developed in world literature theory into calculable feature units. Excessive reliance on algorithmic logic will trap the progression of world literature into the crisis of technological reductionism. To address this crisis, this research proposes to construct a new mode of human-machine collaborative criticism based on digital humanism as the theoretical foundation. AI will empower the revelation of cross-cultural literary laws and the democratization of classic canon through macro-analysis, while human critics adhere to their dominant position in contextual interpretation, value judgment, and meaning generation. This collaborative mode not only recognizes the advantages of technology in processing massive data, but also emphasizes the irreplaceability of humanistic spirit in the final value judgment. It is designed to provide a feasible theoretical framework and development path for world literature to maintain diversity and creativity in the algorithmic era.

One of the most important achievements of Polish research on verse forms of poetry in the final decades of the 20th century was the organization of an international group implementing a program called Slavic Comparative Metrics, dealing with the comparative analysis of verse forms in Slavic literatures. The group’s formation coincided with a time when the field of literary studies sought to clarify its methods, defining its place between linguistics and cultural studies. The program carried out by versologists was based on the concepts of language and poetry contained in the works of the Russian formalists and the Prague structuralists, and its formulation was directly influenced by the writings of Roman Jakobson as well as personal contacts with this scholar. The article presents the circumstances in which the SCM group was set up at the Institute of Literary Research, describes its methods of work as well as subsequent goals and results. Research on a pan-Slavic scale revealed the influence of the different prosodic structures of individual languages on the possibility of implementing specific rhythmic patterns. This research shed light on the value of different forms in linguistically related literatures and on the choice of metrical equivalents in translation. The researchers also examined the functioning of verse structures in intercultural contacts within the Slavic area and metrical poetry as testimony to Slavic literatures belonging to the wider European community. The team was active for 35 years despite the difficulties to which international cooperation was exposed in the political conditions of the time. The results of its work were published in nine volumes of the Slavic Comparative Metrics series.

Abstract Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian Formalism were all facets of a larger phenomenon called Postimperial Formalism. The shared postimperial heritage is epitomized by the Polish-Russian-Ukrainian Siberian school that emerged among exiled populist revolutionaries in the 1880s and 1890s as well as in the linguistic work of Jan Baudouin de Courtenay. The author reconstructs the ways in which the imperial situation in general, and the Siberian school and Baudouinian linguistics as its instantiations, made possible the Formalist theory of poetic language as a universal phenomenon across cultures (and not restricted to higher cultures entitled to dominate more “natural peoples”). Language is conceived as necessarily divided into distinct communicative and poetic currents, and poetic language always appears alien to its natives. Thus, aesthetic autonomy, and consequently the autonomy of the subject who experiences its own freedom in art, has a translinguistic character, since “estrangement” always operates in relation to communicative language. The strangeness of poetic language coincides with the problematic relationship between sound and meaning prompted by the tension between energy expenditure and austerity. This common situation also sheds light on other otherwise inexplicable and seemingly whimsical qualities of Formalism in the successor states of the Russian Empire, most importantly the role that the Formalist idolaters of the autonomy of the “literary series” played in the Soviet political strategy of nativization and, to some extent, in the Polish politics of regionalism.

This study analyzes the portrayal of spring in classical and modern Arabic poetry. It investigates the images of spring and their influence on Arabic poets. This study relies on Russian formalist approaches. It studies poems through their images, personifications, metaphors, similes, and symbols. The significance of the study is to show how classic and modern Arabic poets treat spring in their poetry, based on textual analysis. These poems glorify spring and its impact on poets. They admire spring and describe it in most of their poems. They symbolize it as a time of renewal, hope, and pleasure. Similarly, spring is a natural motive that makes poets feel the beauty of nature, touch its softness, and taste its fragrance.

This paper outlines the multifaceted intellectual profile of Nina Kaucisvili (1919–2000), from her cosmopolitan education to the development of her distinguished career as a scholar and professor of Russian literature. Her research and teaching primarily focused on the works of Dostoevskij and Gogol’ from the nineteenth century, and Andrej Belyj from the twentieth, applying the theories of the Russian formalists—particularly those of Jurij Lotman—to the analysis of their writings. A significant phase of her scholarly activity centered on the philosophical and aesthetic works of Pavel Florenskij.Thanks to her exceptional ability to identify innovative research directions and to foster opportunities for scholarly debate with leading international experts, the Slavic Department at the University of Bergamo became a major hub for Russian studies. The international academic community recognized not only her original approach to Russian-Italian cultural relations, but also her efforts to broaden cultural discourse to include twentieth-century Russian spirituality, both within Russia and in emigration.

