On Literary Evolution* Jurij Tynjanov (Dedicated to Boris Ejxenbaum) 66From Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views, edited by Ladislav Matejka and Krystyna Pomorska (The MIT Press: Cambridge MA, 1971). 1. Within the cultural disciplines literary history still retains the status of a colonial territory. On the one hand, individualistic psychologism dominates it to a significant extent, particularly in the West, unjustifiably replacing the problem of literature with the question of the author's psychology, while the problem of literary evolution becomes the problem of the genesis of literary phenomena. On the other hand, a simplified causal approach to a literary order leads to a sharp break between the literary order itself and the point of observation, which always turns out to be the major but also the most remote social orders. The organiza· tion of a closed literary order and the examination of the evolution within it sometimes collides with the neighboring cultural, behavioral, and social orders in the broad sense. Thus such an effort is doomed to incompleteness. The theory of value in literary investigation has brought about the danger of studying major but isolated works and has changed the history of literature into a history of generals. The blind rejection of a history of generals has in turn caused an interest in the study of mass literature, but no clear theoretical awareness of how to study it or what the nature of its significance is. Finally, the relationship between the history of literature and living contemporary literature-a relationship useful and very necessary to science-is not always necessary and useful to the development of literature. The representatives of literature arc ready to view the history of literature as the codification of certain traditional norms and laws and to confuse the historical character of a literary phenomenon with "historicism." As a result of this conflict, there has arisen an attempt to study isolated works and the laws of their construction on an extrahistorical plane, resulting in the abolition of the history of literature. 2. In order to become finally a science, the history of literature must claim reliability. All of il:;s terminology, and first of all the very term, "the history of literature," must be reconsidered. The term proves to be extremely broad, covering both the material history of belles lettres, the history of verbal art, and the history of writing in general. It is also pretentious, since "the history of literature" considers itself a priori a discipline ready to enter into "the history of culture" as a system equipped with a scientific methodology. As yet it has no right to such a claim. *"O literatumoj evoljucii," Arxaisty i novatory (Leningrad, 1929), pp. 30-47. Translated by C. A. Luplow. The first Russian version was published in 1927. can be abstracted as a working hypothesis. has proved to be an unjustifiable abstraction of one or more of the literary elements of a given system within which they occupy the same plane and play the same role. In this way the problem of e role of contiguous systems in literary evolution is actually posited instead of being rejected.confusion of points of observation. which are obviously not the same as in the Investigation of the genesis per se. although they are interrelated and interacting. ctitiously integrated system. the moment of genesis has its own significance and character. that is. the historical investigations of literature fall into at least two main types.Meanwhile. within certain limits." which are for now evaluative concepts. Furthermore. The point of view determines not only the significance but also the nature of the phenomenon being studied. Only after is basic agreement has been established is it possible to create a terary science which does not superficially examine diverse henomena but studies them closely. as is literature itself. style. They are equated ith the like elements of another system in which they are on a 'fferent plane. and the rhythm and semantics in poetry. and the "value" of a given literary phenomenon must be considered as having an "evolutionary significance and character. In the investigation of literary evolution. Tynjanov 67 . thus they are brought into a seemingly unified." or "mass literature. and thus the problem of "traditions" is transferred onto other plane. 8. provides sufficient evidence that these elements." 11 dilettantism. depending on the points of observation: the Investigation of the genesis of literary phenomena. and the investigation of the evolution of a literary order. of literary changeability. in which evaluation is carried over from one epoch or system into another. it must be agreed at a literary work is a system. such as the composition. and syntax in prose. The J. which result from the . rhythm. 