Valencies of "Deautomatization" in the Literary Theory of Russian Formalism

Abstract

To this day, it is possible to say that the general disrepute into which structuralist poetics has fallen has not resulted in a sufficient revision of the distorted image of the main theses of Russian formalism, arranged by the structuralist authors in accordance with precise interests of genealogical self-description. Against the exaggerated heteronomism of contemporary literary studies, as a partially extravagant consequence of deconstructive premises (although historically not so unusual), the analytical breakdown of the fundamental valencies of the term «deautomatization» may allow us to account for the extent to which Russian formalism developed a complete and sophisticated system of study of literary phenomena, which at all levels of analysis emphasizes the features of antinomy, transgression and dynamization.