Article

Name: A spell-poem as a type of a ‘word machine’ in the early works by Daniil Kharms (based on his poem ‘Govor’ (‘Patois’))

Authors: Kvashin Anatoliy Vladimirovich

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: This paper is devoted to the typological features of the genre system of Daniil Kharms in the context of the concept of «word machine», which Kharms understood as a way to affect reality by word. All in all the writer distinguishes four types of «word machines»: a poem, spell, prayer and song. However, in the works by Kharms there also occur mixed versions of «word machines» in addition to the «pure» poems: being poems in the form, they can be other «word machines» in essence. The presence in the works by Kharms such «mixed» types as poetic prayers and «song-poems» allows the author to assume the existence of a third «mixed» type – that of spell-poems. The author bases his concept of a spell-poem on an analysis of the early texts by Kharms (presented in this paper is an analysis of his poem ‘Govor’ (1925)).

Keywords: genre system, charms / spells, word machine, genre transformation, oberiu, kharms

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