1 Tradition. At the same time. evaluation itself must be freed from its subjective coloring. the basic concept of the established history of literature. The analysis of the separate elements of a work. The main concept for literary evolution is the mutation of sysms." The same must also apply to such concepts as "epigonism. Before this basic problem can be analyzed. the study of literary evolution or changeability must reject the theories of naive evaluation. The former may he termed the auto-function and the latter. in which lexical coloring plays a dominant role. such a function proves to be a complex concept. for example. But the_ semantic and intonational system of the given work finally determines the function of a given expression. Is the so-called "immanent" study of a work as a system possi· hie without comparing it with the general literary system? Such an isolated study of a literary work is equivalent to abstracting isolated elements and examining them outside their work. 4. as well as with other elements of that given work. In Lomonosov's system. the lexicon of a given work is interrelated with both the whole literary lexicon and the general lexicon of the language. there existed an extensive parodic literature in which archaisms had a parodic function. In some instances they are abstract. The function of archaisms. Thus up to the time of Tjutcev. These two components or functions operate simultaneously hut are not of equal relevance.On Literary Evolution 68 study of rhythm in poetry and prose was bound to show that the role of a given element is different in different systems. in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The auto-function. Such . Thus. depends wholly on the system within which they are used. although it is not decisive. for example. i~ this case determining the word usage to be "ironic" rather than "elevated. In Tjutcev 's work archaisms have a different function. the syn-function." It is incorrect to isolate the elements from one system outside their constructional function and to correlate them with other systems. as in the pair: fontan-vodomet [fountain-spout). They are used for their lexical association with Church Slavic. such archaisms function as "elevated" word usage. An interesting example is the usage of archaisms in an ironical function: "Pusek grom i musikija" [Thunder of guns and musicke) is used by a poet who otherwise employs a word such as musikijskij [musical!) in a completely different function. and on the other hand it is interrelated with different elements within the same work. The interrelationship of each element with every other in a literary work and with the whole literary system as well may be called the constructional/unction of the given element. makes the existence of the synfunction possible and at the same time conditions it. On close examination. An element is on the one hand interrelated with similar elements in other works in other systems. the auto-function. and vice !Versa. Thus the friendly letter of Derzavin is a social fact. since the interrelationship of a contemporary work with contemporary literature is in advance an established. depending on the whole literary system in which the given i fact appears. Meter thus has an auxiliary function. It does not dispear. and so on? hat. that is.. its existence depends on 'Its function. isolated study is Impossible. that word becomes the expreson of a relationship. the interrelationship of an element with similar elements in other systems. The friendly letter of the Karamzin and Puskin epoch is a literary fact. The very existence of a fact as literary depends on its differential quality." Here the £faced meter is a means of attaching feuilleton material from eryday life to literature. and so on. that is. What in one epoch would be a literary fact would in :another be a common matter of social communication. whether or not an element is "effaced" is important. Finally. its function changes. in other words. The same is true f the "automatization" of a literary element. hich is completely different from its function in a poetic work. But hat is the effacement of a line." then the other signs of verse d the other elements of the work become more important in its ace.abstracting is continuously applied to contemporary works and may be successful in literary criticism. on its interrelationship with both literary and extraliterary orders. that is. J. and the meter takes on other functions. We cannot be certain of the structure of a work if it is studied in leolation. the constructional function of the element. banal meters which have long been rejected by poetry. and it becomes auxiliary. Thus one has the literariness of memoirs and diaries in one system and their extraliterariness in another. In other words. Tynjanov 69 . is the "automatization" of one or another ement? The following is an example from linguistics. although concealed. conditions the l)'n-function. If e meter of a poem is "effaced. Thus. o one would read it as a "poem" related to "poetry. (The interrelationship of a work with other works by the same author1 its relationship to genre. however. plot structure. meter. When the referen1 meaning of a word is effaced. Its function simply changes. Thus the short feuilleton verse of the newspaper uses mainly ffaced. Thus. and thus it becomes an auxilword. a connection.) Even in contemporary literature. fact. belong here. In other words. there. define the genre of a work if it is isolated from the system.. as it serves to apply extraliterary • facts to literature. dominant element. as does its method of introducing extraliterary language materials into literature. us the labels. Even the features of the genre evolve. Fo ~. although from the vantage point of a different literary system we would be forced to consider nature descriptions as the main. and novel. therefore we would almost ignore them. The more difficult and less studied question of literary genres : can be resolved in the same way. In a work in which the so-called plot is effaced. We tend to name genr according to secondary features or. The genres of the "short story" and the "novella" were defined by different features in the system of the twenties to forties than they are in our' time. Consequently. For example. short story." 