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Black Square. On the extent of Gorky’s avant-gardism
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2021-5-13-41
Abstract
The article examines Gorky’s avant-garde legacy. The author compares thewriter’s metaphors with the imagery of futurists and discovers aSuprematist flavour of descriptions in Gorky’s works. Examined in detail is the use of defamiliarisation ( ostranenie). In Gorky’s earlier works, its effect is diminished by the author’s comments on the technique. In the novel The Life of Klim Samgin [ Zhizn Klima Samgina], defamiliarisation features at its most accomplished level and becomes the organising principle of the narration. Theparticular relevance of defamiliarisation follows from Gorky’s natural tendency towards allegory. Defamiliarisation is analysed as a special case ofallegory (termed ‘a negative allegory’ by D. Chizhevsky). Gorky’s differences with the avant-garde movement were spiritual as much as artistic: a negative meaning of the ‘black square’ in his works proves it. The article shows how the image, unrelated to the famous painting but representing the philosophy favoured by Malevich, can be found in the collections Through Russia [Po Rusi] and Tales of Italy [ Skazki ob Italii], the autobiographic installment In the World [V lyudyakh], and in The Life of Klim Samgin.
About the Author
L. V. Borisova
V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Lyudmila V. Borisova, Doctor of Philology
4 Vernadsky Av., Simferopol, 295007, Crimea
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Review
For citations:
Borisova L.V. Black Square. On the extent of Gorky’s avant-gardism. Voprosy literatury. 2021;(5):13-41. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2021-5-13-41
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