Communications, n° 103. Le Formalisme russe cent ans après

Abstract

The review discusses issue No. 103 of the renowned journal of theoretical and cultural studies Communications (published in France), devoted to the centenary of Russian formalism. The same issue also celebrates the memory of Tzvetan Todorov, deceased at the time of its publication. A transcribed report by Todorov, included as a foreword to the issue, identifies three strategies for the appropriation and reception of Russian formalism: its ‘modernisation’ and positioning in a relevant context; a study of individual concepts within the bulk of theory; and, lastly, its interpretation in terms of the period’s intellectual context. The three strategies are unmistakably present in the articles collected in the issue. At the same time, the majority of the papers conform to the third strategy, placing formalism in the intellectual context of the period and drawing biographical, national, ideological and conceptual parallels with pivotal contemporary phenomena. The reviewer also compares the issue in question with another collection celebrating formalism’s centennial anniversary (published by NLO in 2017) and comments on the modern reception of formalism.