Place is one of the keys to the reading strategy of critical discourse. It is one of the main axes around which literary theory in general and the novel in particular revolve. However, it has only recently been studied in Arabic criticism, despite its constant and effective presence in literary works in general. Place in the novel varies according to the form, size, space, and the function it performs, some of which are narrow and closed, while others are open and wide, they are forms of reality that have been transferred to the novel and have become one of its basic elements, as it interacts with the characters within the novel and helps to form them intellectually, psychologically, and emotionally. The research aims to reveal the manifestations of the closed place in the four studied novels of Al-Hijri to identify its characteristics, creative process, and impact on the characters' movements, feelings, and emotions. The research is limited to the closed place and not the open place for the artistic signs that characterize this type of place in the studied novels to give another opportunity to study open places. This research adopts a descriptive-analytical approach and uses the views of Russian formalists in the study of the novels. The findings of the study showed that closed places in the studied novels emerged in both optional and forced forms. In the optional closed place, the movement and movement of the character is reduced with some social violence as in the room, the house, the car, and the airplane. As for the forced confinement, the character is forced and prevented from the outside world completely, and feels distress, torment, sadness, and pain from the monitored party, such as the prison and the hospital. The research revealed that the place in the novels was strongly linked to the character, as it made a strong contribution to drawing its dimensions participated in the activation of events, and also worked to interpret the behavior of the character.

Aim. This paper aims to find the origin of major literary theories and their domains. Literary theories often bear differences under the three major categories, “Eurocentrism”, “Androcentricism”, and “Heterosexual Supremacy”. Out of which, “Eurocentricism” talks about the Western look at the rest of the world as begging, illogical, unscientific, and strange (cultural sense of other), “Androcentricism” vents out gender marginalization and “Heterosexual Supremacy” excludes homosexuality. Methods. Some major theories are interpreted under the above given three segregations like Structuralism removes all the Western dominance (Eurocentricism) or Gender biases (Androcentricism) shown in the text with lexis, codes, and interspersed digressions, and the Queer theory rejects the “Heterosexual Supremacy”. Special preference is given to theories which are idea-led. Results. This research highlights that in the ‘Text-led’ theories, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Russian Formalism and Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis work on the text to find the generalized meaning of the text, and in the ‘Idea-led’ philosophies like Louis Althusser’s Marxism, New Historicism or Cultural Materialism focus on ideas with wider approach of accepting the fact that a literary work is affected by multiple causes and can result in various interpretations of the works. Conclusion. This research tries to prove that marginalization is the genesis of literary theories, as these theories serve as tools to expose overtly the process of marginalization to the world. This research paper also talks about bisexuality’s support by any new theory that has yet to register in the list of literary theories. This research paper proves that all literary theories are developed for some widespread generic reasons in favour of the betterment of our society. Reading this research one can find the real way to apply the literary theories for discourse analysis.

The article is devoted to the identification of links between Henri Mesсhonnic's anthropological theory of rhythm and the works of the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure and the Russian formal school. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the reception of the works of Russian formalists in French verse studies has not yet been covered and requires systematisation. Mesсhonnic's criticism of R. Barthes's position on the ‘death of the author’ has made it difficult to accept the anthropological theory of rhythm in Europe and the USA. The significant presence of Russian material in Meschonnic's works slows down its reception in Russia as well, as it creates an illusion of lack of novelty. The subject of the study is the key concepts of the anthropological theory of rhythm in comparison with the terms ‘paragram’ and ‘value’ (Saussure) and the notions of ‘historicity’, ‘deformation of semantics’, ‘sound image’ (Tynianov), ‘euphony’ (Tomashevsky). On the basis of the comparative method, a conceptual analysis of theoretical and critical texts in French (Saussure, Meschonnic, Breal) and Russian (Tynyanov, Tomashevsky) is carried out with the involvement of historical and cultural context to clarify Meschonniс's position in the confrontation with French poststructuralists. Meschonnic's scholarly discourse includes terms of politics, sociology and philosophy, which is characteristic of the 60s, 70s. Meschonnic postulates that the subject of the poem is the ‘democracy of the poem’. The term oralité (l'oralité) is defined by Meschonnic as the relation of the rhythmic and prosodic component of the mode of signification (fusis-writing) to what a given discourse says (logos-writing). The clarification of Meschonnic's attitude to Saussure's concepts (paragrams, value) combined with the analysis of the main concepts of the anthropological theory of sound (the subject of the poem, prosody, rhythm, historicity, chains of consonant-vocalic organisation) makes it possible to clearly show the originality of the French poet's approach and the fruitful interaction between Russian and European scientific thought. The situation of moving away from nation-states and national systems of versification at the stage of development of transnational communities has created preconditions for fundamental changes in the interpretation of poetic writing, one of the variants of which is Meschonnic's anthropological theory of rhythm.

In narratology, plot denotes the arrangement of narrative events, as distinct from the chronological sequence of events (fabula). Originating with the Russian Formalists (Propp, Shklovsky), this concept emphasizes the artistic construction of a story’s order. This article surveys plot and its varieties-chronological, non-linear, concentric, associative, circular with comparative examples from Uzbek and world literature. It then focuses on the retrospective plot, a plot structure that begins with a present or culminating moment and then “looks back” to earlier events.

In narratology, plot denotes the arrangement of narrative events, as distinct from the chronological sequence of events (fabula). Originating with the Russian Formalists (Propp, Shklovsky), this concept emphasizes the artistic construction of a story’s order. This article surveys plot and its varieties-chronological, non-linear, concentric, associative, circular with comparative examples from Uzbek and world literature. It then focuses on the retrospective plot, a plot structure that begins with a present or culminating moment and then “looks back” to earlier events.