5. we would be inclined to reduce nature descriptions in old novels to an auxiliary role. Parody is viable. ' however. uses such parody constantly. Crudely speaking. we cannot. This proves not so much th· "automatization" of genres in our literary system as the fact that:. however. from our vantage point in a particular literary system. which seems to be an· integral genre that has developed in and of itself over the centuries. is not an-indifferent feature. The story might be used merely to motivate style or as a strategy I for developing the material. Its material changes from one literary system to another. arc situations in which the story simply provides the motivation ' for the treatment of "static descriptions.On literary Evolution 70 This also applies to parody in the verse feuilleton. the story carries ' out different functions than in a work in which it is not effaced. Here again we have the same phenomenon: the function of parody has become auxiliary. turns out to be not an integral whole but a variable. by size. The novel. we define genres by other features'. we may conclude that the study of isolated genres outside the features characteristic of the genre system with· . novella. as is obvious from their very names. " or Puskin 's "The Prophet" have today? The verse feuilleton. to the role of making transitions or retardation.. the quan-" tity of verbal material. crudely speaking. are adequate only t define the quantity of printed pages. what was called an ode in the 1820s or by Fet was so labeled on the basis of features different from those used to define an ode in Lomonosov's time. The size of a thing. What literary significance can the thousandth parody of Lermontov's "When the golden cornfield sways . only in so far as what is being parodied is still alive. We tacitly consider metrical prose to be prose. one cannot study literary phenomena outside of their interrelationships. (Note the interrelationship of prose and poetry in their respective development. And just as in contemporary literature the interrelationship of genres is hardly essential and is established according to secondary signs. The differentiation of one interrelated type leads to. is connected with. The point is that prose and poetry are interrelated and that there is a mutually shared function of prose and poetry. the differentiation of another interrelated type. The function of prose with regard to verse remains. for example. The historical novel of Tolstoj is not related to the historical novel of Zagoskin. I will give an example in which both occurred together. used as the 'feature of verse units. 7.which they are related is impossible. so a period may come in which it will be unessential whether a work is written in prose or poetry. Strictly speaking. or better. Tynjanov 71 . is the problem of prose and poetry. but prose displays differentiation and develops. transfer it onto a whole series of other features. Such features may be rhythm. In the course of centuries the further evolution of forms may consolidate the function of verse with regard to prose. a particular syntax or particular lexicon. but the formal elements fulfilling this function are different. or it may infringe upon it and make it unessential. and so on. and nonmetrical free verse to be poetry. The evolutionary relationship of function and formal elements is a completely uninvestigated problem. and there are also others in which a function seeks its own form. An example is given above of how the evolution of forms results in a change of function. There are also many examples of how a form with an undetermined function creates or defines a new one. Thus metrical prose arises. as established by Boris Ejxenbaum. without considering the fact that in another literary system we would thus be placed in a difficult position. as in the works of Andrej Belyj.) The function of poetry in a particular literary system was fulfilled by the formal element of meter. This is connected with the transfer of the verse function in poetry from meter onto other features which are in part secondary and resultant. In the archaist trend of the 1820s the function of the combined elevated and folk verse epos arises. The interrelationship of literature with the social order led to the large verse form. but to the prose of his contemporaries. 6. and so does poetry. Such. But there J. In 1824 Katenin advocated the octave as the formal element of the poetic epopea. 