| Knight's Move Contributor(s): Shklovsky, Viktor (Author), Sheldon, Richard (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1564783855 ISBN-13: 9781564783851 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press OUR PRICE: $14.36 Product Type: Paperback Published: August 2005 Annotation: 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. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Collections | Essays - Literary Criticism | Russian & Former Soviet Union |
| Dewey: 891.734 |
| LCCN: 2004063481 |
| Series: Dalkey Archive Scholarly |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5" W x 7.8" (0.40 lbs) 143 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Russia |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: First published in 1923, Knight's Move is a collection of articles and short critical pieces that Viktor Shklovsky, no doubt the most original literary critic and theoretician of the twentieth century, wrote for the newspaper The Life of Art between 1919 and 1921. With his usual epigrammatic, acerbic wit and genius, Shklovsky pillories the bad writers, artists, and critics of his time, especially those who used art as a political or social tool. And at no time is Shklovsky better than when he insists with indignation and outrage that Art has always been free of life. Its flag has never reflected the color of the flag that flies over the city fortress. As fresh and revolutionary today as they were when written nearly a century ago, these pieces promise to infuriate an English-speaking readership as much as the Russian one of the 1920s. |