DANIIL KHARMS AND THE POETICS OF THE ABSURD By the same author V. F. Odoyevsky: his fife, times and milieu (1986) Pasternak's 'Dr Zhivago' (1987) Daniil Kharms: The Plummeting Old Women (trans.) (1989) The Literary Fantastic: from Gothic to Postmodernism (1990) Daniil Kharms and the Poetics of the Absurd Essays and Materials Edited by N eil Cornwell Senior Lecturer in Russian Studies University 01 Bristol Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-11644-7 ISBN 978-1-349-11642-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-11642-3 © Neil Cornwell 1991 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1991 978-0-333-52590-6 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1991 ISBN 978-0-312-06177-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Daniil Kharms and the poetics of the absurd: essays and materials I edited by Neil Cornwell. p. cm. Majority of the essays translated from Russian. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-312-06177-7 1. Kharms, Daniil, 1905-1942-Criticism and interpretation. 2. Absurd (Philosophy) in literature. 1. Cornwell, Neil. PG3476.K472Z65 1991 89 1. 78 '4209-dc20 91-7702 CIP Contents An unpublished relie of Daniil Kharms vii Robin Milner-Gulland Aeknowledgements ix Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations x Epigraph: Aleksandr Galieh, Legenda 0 tabake xii Notes on the Contributors xv PART I: INTRODUCTORY 1 Introduetion: Daniil Kharms, Blaek Miniaturist 3 Neil Cornwell 2 On Daniil Kharms 22 Iakov Druskin 3 A Kharms Chronology 32 Anatolii Aleksandrov PART 11: GENERAL STUDIES 4 Daniil Kharms in the Context of Russian and European Literature of the Absurd 49 Jean-Philippe Jaccard 5 The Anti-World of Daniil Kharms: On the Signifieanee of the Absurd 71 Anthony Anemone PART 111: THE PROSE WORKS 6 Towards an Interpretation of Kharms's Sluchai 97 Robin Aizlewood 7 Slobodan PesiC's Film Slucaj Harms and Kharms's Sluchai 123 Milena Michalski 8 Elements of the Fantastic in Daniil Kharms's Starukha 132 Rosanna Giaquinta v VI Contents 9 Some Features of the Poetics of Kharms's Prose: the story Upadanie ('The Falling') 149 Aleksandr Kobrinsky PART IV: THE POETIC WORKS 10 On One Enigmatic Poem by Daniil Kharms 159 Lazar Fleishrnan 11 'I Razrushenie' 169 Daniil Kharrns 12 Kharms's '1st Destruction' 171 Jerzy Faryno 13 Daniil Kharms's Poetic System: Text, Context, Intertext 175 Nina Perlina PART V: THE THEATRICAL WORKS 14 The Oberiuty and the Theatricalisation ofLife 195 Tat'iana Nikol'skaia 15 Kharms's Play Elizaveta Barn 200 Mikhail Meilakh 16 Yelizaveta Barn: A Dramatic Work. A new translation from the definitive text by Neil Cornwell 220 Daniil Kharms PART VI: CONCLUSION AND APPARATUS 17 Beyond the Turning-Point: An Afterword 243 Robin Milner-Gulland 18 Selected Bibliography 268 Neil Cornwell and Julian Grafty Index 278 ". lleMMHrpllACMMA OTA"II ~~ , . - BCEPüccl1i-lCKI1H 'f ~J -I' , -f-9 ~ .. , ." COlO3 n03TOB 'i: NiJL ... \ .' Bcllntn."t.H.... 'HOC DMneT AIIAcT.MTllnllH ~f){,~....., e. -~P)'6. ..a....on. "My ... ' · nO ..,.....~ 19~r •. " . c-.,...~ . 1t~~~~ 20-""", . ~~.; ~';~p; 'UlMe ... ".00. " AeAcTBHTenbHwA .'lJlIIIIH . ~ , .;. •• n. , • j I-oe ~.&I.I#r BCCZPOCcHAcKoro COlO38 nOnOB. no'yroAMt e,1'"••. ' ,., ~. ...... ~/tJ~!t!.''- · . Il .r~ "'::;~_A.4 .;... ) d c j " t.! . ~-:. 2·oe ~ . :~t'· '·;·· ':···J • "" ,. ~ ~ ~.j6.. ~J;:?V~ I-'-"·'-K.I J nOAyroA~e ·"/A. __ . _ . ~ 1e24· n."""rp .... , -.,..:... r. Membership Card (Leningrad Branch) of the All-Russian Union of Poets, dated 15 April, 1926, in the name of Daniil Kharms. On the back cover is a pencil sketch, presumably of the River Neva, bearing the words: 'Chut'mir ne skazal: Mania', 'drugie doma' and 'krivo'. An Unpublished Relic of D aniil Kharms Daniil Kharms's first membership card of the All-Russian Union of Poets (now in an English collection) is an object of particular signifi­ cance in two respects. Dating from early in 1926 - when the Union itself had only just been established - it marks the beginning of Kharms's public career as a writer (such as it was); the poems he published in the Union's collections (Sbornik stikhov 1926; Koster 1927) were the only 'adult' works of his that saw print in his lifetime. It is worth noting his adoption of 'Kharms' by this stage as his 'official' pseudonym. The document's greatest point of interest, however, is that it carries on its back a pencil drawing whose idiosyncratic manner leaves us in little doubt that it is by Kharms hirnself. The boating scene represented is presumably set in Leningrad; the curious build­ ing could weH be a highly stylised image of the Leningrad mosque that stands to the east of the Peter-Paul fortress, elose to the Kronverksky Kanal and not far from the Neva. The text reads, above, CHUT' MIR NE SKAZAL: MANlA: below, DRUGIE DOMA and KRIVO; however, modem Kharms