Yuri Nikolajewitsch Tynyanow

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Yuri Nikolayevich (Nassonowitsch) Tynyanov ( Russian Юрий Николаевич (Насонович) Тынянов ., Scientific transliteration Yuri Nikolaevich (Nasonovič) Tynjanov ) (born October 6 . Jul / 18th October  1894 greg. In Reschiza , Vitebsk ; † 20th December 1943 in Moscow ) was a Russian or Soviet writer , literary scholar , translator , screenwriter and film theorist .

Tynyanov's fame as a writer is based in particular on his historical novels . In literary studies he appeared primarily as a successful literary theorist and is considered to be the most important representative of Russian formalism , whose basic ideas, which were thoroughly discussed until the mid-1920s, he reformulated, systematized and successfully expanded. For example, he played a decisive role in the development of the concept of literary evolution , which is still being discussed in literary studies against the background of the legitimation crisis of literary historiography.

Scientific achievements

From 1904 to 1912 Tynyanow attended the Pleskauer Gymnasium and studied from 1912 to 1918 Russian philology at the historical-philological faculty of the University of Petersburg . His teachers included the literary historian SA Vengerov, who was influenced by positivism and idealism , and the linguist Baudouin de Courtenay , who introduced Tynjanow to the thesis that the general change in language should be understood as a struggle between conservative and innovative forces. From 1921 Tynyanov taught and researched at the Russian Institute for the History of Arts in Petrograd, where he also belonged to the Society for the Study of Fine Literature .

Futurists Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov artistic related parties and, increasingly, the prevailing positivism of contemporary humanities alienated because of their lack of theory and static substance thinking, stepped Tynyanov 1921 1916 Viktor Shklovsky and Boris Eikhenbaum founded "Society for the Study of poetic language" called OPOJAS in . The aim of the group was to overcome the theoretical deficit of literary studies through intensive reflection on methods and by focusing on the design of the literary texts. Right from the start , the focus of efforts was on the question of the specific processes that actually give texts their literary character, i.e. the question of the literary nature of artistic speech.

In order to be able to objectively determine the literary nature of a text ("literaturnost") and thus the autonomy of literature, Tynjanow was the first to systematically introduce the terms "function" and "system" into the literary theoretical discourse, which he made his own with Šklovskij's alienation theorem Approach combined. He conceives the literary work as a work system , which is composed of individual elements, but never isolates their constructive function , but always only in relation to the functions of the other elements of his own work system and the functions of the elements of other work systems or even extra-literary series may be analyzed. In doing so, he defines the constructive function of a given element in relation to different elements of the same work system as its integrative synfunction , which gives the work its inner unity , its constructive function in relation to similar elements in other work systems as its auto function .

Tynjanow opposed the substance-based thinking of the positivists and their ontologizing search for the essence of literature with an extremely dynamic functional concept and emphasized that the boundary between literature and non-literature is subject to permanent struggles for definition and is therefore constantly changing. In addition, the Soviet literary theorist assumed that the literary system was organized internally according to the principle of center and periphery , with the currently dominant genres in the center and the less important genres at the edge of the system, from where, however, under favorable evolutionary conditions be able to advance into the center of gravity of the literary system at any time. An indispensable prerequisite for such a back to the center is the so-called "automation" of the dominant paradigm, i. H. the loss of ability, caused by habituation, to be able to permanently captivate the reader's perception by surprising arrangements in the context of a "difficult form". In this context, literary history should be seen as the evolution of the literary series, as a struggle for the position in the center, in the course of which a paradigm replaces the previous one and thus drives the development of literature forward.

Specifically, Tynyanov described such evolutionary detachments as processes that always follow the following scheme:

"In the analysis of literary evolution we now come across the following stages: 1) in dialectical relation to the automated construction principle, an opposite construction principle is heralded; 2) its application takes place, the construction principle seeks the easiest possible application; 3) the construction principle expands focuses on as many appearances as possible; 4) it becomes automated and evokes opposing design principles. "

Artistic creation

Closely connected to the artistic avant-garde of the 1910s and 1920s , Tynyanov described in his historical novels, among others, the writer Alexander Gribojedow , contemporary and acquaintance of Pushkin , who was sent to Persia as an authorized minister (Vizier Muchtar) in 1828 to investigate the payments there Guarding war costs to Russia . Because of this, he is killed by angry Persians.