9. The relationship between form and function is not accidental. a work enters into literature and takes on its own literary function through this dominant. A literary system is first of all a system of the functions of the literary order which are in continual interrelationship with other orders. and the demands of the social system turned out to be unequal to the demands of literature. The very concept of a continuously evolving synchronic system is contradictory. Since a system is not an equal interaction of all elements but places a group of elements in the foreground-the "dominant"and thus involves the deformation of the remaining elements. The comparable combination of a particular lexicon with a particular meter by Katenin and then twenty or thirty years later by Nekrasov. The epos of the archaists failed. Then the search for formal elements began. the evolution of the literary function occurs over epochs. 8. but there is no room to study or resolve these problems here. Systems change in their composition. and the attaching of a formal element to a function are all important problems of literary evolution. the rise of some new function of a formal element. The evolution of literature. Thus we correlate poems with the verse . and the evolution of the functions of a whole literary system in relation to neighboring systems occurs over centuries. prosaicized epos. The passionate quarrels concerning the seemingly innocent octave were appropriate to the tragic "orphanhood" of function without form. "debased" (as opposed to "elevated'). The assumption that the interrelationship of literary phenomena occurs when a work enters into a synchronic literary system and there "acquires" a function is not entirely correct. Six years later Sevyrev and Puskin used the form in a different function: to break with the whole iambic tetrameter epos and create a new. I would like to say only that the whole problem of literature as a system depends on further investigation. The evolution of the strqctural function occurs rapidly. The variability of the functions of a given formal element. but the differentiation of human activities remains. who probably did not know about Katenin. was not accidental.On Literary Evolution 72 were no formal elements. such as Puskin 's Little House in Kolomna. does not coincide either in tempo or in character with the systems with which it is interrelated. as of other cultural systems. This is owing to the specificity of the material with which it is concerned. The following is an analogy from linguistics: "The variability of the word stem makes it the center of maximum expressiveness and thus extricates it from the net of prefixes which do not change" (Vendryes). Thus. mixed." according to the author's terminology. This interrelationship is realized through language. Thus Griboedov's Wit Works Woe was supposed to be "elevated" and even "grandiose. thus departing from his first intention. are these neighboring orders? The answer is obvious: social conventions. the unusually sharp argument among the critics of the 1820s over the genre of the PuSkin narrative poem arose because the Puskin genre was a combined. the more that system from which the derivation occurs is accentuated. Yet. What constitutes the interrelationship of literature with neighboring orders? What. moreover. new genre without a readymade "name." The sharper the divergence or differentiation from a particular literary system. but the fulfillment bad. That is. Evgenij Onegin was first meant to J." It denotes approximately the "creative intention of the author. the question must be posited: how and by what means are social conventions interrelated with literature? Social conventions are by nature many-sided and complex. We use the term "orientation." Yet it happens that "the intention may be good. not on the basis of all their characteristics. free verse emphasized the verse principle of nonmetrical features. But instead it turned out to be a political publicistic comedy of the archaist school. and only the function of all their aspects is specific in it. 10. but only of some of them." Furthermore.category. Social conventions are correlated with literature first of all in its verbal aspect. Another interesting fact from an evolutioniiry point of view is the following. We relate a novel to "the novel" on the basis of its size and the nature of its plot development. Tynjanov 73 . Thus. the author may yield to it. in order to solve the problem of the interrelationship of literature with social conventions. while Sterne's novel emphasized the compositional principle of nonplot features (Sklovskij). In using a specific literary material. not with the prose category. A work is correlated with a particular literary system depending on its deviation. while at one time it was distinguished by the presence of a love intrigue. for example. its "difference" as compared with the literary system with which it is confronted. the author's intention can only be a catalyst. The same is true concerning genres. literature in relation to social conventions has a verbal function. By the time of Karamzin. charades. An analogy from our own time of the struggle between two orientations is seen in the mass orientation of Majakovskij's poetry ("the ode') in competition with the romance. the joking play with rhymes. became "uniform verses. or orientation." i. If we eliminate the teleological. The word is oriented on pronunciation. was seeking its forms and found them in the