Many Kinds of Mind: Velimir Khlebnikov, Zaum , and Russian Futurist Philosophy

Abstract: This essay returns to the origin of the Russian Futurist theory of zaum . The neologism has long been understood to mean a movement beyond rational discourse toward nonsense: za translates as "beyond" and um as "mind." In the work of Velimir Khlebnikov, the essay argues, experimentation with um as a root actually provides a more expansive, open-ended philosophical inquiry into the nature and possibilities of rationality itself. Even prior to the invention of zaum , and throughout his later career, Khlebnikov develops numerous poetic neologisms with um that propose a range of potential "kinds" of mind. These novel kinds of mind are all deemed rational. Thus, Khlebnikov rewrites the utopian stakes of the Futurist project: zaum is an imagined community, as well as a field of conceptual possibilities, opened up by an embrace of the many sources and forms of thought.