The following translation was made by student assistant Evelin D’Angelo for circulation.

internal of the chair Analysis and Criticism I of the Humanities program (U.N.R), taken from 'The
resurrection the world." In Stephen Bann and John E. Bowlt (editors). Russian Formalism: A
collection of articles and texts in translation. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1973.
Translated from Russian to English by Richar Sherwood.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE WORD (1914)

Viktor Shklovsky

The word–the image and its fossilization–. The epithet as a means of renewal of the word. The
the history of the epithet - the history of poetic style. The fate of the works of the old artists
the word is of the same nature as the destiny of the word itself: they complete the journey of the
poetry to prose. The death of things. The purpose of Futurism is the resurrection of the
things–the return to man of the experience of the world–. The connection of the resources of the
poetry of the futurists with the resources of the thought processes of general linguistics.
The semicomprehensible language of ancient poetry. The language of the futurists.

The oldest poetic creation of man was the creation of words. Now the words
they are dead, and language is like a cemetery, but there was once a living image in the
newborn word. Each word is basically a trope. For example, mesyats ('moon');
"mes": the original meaning of this word was "measurer" (in Russian: meritel'); "pena" (in Russian:
burn, sorrow; cf. burn = to burn, sorrow = to bake) and 'sadness' means that which is burned
and singes; the word 'enfant' (as well as the term in ancient Russian 'otrok' =
"boy"; "child" in a literal translation means "not to speak". So many examples could be cited.
similar words exist in the language. And, quite often, when locating the image that
now it is lost and obliterated, but once it was embedded in the base of the word,
one is shaken by its beauty – by a beauty that once existed and that now has
missing

When words are used by our thought processes as concepts

general and serve, so to speak, as algebraic symbols, and must be devoid of
imagery, when used in everyday speech and not fully enunciated or heard,
this implies that they have become familiar, and their internal form (image) and external form (sound) are no longer
they are perceived. We do not perceive the familiar, we do not see it, but we recognize it. We do not see the
walls of our rooms, it is very difficult for us to spot a printing error in a
test - particularly if it is written in a language known to us - because we cannot
let's start to watch and review, without 'recognizing' the familiar word.
If we wanted to define the 'poetic' or 'artistic' perception in general, it would undoubtedly occur to us
The following definition: the 'artistic' perception is one in which the form is perceived (perhaps
not only the form, but surely the form as an essential part). It is easy to demonstrate its relevance
this 'elemental' definition in those instances where some expression that has been poetic, is
convert into prose. For example, it is evident that the expressions: the 'foot' (in Russian: podoshva)
from a mountain or the 'chapter' (in Russian: glava) of a book, in its passage from poetry to prose
they have not changed their meaning, but have only lost their form (in this case, the form
A. Gornfeld, in the article 'Torments of the Word', proposed the following experiment:
translate the words of the poem:

Stikh, like a coin, wait,

Strictly, responsibly, honestly.
Follow the rules persistently:
To make words feel cramped,
I think - spacious,

(The verse, like coins, is minted)

In a strict, precise, honest manner.
Obstinately respect the rule:
So that the words are compact,
And the thoughts, expansive...)

to please that, by losing its form (in this case, the external form), the poem
turn into a common and ordinary didactic aphorism. This experiment confirms the accuracy
from the proposed definition.

Therefore: the word, with the loss of the 'form', completes the irrevocable journey of the
poetry to prose. (Potebnya: Lessons on the Theory of Literature).

This loss of the form of the word is a great relief for thinking processes and
it may be a necessary condition for the existence of science, but art could never be
to be satisfied with this erosion of the word. It could hardly be said that poetry has
caused as much damage as that suffered with the loss of the figurative meaning of words, to
replace it with a higher type of creation -such as, for example, the creation of types of
characters-, because, in that case, poetry would not have clung so eagerly to the word
figuratively even in such high stages of its evolution as in the era of epic chronicles. In the
Art, the material must be alive and precious. And it is here that the epithet appeared, which adds nothing.
new to the word, it only renews its dead figurative meaning, for example: the radiant sun
Russian: clear sun = literally 'clear sun'; the brave warrior; the wide world
belyl svet = literally 'white world'; the muddy clay; downpour... the very term
"dozhd" (rain) contains the concept of dispersion, but the image has died, and the thirst for
concretion, which constitutes the soul of art (Carlyle), demanded its renewal. The word,
revitalized by the epithet, it became poetic once again. Time passed—and the epithet ceased to be
perceived - again due to its familiarity. And the epithet began to be manipulated by
through the habit, by virtue of scholastic traditions, and not through feeling
living poetic. Furthermore, the epithet is, at this point, so little perceived that many times its
appropriation transcends the overall situation and the color of the painting; for example:

Burn, burn, you tallow candle,

Tallow candle of ardent wax...

Burn, burn, you, tallow candle,

Burning wax candle...

(Folk song)

Oh the 'white hands' of the black (Serbian epic), 'my true love' of the ballads in English
ancient, a term used in them indiscriminately, whether it is a case of
true or false love, or Néstor, raising his hands to the starry sky in the full light of day, and
demás.

