Other Science: Russian Formalists in Search of Biography

This monograph examines mutual transformations between literature and science in certain texts authored by St. Petersburg Formalists, a literary school that emerged shortly before the Russian Revolution. The author discusses the Formalists' methodological and philosophical origins, the emergence of their collective biography and professional circle of friends, Viktor Shklovsky's literary experiments, and Boris Eichenbaum's intimate prose. The concept of literariness – rather vague and since then abandoned – takes centre stage in the paper as it did in the early work of the Russian Formalists.