
A Hunt for Optimism
Viktor Shklovsky(Author)
Dalkey Archive Press
Will be published approx. on 14. February 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-56478-790-3 (ISBN)
Description
Begun in 1929 under the title "New Prose," and drastically revised after Vladimir Mayakovsky's sudden death, "A Hunt for Optimism" (1931) circles obsessively around a single scene of interrogation in which a writer is subjected to a show trial for his unorthodoxy. Using multiple perspectives, fragments, and aphorisms, and bearing the vulnerability of both the Russian Jewry and the anti-Bolshevik intelligentsia--who had unwittingly become the "enemies of the people"--"Hunt" satirizes Soviet censorship and the ineptitude of Soviet leaders with acerbic panache. Despite criticism at the time that it lacked unity and was too "variegated" to be called a purely "Shklovskian book," "Hunt" is stylistically unpredictable, experimentally bold, and unapologetically ironic--making it one of the finest books in Shklovsky's body of work.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Normal, IL
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 201 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
249 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-56478-790-3 (9781564787903)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Viktor Shklovsky
A Hunt for Optimism
E-Book
01/2013
1st Edition
Columbia University Press
€15.49
Available for download
Persons
Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) was a leading figure in the Russian Formalist movement of the 1920s and had a profound effect on twentieth-century Russian literature. Several of his books have been translated into English, including "Zoo, or Letters Not about Love, Third Factory, Theory of Prose, A Sentimental Journey, Energy of Delusion", and "Literature and Cinematography", and "Bowstring". Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) was a leading figure in the Russian Formalist movement of the 1920s and had a profound effect on twentieth-century Russian literature. Several of his books have been translated into English, including "Zoo, or Letters Not about Love, Third Factory, Theory of Prose, A Sentimental Journey, Energy of Delusion", and "Literature and Cinematography", and "Bowstring".