romance. changes the "author's intention" into a catalyst. what are purely real-life phenomena. that is. The verbal function." what happens? The "orientation" of a literary work then proves to be its verbal function. PuSkin had already said. a fact of everyday life. but yields instead to the slogan "creative necessity. and so on. is the application of accidental results.e. Congratulatory odes. And the salon. Similarly. the orientation is on declamation in the large palace hall. Everyday verbal communication took their place. but does nothing more. while working on the fourth chapter. chamberstyle orientation of Esenin ("the elegy'). its verbal function." The literary function. the interrelationship of elements within a work. Such. the "intention. at this time became a literary fact. too." The "orientation" had died out or narrowed down in significance and had been transferred onto other forms related to life. completes the whole thing." However. This is possible only through the evolution of a whole system-through the evolution of its orientation.On Literary Evolution 74 be a "satiric narrative poem" in which the author would be "brimming over with bitterness." from the word "orientation. but in particular periods it takes on a literary function. And to carry further the associations with actual life." The structural function. "Creative freedom" thus becomes an optimistic slogan which does not correspond to reality. received evolutionary significance. The "orientation" of the Lomonosov ode. The rough drafts of Puskin 's verse programs and the drafts of his "scenarios" became his finished prose. is oratorical. And here the moment of genesis. goal-oriented allusion. the presence of certain forms of everyday speech. that is. the ode was literarily "worn out. as well as others. its interrelationship with the social conventions. bouts rimes. the interrelationship of a work with the literary order. "Where is my satire? There's not a trace of it in Evgenij Onegin. Ready-made literary genres did not exist. .. the semantics of the intimate domestic circle always exists. In this way the forms of social life acquired a literary function. These speech phenomena were found in the salon of Karamzin 's epoch. daily life. The poet. The law of large numbers does not apply to small numbers. in connection with the speech orientation of a given system. to the personality which came to life for the readers of his poems and which was thus transferred into life. This problem too is worth studying. who was never a theoretician but who as a poet and master of his craft understood this. It can be established and investigated only through the study of closely related conditions. one has Puskin. the concept of the "orientation" of a speech function is applicable to a literary order but not to an individual work. but on a completely different plane. Finally. Tolstoj. becomes the verbal orientation of literature." i. though major. Majakovskij. but how neighboring orders deform it. Such is the "literary personality" of Heine.e. the forests. which is far removed from the real biographical Heine. or the author's personality.. without the forcible incorporation of remote. And from there it enters into real life. It is very possible that the severity of nature.11. This happens naturally. The direct study of the author's psychology and the construction of a causal "bridge" from the author's environment. Such are the lyric heroes of Byron in relationship to his "literary personality. 12. "On the Influence of Light Poetry on Language"-and Vjazemskij refused to seek its genesis in Batjuikov's psychology. A separate work must be related to a literary order before one can talk about its orientation.. The erotic poetry of BatjuSkov resulted from his work on the poetic language-note his speech. Turgenev. Gumilev. we study not the evolution of literature but its modification. Blok. Tynjanov 75 ." Obviously. wrote of Benediktov. and Esenin as opposed to the absence of a literary personality in Leskov. Such is the immediate social function of literature. Majkov. In establishing the distant causal orders for separate works and authors. or at various times the hero. and others. In given periods. This corresponds to the absence of a speech orientation on "the literary personality.. The verbal function must also be taken into consideration in dealing with the problem of the reverse expansion of literature into actual life. apocryphal literature. F et. Polonskij. Thus. The literary personality. biography becomes oral. not how literature changes and evolves in correlation with other orders. influenced the impressionable soul of the child and J. and class to his works is particularly fruitless. causal orders. special real-life conditions are necessary for the expansion of literature into life. the fields . These changes vary from epoch to epoch. the problem of "influence. 