Knight's Move PA

by Shklovsky,Viktor

• ISBN13: 9781564783851
• ISBN10: 1564783855
• Edition: 00
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2005-08-17
• Publisher: JOHN MUIR

Summary

Drawing on chess terminology, Shklovsky explains his title in the first preface, stating that it has three meanings: 1) the conventions of art: the knight moves in an L-shape because of such a convention; 2) the non-freedom of art: the knight moves sideways because other directions are forbidden to it; and 3) the plight of Shklovsky himself, referring to his escape from Russia in March of 1922. Using this metaphor as the frame for the thirty-six essays collected here, Shklovsky explores the nature of art, defending the interdependence of art while demonstrating the new formalist criticism for which he is famous. In pieces on theatre, painting, and sculpture, the primary argument of this book is that artists don't try to copy reality, but use reality as the material for creating art.

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction	vii
Knight's Move
First Preface	3	(2)
Bundle
Second Preface	5	(4)
Setting the Frame
Petersburg During the Blockade	9	(12)
Regarding Art and Revolution
"Ullya, Ullya, Martians"	21	(4)
Pounding Nails with a Samovar	25	(3)
Gooseberry Jam	28	(3)
A Flag Is Snapping	31	(3)
The Appeasers	34	(2)
Drama and Mass Productions	36	(3)
Papa That's an Alarm Clock	39	(3)
Collective Creativity	42	(4)
In My Own Defense	46	(2)
Regarding Psychological Footlights	48	(3)
Speaking in a Loud Voice	51	(3)
The Visual Arts
Regarding "The Great Metalworker"	54	(4)
Space in Painting and the Suprematists	58	(7)
Regarding Texture and Counter-Reliefs	65	(4)
The Monument to the Third International	69	(2)
Ivan Puni	71	(2)
The Law of Inequality
Parallels in Tolstoy	73	(6)
Contemporary Theater
Embellished Tolstoy	79	(4)
Folk Comedy and The First Distiller	83	(3)
The Art of the Circus	86	(3)
With Regard to Tastes	89	(3)
Apropos of King Lear	92	(4)
The Old and the New	96	(2)
Regarding Merezhkovsky	98	(3)
The Comic and the Tragic	101	(6)
Shoeing a Flea	107	(4)
Eating Fish by Cutting It with a Knife	111	(1)
A Thousand Herrings	112	(3)
Completing the Frame
I and My Coat	115	(5)
A Rock on a String
Rollercoaster	120	(2)
Coffins Back	122	(2)
A Boxer Down for the Count	124	(2)
A Free Port	126	(4)
Afterword
The Tsar's Kitchen	130	(3)
Translator's Notes	133