specialists I have consulted have not been able to identify who 'Mania' (assuming this is a name!) may be. Robin Milner-Gulland viii Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the appropriate editors or journals, and of course authors, for permission to translate and reprint the articles here by A. Aleksandrov (the original is to be found in Polet, 1988: thanks in this case also to VAAP, Moscow, for permission to reproduce); J-P Jaccard (original noted in Bibliography as 'Jaccard, 1988a'), L. Fleishman (Fleishman, 1987) and M. Meilakh (Meilakh, 1987). These essays have all been edited, revised or supplemented for the present volume. I should like to thank Ann Shukman for checking and improving my translations of articles trom the Russian (as weIl as for doing her own); Marie Press for doing the same with my translation from the French; and Mikhail Meilakh for an invaluable consultation over my translation of Elizaveta Bam. Any remaining faults, however, must be mine alone. Bibliographical assistance, general encouragement, or assistance with contributors or contributions has been rendered by Mikhail Meilakh, J ulian Graffy, Robin Milner-Gulland, Anatolii Aleksandrov, Rosanna Giaquinta, Gerry Smith, Martin Dewhirst and Lazar Fleish­ man. Special thanks for her assistance, advice and inspiration at all stages of this project, from its initiation to its completion, must go to Ann Shukman. N.C. Bristol, May 1990 ix Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations The system of transliteration from Russian used in this collection is that of the Library of Congress (without diacritics, except for the letter Oe'). Minor exceptions to this system are the retention in the main text (but not notes or bibliography) of the letter 'y' at the end of surnames (as in 'Vvedensky', or 'Tolstoy') and the omission of representation (again, in the main text) of the soft sign when occur­ ring at the end of names (as in 'Gogol'). Titles of works by Kharms will normally be given in Russian, followed by English translation in brackets upon first use in each essay. Titles of works referred to by other authors in the main text will normally be given in English only. It should be noted that Kharms poems to which the author gave a title are referred to by that title in italics: poems without this distinction, however, are referred to by their first line, also in italies, but with quotation marks as weIl. MAIN ABBREVIATIONS (used throughout text and notes) Russia's Lost Lit. George Gibian (ed. and trans.), Russia's Lost Literature 0/ the Absurd - A Literary Discovery: Selected Works 0/ Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1971). Izb. Daniil Kharms, Izbrannoe, ed. George Gibian (Würzburg: jal-verlag, 1974). Sob. proizv. Daniil Kharms, Sobranie proizvedenii, ed. Mikhail Meilakh and Vladimir Erl' (Bremen: K-Presse, 1978- ), vols so far I-IV. Black Coat George Gibian (ed. and trans.), The Man in the Black Coat - Russia's Literature 0/ the Absurd. Selected Works 0/ Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern UP, 1987). Polet Daniil Kharms, Polet v nebesa: Stikhi. Proza. Dramy. Pis'ma, ed. A. A. Aleksandrov (Leningrad, 1988). x Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations xi Plummeting Daniil Kharms, The Plummeting Old Women, ed. and trans. Neil Cornwell (Dublin: Lilliput, 1989). Vved. Aleksandr Vvedenskii, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, ed. Mikhail Meilakh (Ardis. Ann Arbor, 1980, 1984), vols I-lI. Oleinikov N. M. Oleinikov, Stikhotvoreniia, introduction L. S. Fleishman (Bremen: K-Presse, 1975). For all other abbreviated references, see Selected Bibliography. H3 ,n:OMa BhImeJI 'IeJIOBeK C BepeBKOB H MeillKOM H B ,n:anhHHH Dyrh, H B ,n:anhHHB nyrh JIEfElI)J;A 0 TAEAKE OTnpaBHJICSI nemKOM ... H TyT X<e, npOrJIOTHB CMemOK, flOC6111liQemCII na.M.lllTlu aaMe'lamellbHOZO OH caM ee6S1 cnpocHJI - 'leIl06eKa, npUOYMa6Ule20 ce6e cmpaHHbtÜ A ,n:JIX 'Iero OH B3SIJI MemoK? nCe600HUM - IlaHuUII XapMC - nUCa6Ule20 OTBeTbTe, )l;aHHHJI! npeKpaCHbte cmuxu U npoay, XOOU6Ule20 6 Bonpoc pe30HHb1B, He'leM KphlTh, a6mOM06U11bHOÜ KenKe U C HeuaMeHHOÜ mpy6Koü 6 ay6ax, KOmOpbtÜ oeücm6umeltbHO JIeTHT K 'IePTSlM CTpoKa, UC'lea, npocmo 6btUlell Ha YIIUIQ' U UC'lea. H Ha,n:O, BH.o;HO, ,n:OKypHTh Y HeZO eCmb maKall npOp0'leCKall neCeHKa: OCTaTOK Ta6aKa ... HTaK, O,n:HIDK,n:hl, 'IeJIOBeK «1'13 ,n:OMa BhImeJI 'IeJIOBeK Ta-Ta-Ta C nOCOillKOM ... C BepeBKOB H MemKOM H B ,n:anhHHH Dyrh, H B ,n:anhHHB nyn>, H B ,n:anbHHB n}'Tb, H B ,n:anhHHH nyrb OTnpaBHJICX nemKOM, OTDpaBHJICSI nemKOM. OH meJI, H Bce rml,n:eJI Bnepe,n:, OH men, H Bee rJIx,n:eJI Bnepe,n:, H Bce Bnepe,n: rJIx,n:eJI, H Bee Bnepe,n: rnx.o:eJI, He cnan, He nHJI, He cnan, He nHJI, He cnan, He nHJI, He cnan, He nHJI, He eJI, He cnan, He nHJI, H BOT O,n:HIDK,n:hl noyrPY, He cnan, He nHJI, He eJI ..