14. but of objective. whatever influences him provides the artist with elements which permit the development and strengthening of the '. They have proved to be so significant that they completely obscure the psychological approach to the problem of influence and make chronology (''Who said it first?") unessential. "Influence" can occur at such a time and in such a direction as literary conditions permit. that plays the major role here.On Literary Evolution 76 future poet. and no one will resolve it without straining the point." If we agree ·J\ that evolution is the change in interrelationships between the elements of a system-between functions and formal elementsthen evolution may be seen as the "mutations" of systems. function. Sudden changes in artists which are unexplainable in terms of their personal changes are typical. which is the same for everyone. but rather the ~ . They do not entail the sudden and complete ' renovation or the replacement of formal elements. It is therefore necessary to reexamine one of the most complex problems of literary evolution. These facts point to a convergence or coincidence. I have already cited the examples of Katenin and Nekrasov. There are influences which modify and deform literature without having any evolutionary significance. in whose youth "elevated" poetry went side by side with "low" satiric poetry. "tradition. Yet what is most striking of all is the fact that you can have an extrinsic indication of an influence where no such influence has occurred. Such are the sudden changes in Derzavin and Nekrasov. namely. In the case of functional coincidence. evolving functions of the literary order in relation to the adjacent social order." then an analogous func. occurring sometimes slowly. It is now time to pose the problem of the main term with i which literary history operates.. the problem here is not one of individual psychological conditions. thus creating new phenomena. but later under objective conditions were merged. but how did they influence it? This is a difficult question. Clearly." There are deep psychological and personal influences which are not reflected on the literary level at all. as with Mixajlovskij and Gleb Uspenskij. 13. as with Caadaev and Puskin. If there is no such "influence. It is not nature. The South American tribes created the myth of Prometheus without the influence of classical mythology. tion may result in analogous formal elements without any influt~ ence. ' sometimes rapidly. There are other examples as well. systems. "dilettantism" suddenly received a tremendous evolutionary lignificance. the years of the "masters" and the creation of new poetic genres. The problem is obscured here by the fact that each literary movement in a given period seeks its supporting point in the preceding systems.new function of these formal elements. appeared to be determined as the "dilettantes" (Tjutcev. note. not only forms. It is from dilettantism." that a new phenomenon emergedTjutcev. In the 1820s. years of work on dusty literary material. It must clarify the problem of the evolutionary interaction of functions and forms. which replaces the study of evolution of literature with the study of the modification of literary works-that is to say. which 11eems to be its degeneration from an evaluative point of view. perhaps. for example. years of the automatization of preceding traditions. the universality and grandioseness of . from literary function to verbal function. Polezaev) or the "epigones" and "pupils" (Lermontov) in their struggle with the preceding norms. The study of evolution must move from the literary system to the nearest correlated systems. dilettantism and mass literature were called "graphomania. the functions of Puskin 's prose are closer to the functions of Tolstoj 's prose than the functions of Puskin 's verse are to those of his imitators in the 1830s or those of Majkov. Rather. J. and vice versa. Thus the very comparison of certain literary phenomena must he made on the basis of functions. it must he elucidated to its full extent through the problem of the evolution of literature. however. In this way the prime significance of major social factors is not at all discarded. One need only examine the mass literature of the 1820s and 1830s to be convinced of their colossal evolutionary difference. 15. This is in contrast to the establishment of the direct "influence" of major social factors. In the period of the 1820s. Tynjanov 77 Notes 1." The poets. even though major. interrelated with other systems and conditioned by them. from the atmosphere of "verse notes written on the margins of books. Investigation must go from constructional function to literary function. who transformed poetic language and genres by his intimate Intonations. not the distant. To summarize. The ·relationship of social conventions to literature. the study of literary evolution is possible only in relation to literature as a system. of their deformation. even the secondary poets appeared like leading masters." Thus. who from the point of view of evolutionary lignificance were the leading figures of the 1830s. transforms the literary system. In the 1830s. This is what may he called "traditionalism. Seemingly dissimilar phenomena of diverse functional systems may he similar in function. On Literary Evolution 78 the genres used by such mass poets as Olin. It is clear that the evolutionary significance of such phenomena as dilettantism or epigonism is different from period to period. . Supercilious. evaluative treatment of these phenomena is the heritage of the old history of literature.
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