The language in Tynjanow's works is characterized above all by intoxicating imagery and imagery, which Tynjanow also uses in particular to develop ironic humor and to present the actually tragic résumés with fine wit. The following excerpt comes from the edition: Yuri Tynyanow: The Death of Vizier Muchtar. 2nd Edition. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1976, pp. 148f.

Nesselrode waved his hand.
"You know, dear Alexander Sergeevich, that our Count of Yerevan was rewarded with a million."
She said rodofinikin needlessly.
They did not agree, the two bosses, neither in sight nor in word. They didn't expect an answer, but spoke into the air as if they were waiting for something or someone.
"The monarch spoke to me about you." Nesselrode's eyes came to a standstill. He rubbed his freezing hands and looked at Rodofinikin.
"We have finally found a job worthy of you."
Griboyedov's mouth became a goose beak. He sat leaning forward, his legs drawn under the chair, and his eyes were fixed.
"An important, one-off task", Nesselrode sighed, "as diplomatic representative for our affairs in Persia."
He raised his finger significantly.

Yuri Nikolajewitsch Tynjanow also translated Western European authors (including Heinrich Heine ).

Honor

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jurij N. Tynjanov. The problem of the promise. Munich (Fink), 1977, p. 37.
  2. ↑ Jurij Tynjanov. "The literary fact" in: Jurij Striedter (Ed.). Russian formalism. Munich (Fink), 1971, p. 411f.

Literary works

  • Jurij N. Tynjanov: The problem of the promise. Fink, Munich 1977. (Orig. 1924)
  • Jurij Tynjanov: The literary fact. In: Jurij Striedter (Ed.): Russian formalism. Fink, Munich 1971, pp. 392-430. (Orig. 1924)
  • Jurij Tynjanov: About literary evolution. In: Jurij Striedter (Ed.): Russian formalism. Fink, Munich 1971, pp. 432-460. (Orig. 1927)

Literary works

  • Wilhelm Küchelbecker, poet and rebel . Historical novel. Translated by Maria Einstein (Кюхля, Kjuchlja ) 1925, 1990, ISBN 3-257-21812-5 .
  • The death of the vizier-mukhtar . 1927 Translator & retoucher Thomas Reschke (Смерть Вазир-Мухтара, Smert 'Vazir-Muchtara ) Suhrkamp 1988, ISBN 3-518-38093-1 .
  • Second Lieutenant Saber , also Second Lieutenant Sjedoch. translated by Elisabeth Kottmeier , with an afterword by EG Kostetzky. (Подпоручик Киже, Podgorutschik kische. 1927), Diogenes, Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-257-21445-6 .
  • The guard . Story 1930
  • The minor W. narration 1933
  • December 14th . Decembrist drama 1939
  • Pushkin . Fragment of a novel 1943
  • The monkey and the bell. Stories, drama, essays. 1975.
  • Poetics. Selected essays. 1982.
  • Problema stichotvornogo jazyka. 1924 (The Problem of the Promise).
  • Archaisty i novatory. 1929 (German archaic and innovator. 1967).
  • About the basics of the film. 1927 (German in: Franz-Josef Albersmaier: Texts on the theory of film. 3rd extended edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1998, pp. 138–171).

Secondary literature

  • Reinhard Lauer: Tynjanov (1894–1943). In: Horst Turk (ed.): Classics of literary theory, from Boileau to Barthes (= Beck's black series , volume 192). Beck, Munich 1979, pp. 267-285. ISBN 3-406-06792-1 .
  • Nina Segal-Rudnik: Opoyaz. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 4: Ly-Po. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2013, ISBN 978-3-476-02504-3 , pp. 419-424.
  • Christoph Veldhues: Jurij Tynjanow . In: Matías Martínez , Michael Scheffel (ed.): Classics of modern literary theory. From Sigmund Freud to Judith Butler (= Beck'sche series. 1822). Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60829-2 , pp. 57-79.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Tynyanow, Yuri Nikolayevich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Юрий Николаевич Тынянов
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian writer and literary scholar, one of the main exponents of Russian formalism
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Reshiza
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1943
Place of death Moscow