This volume contains Tynianov’s major scholarly essays on Pushkin and the poets of his time. None of the essays has been hitherto published in English either separately or as a collection. The volume of Tynianov’s scholarly works on Pushkin, Pushkin and His Contemporaries came out in Russian in 1968.1 It was edited by Veniamin Kaverin and Zoya Nikitina, contained an extensive commentary by Andrei Grishunin and Aleksandr Chudakov and an introduction by a linguist and a prominent scholar of Pushkin’s language and style, Viktor Vinogradov (1895–1969). Vinogradov was a sympathetic critic of the Formalists, with many of whom, including Tynianov, he was personally acquainted. The publication of that volume was significant in the revival of interest in Tynianov’s ideas following a quarter of a century after his death, for most of which none of his theoretical or literary historical works appeared in print. A few essays in this selection had been previously published in Russian in Tynianov’s seminal 1929 collection Archaists and Innovators,2 which in time became a bibliographic rarity. The so called “Vinogradov collection” was preceded by the republication in 1965 in Russia of Tynianov’s ground-breaking The Problem of Verse Language3 and followed by Poetics. History of Literature. Cinema.4 These editions instigated fruitful re-readings of Tynianov’s oeuvre in Soviet Russia and abroad.
The Archaists and Pushkin
First published in Pushkin v mirovoi literature (Leningrad – GIZ: 1926) 215–286, republished in Arkhaisty i novatory (pp. 87–227) with minor stylistic editing. The original, more extensive monograph was to be called ‘Archaic Currents in the Russian Lyric of the 19th Century’. Most of the ideas in the monograph were formulated in the papers read in the Pushkin seminar and in Tynianov’s lectures delivered in 1922–1924 at the State Institute of Art History, where he taught courses and seminars on the Russian lyric of the 19th century. His article on the ‘Ode to His Excellency Count Khvostov’, written in 1916 and published in Pamiati Vengerova (Moscow – Petrograd: 1922) 75–92 was included in ‘The Archaists and Pushkin’ in its entirety.
Pushkin
Tynianov first mentioned working on this article in a letter to Viktor Shklovsky in February 1927. First published in Arkhaisty i novatory (pp. 228–291). An abridged version was subsequently published in the Granat Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Vol. 3 (1929) 188–215. In the section of the article on Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, Tynianov used materials from an already written unfinished essay, “On the Composition of Eugene Onegin” (1921–1922).
Pushkin and Tiutchev
Finished in 1923, this was first presented as a paper at the State Institute of Art History on April 13, 1924. First published in Poetika. Vremennik otdela slovesnykh iskusstv, Vol. 34 (1929) 188–215; subsequently included in Arkhaisty i novatory (pp. 330–366). It was part of Tynianov’s research into Tiutchev at the State Institute of Art History, where in 1921–1924, he co-taught the Tiutchev seminar with Sergei Bernshtein. Tynianov’s other articles on the topic are ‘Tiutchev i Geine’, in Kniga i revoliutsiia 4 (1922); ‘Vopros o Tiutcheve’, in Kniga i revolutsiia 3 (1923) and ‘Molodoi Tiutchev’ (together with Boris Tomashevsky), in Tiutchevskii sbornik (Petrograd: 1923).
On Journey to Arzrum
First published in Vremennik Pushkinskoi komissii 2 (Moscow – Leningrad: 1936) 57–73. The article is based on a paper delivered at an open session of the Pushkin Committee of the State Institute of Art History on December 17, 1927. Tynianov is credited with establishing the text of Journey to Arzrum for all of Pushkin’s complete works published in his lifetime. He substantiated his concept of the true source of the text in a brief note on Journey to Arzrum published in Zvezda 7 (1930) 215.
A Nameless Love
First published in Literaturnyi sovremennik 5–6 (Leningrad: 1939) 243–262, and concurrently, with minor variations, in Literaturnyi kritik 5–6 (Moscow: 1939) 160–180.
Pushkin and Küchelbecker
First published in Literaturnoe nasledstvo, Vols. 16–18 (Moscow: 1934) 321. Küchelbecker’s correspondence with his family is quoted by Tynianov from the primary sources in Tynianov’s possession, which included Küchelbecker’s diary.
Küchelbecker’s French Connections
First published in Literaturnoe nasledstvo 33–34 (Moscow: 1939) 331–378. In the article, Tynianov quotes the hitherto unpublished ‘Travels’ by Wilhelm Küchelbecker from Küchelbecker’s manuscripts in his possession, and from the almanac Mnemosyne, that had published a few excerpts from the ‘Travels’ (Mnemozina II (Moscow: 1824) 51–68; III (1824) 34–57, and IV (1825) 66–91. Küchelbecker’s diaries of 1834–1835 are cited from the original manuscripts in Tynianov’s personal archive rather than from the first journal publication in Russkaia starina 8–9 (1875), 7–8 (1883), 1–2 (1884) and 10 (1891) or from the book edition Dnevnik V. K. Kiukhel’bekera (Leningrad: 1929).
The Plot of Woe from Wit
Published posthumously in Literaturnoe nasledstvo 47–48 (Moscow: 1946) 147–188. Prepared for publication by Tynianov’s wife, Ye. A. Tynianova.
Tynianov’s articles were written over the course of more than twenty years, which explains the repetitions that occur in some of them (Tynianov himself pointed this out in the preface to the Archaists and Innovators).
The system of transliteration used in this volume is that of the Library of Congress with the exception of surnames ending in -sky or names starting with ye-, ya- and yu- (Yelena, Yekaterina, Yuri, etc.). The German spelling of the surnames Küchelbecker, Engelhardt, Diebitsch and Gretsch is preserved. Original authorial references are supplied as footnotes and marked (Yu. T.). All other footnotes are editorial comments. Some dates are supplied in two forms, the Gregorian (Western) calendar, followed by the Julian (Russian). If only one date is given for events in western Europe, the Gregorian calendar is used. Quotations from Eugene Onegin in English are cited from Stanley Mitchell’s translation (London – Penguin: 2008) and referred to by Chapter and Stanza (e.g. II, 17). Pushkin’s ‘From Horace’ (‘Which God has given me back the friend’ is quoted from Carleton Copeland’s translation of the poem. Most of the verse translations in this volume of Pushkin’s, Katenin’s, Küchelbecker’s and other poems are by Peter France.
Tynianov Yu., Pushkin i ego sovremenniki (Moscow – Nauka, 1968).
Tynianov Yu., Arkhaisty i novatory (Leningrad – Priboi, 1929).
Tynianov Yu., Problema stikhotvornogo iazyka (Leningrad – “Academia”, 1924).
Tynianov Yu., Poetika. Istoriia literatury. Kino, Toddes, E.– Chudakov, A. – Chudakova, M, (eds) (Moscow – Nauka, 1977).