The constant epithets have worn out, they no longer evoke a figurative impression and do not satisfy.
their demands. Within their limits, new epithets are created, they accumulate, and definitions are
they diversify through descriptive terms borrowed from the material of the saga or the legend
(Alexander Veselovsky: History of the epithet). Complex epithets are related to the
recent times.

The history of the epithet is the history of poetic style in an abridged edition.
Veselovsky: Collected Works, Vol. 1, p. 58). This story shows us how all forms
of art move away from life, forms that, like the epithet, live, fossilize, and finally
they die.

People pay very little attention to the death of forms in art; everyone contrasts very
frivolously the old with the new without thinking if the old is alive or has already vanished, like the
the sound of the sea fades for those who live near its shores, like the clamor of thousands
the voices of the city have faded away for us, like everything that seems familiar to us, very
known, disappears from our consciousness.

Not only words and epithets can fossilize, entire situations can also fossilize.
Thus, for example, in the Baghdad edition of the Arabian Nights, a traveler whose assailants have
undressed, ascends a mountain and in desperation 'tears his clothes'. In this fragment,
the whole frame has solidified to the point of becoming unconscious.

The fate of the works of the old artists of the word is exactly the same as the fate
from the word itself. They complete the journey from poetry to prose. They stop being seen and begin to
recognize oneself. The classical works have been covered with the crystalline armor of familiarity to
we remember them very well, we have heard them since childhood, we have read them in
books, we have issued quotes from them during the course of the conversation and now we have calluses on the
soul - we no longer perceive them. I mean the masses. Many think that the masses perceive everything.
art. But how easy it is to be mistaken in this! Goncharov skeptically compared, not without
reason, the perception of classicists when reading a Greek drama with the perceptions of
Petrushka by Gogol. Quite often, it is impossible for us to assimilate ancient art.
Just look at the books by renowned experts in classicism – and see what figures and photos
shattered sculptures placed on the front covers–. Rodin, after having copied sculptures
For years, he had to resort to measuring them to convey their forms; it turned out
it was that she had always sculpted them too narrow. So a genius cannot repeat
the shapes of another era and nothing more. And the seizures of the profane in museums can only be explained
based on frivolity and the undemanding attitude towards one's own assimilation of the
antiquity.

The illusion that the old art is perceived is sustained by the reality that the elements
strangers to art often appear in it. Said elements are, in fact, found,
above all, in literature. Therefore, now literature possesses hegemony in art and the
greater number of experts. What is typical of artistic perception is our disinterest
material in it. The excitement at the speech of the defense lawyer in a court of
justice is not an artistic experience, and if we perceive the nobility and humanity of
thought of the most human poets in the world, then those experiences have nothing
in common with art. They were never poetry, and therefore, they have not completed the journey of
the poetry to prose. The existence of those who place Nadson above Tyutchev
It also shows that writers are sometimes valued based on the quantity of
noble thoughts that their works possess, a very generalized stick, by the way, among the
youth in Russia. The apotheosis of the perception of "art" from the perspective of its
"nobility" is the case of the two students in Chekhov's The Old Master, where one of them...
ask the other in the theater: 'What is he saying there? Something noble?' - 'Yes, something noble.'
"Bravo!"

Here we find a summary of critics' attitudes towards new trends in

the art.

Just go out on the street and look at the houses: how are the forms of the old art applied in them?
You will see totally nightmarish things. For example, (a house on Nevsky Prospekt across from the street
Konyushennaya, a building by the architect Lualevich) semicircular arches on columns, and
between its buttresses are inserted stone beams, like flat arches. This whole system is
it has projected towards the edges, there are no supports on the real sides; so that all the
the impression created is that the house is collapsing and falling.

This architectural absurdity (not noticed by the general public and critics) cannot be due to,
In the described case, to the ignorance or lack of talent of the architects.
The flaw lies, obviously, in that the form and the meaning of the arch (as well as the form of the
column, which can also be demonstrated) are not perceived, and therefore are applied in
as absurd as the epithet "of fat" to the wax candle.

Now let's see how quotes from the old authors are used.

Unfortunately, no one has collected improperly and inappropriately applied quotes yet;
but the material is interesting. In the representations of futurist theater, the audience would scream
"eleventh verse", "madness" and "Pavilion 6", and the newspapers reported these shouts with some
satisfaction – while surely in the “Pavilion 6” there was no crazy person, but just a
doctor sitting there out of ignorance, surrounded by idiots, next to a sort of philosopher figure
patient. Therefore, this work by Chekhov was classified (from the perspective of those who
they shouted) completely irrelevant. Here we observe, so to speak, a quote
fossilized, which means the same as the epithet fossilized - lack of perception (in the example
given, the entire work has been fossilized)–.

