Summary
Viktor Šklovski: Technique of the Writer's Craft
The famous text of the Russian writer and literary theorist Viktor Šklovski, Technique of the Writer's Craft, translated into Croatian for the first time, is one of the most important works of Russian formalism and an indispensable guide for every writer and the one who wants to become one. In a simple and direct style with a touch of razor-sharp humor, Šklovski addresses (young) writers, dissects misconceptions about writing, style and literary procedures, and gives clear and valuable guidelines on how to write and what not to write, and will make every literary pretender and reader reconsider previously known concepts and approaches to literary text. In Technique of the Writer's Craft (originally published in 1927), as well as in his most famous work Theory of Prose, Šklovski believes that literature is a collection of stylistic and formal devices that force the reader to look at the world in a new way by presenting old ideas or common experiences in new, unusual ways. This concept of astonishment became one of his main contributions to literary theory and one of the foundations of modern humanities.
Viktor Šklovski (1893–1984) is one of the most prominent literary critics and theorists of the 20th century and one of the founders of the formalist movement in literary criticism. His seminal works include Art as a Process (1917), Theory of Prose (1925) and The Technique of the Writer's Craft (1927), classic studies of Tolstoy and Mayakovsky, and a memoir about the Russian Civil War era, Sentimental Journey, Memories: 1917–1922 (1923). As a theoretician of formalism, he decisively rejected the ideological approach to literature, so he inspired the group of the Serapion brothers. He also dealt with film themes in the works Literature and cinema(1923), Treća tvornica (1926), Eisenstein (1976). He created the terms procedure (priëm), astonishment (ostranenie), konjić jump (a horse's gait, in a fable) and Dr. Šklovski abolished the border between scientific prose and fiction with his works.
Biblos Newsletter
New titles, special copies and quiet recommendations from the antiquarian bookshop.