FUndamental Texts

(pictures of the authors appear in the header collage, left to right)

If you would like to access the e-texts, please email historicalpoetics@gmail.com.

1.  Alexandr Nikolaevich Veselovsky (1838-1906), «On the Methods and Aims of Literary History as a Science», Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 16 (1967) 33-42; translation by Harry Weber. (An alternative translation by Boris Maslov can be downloaded from here.)

Russ. original: A. N. Veselovsky, Izbrannoe: Na puti k istoricheskoi poetike (Moscow: Avtokniga, 2010), 9-20.

2. Friedrich Wilhelm (Vasily Vasilievich) Radloff (1837-1918), Preface from Proben der Volksliteratur der nördlichen türkischen Stämme V (St. Petersburg, 1885). Oral Tradition 5 (1990) 73-90. English translation by G. B. Sherman and A. B. Davis.

German original: Proben der Volksliteratur der nördlichen türkischen Stämme V (St. Petersburg 1885) i-xxviii.

3. Yuri Tynianov (1894-1943), “On Literary Evolution” (1927) in Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views (Normal, IL:  2002) 66-78. Translation by C. A. Luplow.

Russ. original: “O literaturnoi evoliutsii” in Iu. N. Tynianov, Poetika. Istoriia literatury. Kino (Moskva: Nauka, 1977) 270-281. Primechaniia E. A. Toddesa i dr.: 518-530.

4. Yuri Tynianov (1894-1943), “The Ode as an Oratorical Genre” (1922-1928) New Literary History 34.3 (2003) 565-596. Translation by Ann Shukman.

Russ. original: “Oda kak oratorskii zhanr” in Iu. N. Tynianov, Poetika. Istoriia literatury. Kino (Moskva: Nauka, 1977) 227-252. Primechaniia E. A. Toddesa i dr.: 490-501.

5. Viktor Maximovich Zhirmunsky (1891-1971) “On the Question of Epithet” (1931) in Selected Writings: Linguistics, Poetics (Moscow: Progress, 1985) 353-362. (See PDF to the right)

Russ. original: “K voprosu ob epitete” in V. M. Zhirmunsky, Teoriia literatury, poetika, stilistika (Leningrad: Nauka, 1975) 355-361, 403-404.

6. Olga Mikhailovna Freidenberg (1890-1955), “Explanation of the Theme” (1954); “Metaphor,” sections I-V (1951) from Image and Concept (Amsterdam, 1997) 28-58. Notes by N. Braginskaia and K. Moss: 461-65. Translation by Kevin Moss, emended by Boris Maslov. (See PDF to the right) 

Russ. original: O. M. Freidenberg, Mif i literatura drevnosti. 2-e izd. M., 1998. C. 224-252, 693-697.

7. Olga Mikhailovna Freidenberg (1890-1955), “Excursus on Philosophy” (1954) from Image and Concept (Amsterdam, 1997) 141-157. Notes by N. Braginskaia and K. Moss: 471-472. Translation by Kevin Moss, emended by Boris Maslov. (See PDF to the right)

Russ. original: O. M. Freidenberg, Mif i literatura drevnosti. 2-e izd. M., 1998. C. 329-344, 704-705.

8. Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895-1975), “The problem of content, material, and form in verbal art” (1924, first publ. in 1975), sections I and IV, in Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays (Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1990) 257-274, 303-318. Notes by S. G. Bocharov and M. Holquist: 318-325. Translation by Kenneth Brostrom.

Russ. original: K voprosam metodologii estetiki slovesnogo tvorchestva. I: Problema soderzhaniia, materiala i formy. Razdely I, “Iskusstvovedenie i obshchaia estetika” i IV, “Problema formy.” 265-282, 311-325. M. M. Bakhtin. Sobranie sochinenii. T.1. Filosofskaia estetika 1920-kh godov. Moskva 2003. Primechaniia S. S. Averintseva i dr.: 741-792, 856-867.

9. Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895-1975), “From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse” (1940; first publ. in 1965-7) in The Dialogic Imagination (Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1981) 41-83. Translation by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist.

Russ. original: “Iz predystorii romannogo slova” in M.M. Bakhtin, Voprosy literatury i estetiki (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1975) 408-446.