Viktor Shklovsky’s Method: Fear and Finding Freedom in a Creative Experiment

This article analyses the early works of V. B. Shklovsky, specifically the 1921 book Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and the Theory of the Novel, which responded to the socio-political situation during the Civil War and the NEP in an extremely mediated and therefore legal form. It also analyses the autobiographical Sentimental Journey. Shklovsky singles out Sterne’s prose with “stopped time” in the continuous flow of world classics. He perceives play as a significant device, and together with the stoppage of time, it is interpreted by him as a revelation. This revelation is seen as a salvation of the creative personality from the threats of the era. Shklovsky’s personality and theory were met with divergent perceptions among his contemporaries. To provide a comprehensive characterisation of the scholar’s worldview and activities, the author of the article refers to the images of the characters from the novels The White Guard by M. A. Bulgakov and Chevengur by A. P. Platonov, for which Shklovsky served as the prototype. The literary scholar’s thoughts on “defamiliarisation” in the novel genre and on the slowing down of time found a wide response in European literary studies and gave impetus to the emergence of postmodernist theories of fiction. More particularly, the concept of “performative writing” can be traced back to his early works. In the 1960s and 1970s, Shklovsky’s participation in European philological discussions and visits to editorial offices and universities in Italy and France were regarded by the public as important events. Shklovsky’s method, traditionally called formal, became an integral part of Umberto Eco’s system of creative thinking and was used by him in the structure of the novel and literary theory. The text of his The Name of the Rose is permeated with the idea of denying haste in matters of conscience and religion and the slow execution of supreme justice. In Foucault’s Pendulum, the reference to “the Petersburg of Shklovsky’s youth” is significant. The pendulum, with its motionless stand, serves as a symbol for the passage of time from a state of immobility.