In 1917–1921, being the first Professor of World Literature at the recently (1914) opened Saratov University, young Victor M. Zhirmunsky taught general courses in World literature – and seminar “Byron’s Contemporaries in Literature”, which concentrated on literary sources for Byron’s poems and their influence on Russian poetry. Zhirmunsky’s letter to B. Eichenbaum of July 29, 1918 contains an outline of his idea for a doctoral thesis on Byron’s poetics with “a long excursion” based on the seminar’s work – a research into “Byronic” Pushkin’s poems. Presented upon his return to Leningrad as his doctoral thesis, Byron and Pushkin (1924) proved to set the golden standard in comparative literary studies and to this day is in print. The book is analyzed as a methodological breakthrough, a combination of the approach of academic literary history with the emerging ideas of Russian formalism. Zhirmunsky’s arguments are backed up by his exhaustive reading of Russian Byronic poems, by his following his texts. His bold for the period exclusion of biographical and psychological aspects from his analysis allows him to demonstrate what exactly is transferred from the source to recipient text: the motive structure, narrative construction, ways of manifestation of the author’s position – in short, the genre model. Specifically, Zhirmunsky is shown to be an early forerunner of the concepts of the death of author and intertextuality.

The article is devoted to modern theoretical approaches to the study of poetic writing. ‘French theory’ developed in dialogue with the works of Freud, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Benveniste and Saussure. Criticism of Saussure's dualism of the sign and logocentric models can be found in Merleau-Ponty, Benveniste and Meschonnic. Meschonnic's works on the anthropological theory of rhythm are not well known in our country. The aim of this article is to arouse the reader's interest in the anthropological theory of sound by pointing out its Russian sources and integrating it into the conceptual apparatus of philosophy (Derrida, Merleau-Ponty) and linguistics (Benveniste, Saussure). The key concepts for Meschonnic are the subjectivity and historicity of writing, which allows her to study the processes of signification (writing and interpretation) in the light of the anthropological turn in science. The concepts of trace, writing, voice, and presence are analysed on the basis of a comparative analysis of the texts of Debray's "Mediology", Derrida's "Freud and the Writing Scene", and Meschonnic and Dessons's "A Treatise on the Rhythm of Poetry and Prose", among others. The field of interdisciplinary research of writing as a transmission and preservation of experience is supplemented by raising the question of the material medium. For the first time an attempt is made to combine the conceptual apparatus of mediology (communication and transmission), phenomenology (trace, presence, voice, phusis-writing, logos-writing) and anthropological theory of rhythm (rhythm, subjectivity, historicity). For French verse studies (sillabic), the novelty of Meschonnic's approach lies in the analysis of the system of accents and sound repetitions, genetically connected with the works of Russian formalists (in particular, the comparativist E. Polivanov). This component of Meschonnic's works paradoxically complicates its reception in Russia, as it creates the illusion of familiar material. The results obtained help to fit Meschonnik's theory into the Russian and European scientific apparatus and show its novelty and effectiveness in combining the theory of rhythm with the consideration of the register of transmission.

This Forum, appearing in each issue of the Journal of Literary Multilingualism, aims to continue the conversation started in the very first issue, where we collected articles which assessed and debated the field of Literary Multilingualism Studies. The Forum is a space for shorter, more informal reflections on the field and its future: position papers, dialogues between scholars, roundtable discussions, responses to articles within the journal, and responses to recent multilingualism conferences or events. We welcome proposals for contributions, particularly from marginalized perspectives or on neglected aspects of literary multilingualism. Please contact us directly to discuss ideas. For this Forum, we asked Eugene Ostashevsky to elaborate on his notion of translingual poetry. His essay follows the idea that translingualism in poetry is, firstly, a use of language that defies translation, or rather: the notion that everything can be said in every language. Secondly, Ostashevsky claims that such poetry makes use of linguistic strategies which have been described as characteristic of bilinguals who tend to speak with another language being present as a potential source of cross-linguistic interference in their language of use. This, thirdly, leads to the conclusion that translingual poetry is, in fact, always close to punning (or, more precisely, to paronomasia), thus making it a prime example of poetic language use in the sense of Russian formalism. — Juliette Taylor-Batty and Till Dembeck, Forum Moderators

Poetic expressions are associated with focus on emotional depth and biographical interpretations to convey personal or political meanings. However, when examined through the lens of Russian Formalism, a text reveals a deeper formal pattern and linguistic design that defamiliarizes the ordinary perception. Therefore, the present study is centered upon formalism to analyze W.H. Auden’s poem As I Walked Out One Evening. The analysis aims to uncover the poetic techniques and formal structures that produce artistic estrangement and slow down perception, shifting focus from meaning to method. I.A. Richard’s model of close reading has been employed to closely observe diction, imagery, and structure, and a qualitative research approach has been adopted to examine the internal mechanics of the poem. The results reveal that Auden’s use of rhythm, time motifs, and irony resist automatic interpretation and creates an aesthetic experience that aligns with Shklovsky’s formalist principles. Thus, the poem stands not only as a lyrical narrative but as a constructed literary artifact designed to renew perception.