The great masses are satisfied with market art, but market art implies the
death of art. In the past, people used to say when they met: 'zdravstvui' ('hello') – now the
the word has died - and we use 'aste' to greet each other. The legs of the chairs, the design of the
materials, the decoration of the houses, the paintings of the "Society of Artists of Petersburg", the
sculptures by Gintsburg - they all tell us "aste" - Here, the decoration is not made, it is
narrated, and trusts that people do not see her, but rather recognize her and say: 'it's the same.' The
golden ages of art did not know the meaning of "bazaar furniture." In Assyria—the post of the
soldier's tent–, in Greece–the statue of Hecuba, the guard of the dumpster–, in
the Middle Ages–decorations placed so high that they could not even be seen well–all were made,
they were all designed for awe-filled observation. In eras when the forms of
Arts were alive, no one would have brought bazaar monstrosities into the house. When the painting
iconic craftsmanship spread in Russia in the 17th century, and "in the icons there appeared such a degree of
violence and absurdity that were not suitable for a Christian to even look at,
that the old forms had already been replaced. Currently, the old art has died, but
the new has not yet been born: and things have also died - we have lost our sense
of the world; we are like a violinist who has lost the touch of the bow and the strings, we have
we have stopped being artists in our daily lives, we don’t like our houses or our clothes and
we easily abandon a life of which we are not aware–. Only the creation of
new forms of art can restore to man his experience of the world, can resurrect the
things and putting an end to pessimism.

When we wish, due to a surge of tenderness or malice, to caress or insult a

we have a few worn-out and basic words for it and then we squeeze and
we break the words to make them impact the ear, so that they are seen and not
recognized. We say, for example, to a man: 'old fool', (in Russian: hard ('fool'), gender
feminine, instead of the masculine form durak) to make the word squeak; or, among the people
current (Turgenev's office) uses the feminine gender instead of the masculine for
express tenderness. This category also includes the countless words that
they are simply mutilated, many of which we all use when we speak in
passionate moments that are very difficult to remember.

And now, today, when the artist wishes to approach the living form and the living word, not dead, and wishes
give traits to the word, it collapses and crushes it. The words "arbitrary" have been born and
"derived" from the futurists. They create the new word from an ancient root
(Khlebnikov, Guro, Kamensky, Gnedov) either divide it by rhyme, like Mayakovsky, or grant it.
an incorrect accent through the use of the rhythm of the verse (Kruchenykh). New words are created
and you live. The ancient diamonds of the words cover their previous shine. This new language is
incomprehensible, difficult, and cannot be read like the Bulletin of the Stock Exchange.
It's not even like Russian, but we are very used to installing comprehensibility.
as a necessary requirement of poetic language. The history of art shows us that (at least
very frequently) the language of poetry is not a comprehensible language, but
semi-comprehensible. Thus, the savages often sing in an archaic or strange language, sometimes so
incomprehensible that the singer (or, more precisely, the lead singer) must translate and
explain to the choir and the audience the meaning of the song he has just composed. (Veselovsky,
Three chapters of historical poetics: Grosse, The beginnings of art.

The religious poetry of almost all peoples is written precisely in a language

semi-comprehensible like the aforementioned. Ecclesiastical Slav, Latin, Sumerian, which became extinct
in the 20th century BC and was used as a religious language until the 3rd century, the German of the
Russian students (who for a long time preferred not to translate religious hymns
Germans to Russian, but learn German. Dostoevsky: Diary of a Writer.

Jakob Grimm, Hoffmann, Hebel point out that the common people often do not sing in dialect,
except in a raised language, close to the literary: 'the recited Yakut language differs from the
everyday language just as our Slavic differentiates from the language of current conversation.
(Korolenko: At-Daván). Arnaut Daniel with his dark style, difficult forms of art.
Art manner), cruel forms (hard) (Diez: Life and Works of the Troubadour, p. 285), that
presents difficulties in pronunciation, the dolce stil nuovo (13th century) of the Italians, all
they constitute semi-comprehensible languages, while Aristotle in The Poetics (chapter 23)
suggest giving the language a foreign aspect. The explanation for such facts lies in that this
classes of semi-comprehensible languages appear to the reader, due to their lack of familiarity,
as more figurative (reality observed, by the way, by D. N. Ovsyanniko-Kulikovsky).

Writers of the past wrote too softly and sweetly. Their works brought
reminiscences of that refined surface that Korolenko spoke of: 'through it runs
the territory of thought, without touching anything." The creation of a new language, "tight"
"Tugoi", a term from Kruchenykh, is necessary, intended to be seen and not recognized. And this
It is a need that many people feel unconsciously.
The paths of new art have only been indicated. It is not the theorists, but the artists who
they will travel those paths before others. Whether those who believe in the new forms
whether the futurists or that this achievement is destined for others - in any case, the poets
futurists (Translator's note: in these cases, the term used for 'futurists' is
"Budetlyane", in other cases the term used is "Futuristy") are on the right track:
they have correctly evaluated the old forms. Their poetic devices are those of the
thought processes of general linguistics, simply introduced by them in the
poetry, just as in the first centuries of Christianity, rhyme was introduced into poetry, the
which probably had always existed in the language.

The concretion of new artistic devices, which were also found in poets of
past–like, for example, the symbolists–but only by accident, constitutes in itself a
great task. And it has been accomplished by the futurists.