Permanent Evolution: Selected Essays on Literature, Theory and Film

by Yury Tynyanov, Yuri Tynianov, Daria Khitrova (Introduction)

Yuri Tynianov was a key figure of Russian Formalism, an intellectual movement in early 20th century Russia that also included Viktor Shklovsky and Roman Jakobson. Tynianov developed a groundbreaking conceptualization of literature as a system within—and in constant interaction with—other cultural and social systems. His essays on Russian literary classics, like Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and works by Dostoevsky and Gogol, as well as on the emerging art form of filmmaking, provide insight into the ways art and literature evolve and adapt new forms of expression. Although Tynianov was first a scholar of Russian literature, his ideas transcend the boundaries of any one genre or national tradition. Permanent Evolution gathers together for the first time Tynianov’s seminal articles on literary theory and film, including several articles never before translated into English.

460 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2019

About the author

Yury Nikolaevich (Nasonovich) Tynyanov (Russian: Юрий Николаевич (Насонович) Тынянов; October 18, 1894 - December 20, 1943) was a famous Soviet/Russian writer, literary critic, translator, scholar and screenwriter.
Yury Tynyanov was born in Rezhitsa, present day Rēzekne, Latvia, Russian Empire. He was a brother-in-law of Veniamin Kaverin, another well-known Russian author. He graduated from Petrograd University in 1918 and published his first works in 1921. Tynyanov was an authority on Pushkin and an important member of the Russian Formalist school.
In 1928, together with the linguist Roman Jakobson, he published a famous work titled Theses on Language, a predecessor to structuralism (but see Ferdinand de Saussure).