Yury Tynyanov
Encyclopedia
Yury Nikolaevich Tynyanov was a famous Soviet
/Russia
n writer
, literary critic
, translator, scholar and screenwriter
. He was an authority on Pushkin and an important member of the Russian Formalist
school.
, Russian Empire
. His brother-in-law was Veniamin Kaverin
, another well-known Russian author. While attending the Petrograd University
, Tynyanov frequented the Pushkin seminar held by a venerable literary academic, Semyon Vengerov
. His first works made their appearance in print in 1921.
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
), which could be summarised in the following manner (from):
Tynyanov also wrote historical novel
s in which he applied his theories. His other works included popular biographies of Alexander Pushkin and Wilhelm Küchelbecker
and notable translations of Heinrich Heine
and other authors.
He died of multiple sclerosis
in Moscow
.
Works edited by Yury Tynyanov
Novellas and stories:
On Pushkin and his era:
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
/Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, translator, scholar and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. He was an authority on Pushkin and an important member of the Russian Formalist
Russian formalism
Russian formalism was an influential school of literary criticism in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s. It includes the work of a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars such as Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Vladimir Propp, Boris Eichenbaum, Roman Jakobson, Grigory Vinokur who...
school.
Life and work
Yury Tynyanov was born in Rezhitsa, present day Rēzekne, LatviaLatvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His brother-in-law was Veniamin Kaverin
Veniamin Kaverin
Veniamin Alexandrovich Kaverin was a Soviet writer associated with the early 1920s movement of the Serapion Brothers. The immunologist Lev Zilber was his older brother, and the critic Yury Tynyanov was his brother-in-law....
, another well-known Russian author. While attending the Petrograd University
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
, Tynyanov frequented the Pushkin seminar held by a venerable literary academic, Semyon Vengerov
Semyon Vengerov
Semyon Afanasievich Vengerov was the preeminent literary historian of Imperial Russia. He was the pater familias of an artistic clan that included his sister Isabelle Vengerova, a co-founder of the Curtis Institute in New York City, and nephew Nicolas Slonimsky, a Russian-American...
. His first works made their appearance in print in 1921.
In 1928, together with the linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
, he published a famous work titled Theses on Language, a predecessor to structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
(but see Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics...
), which could be summarised in the following manner (from):
-
- Literary science had to have a firm theoretical basis and an accurate terminology.
- The structural laws of a specific field of literature had to be established before it was related to other fields.
- The evolution of literature must be studied as a system. All evidence, whether literary or non-literary must be analysed functionally.
- The distinction between synchrony and diachrony was useful for the study of literature as for language, uncovering systems at each separate stage of development. But the history of systems is also a system; each synchronic system has its own past and future as part of its structure. Therefore the distinction should not be preserved beyond its usefulness.
- A synchronic system is not a mere agglomerate of contemporaneous phenomena catalogued. 'Systems' mean hierarchical organisation.
- The distinction between langue and parole, taken from linguistics, deserves to be developed for literature in order to reveal the principles underlying the relationship between the individual utterance and a prevailing complex of norms.
- The analysis of the structural laws of literature should lead to the setting up of a limited number of structural types and evolutionary laws governing those types.
- The discovery of the 'immanent laws' of a genre allows one to describe an evolutionary step, but not to explain why this step has been taken by literature and not another. Here the literary must be related to the relevant non-literary facts to find further laws, a 'system of systems'. But still the immanent laws of the individual work had to be enunciated first.
Tynyanov also wrote historical novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s in which he applied his theories. His other works included popular biographies of Alexander Pushkin and Wilhelm Küchelbecker
Wilhelm Küchelbecker
Wilhelm Küchelbecker was a Russian Romantic poet and Decembrist....
and notable translations of Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
and other authors.
He died of multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
(in English)
Works by Yury Tynyanov- Formalist theory, translated by L.M. O'Toole and Ann Shukman (1977)
- Lieutenant Kijé / Young Vitushishnikov: Two Novellas (Eridanos Library, No. 20), translated by Mirra Ginsburg (1990)
Works edited by Yury Tynyanov
- Russian Prose, edited by Boris Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum and Yury Tynyanov, translated by Ray Parrot (1985)
(in Russian)
Novels:- Кюхля, 1925
- Смерть Вазир-Мухтара, 1928
- Пушкин, 1936
Novellas and stories:
- Подпоручик Киже, 1927
- Восковая персона, 1930
- Малолетный Витушишников, 1933
- Гражданин Очер
On Pushkin and his era:
- Архаисты и Пушкин, 1926
- Пушкин, 1929
- Пушкин и Тютчев, 1926
- О "Путешествии в Арзрум", 1936
- Безыменная любовь, 1939
- Пушкин и Кюхельбекер, 1934
- Французские отношения Кюхельбекера, 1939
-
- Путешествие Кюхельбекера по Западной Европе в 1820 - 1821 гг.
- Декабрист и Бальзак.
- Сюжет "Горя от ума", 1943