«IZOBRETATELI vs. PRIOBRETATELI. TVORYANE vs. DVORYANE». KHLEBNIKOV’S CONCEPT OF CREATIVITY

At the center of Khlebnikov’s ouvre there are the transformation and creation of language and of the world. In the poet’s conception language and world identify with each other.

The formation of the word (slovoobrazovanie) becomes creation of the word (slovotvorchestvo) and creation of the world/peace (mirotvorchestvo). Khlebnikov experiments with all possibilities of word formation/creation, expanding the bounderies of morphology and lexicography as well of semantics. He creates a complex system of languages which he summarizes in his last “sverkhpovest’” Zangezi in order to achieve a utopian world of peace and justice (Ladomir) where there are no more wars and conflicts. This is sometimes achieved by replacing the initial letter of word with another which carries an opposite semantic and philosophical meaning. This is the case of the dvoryane (nobles) being replaced by the tvoryane. In other instances he transforms and enlarges the semantic potentials of Russian prefixes to fit in his utopian vision. In “Truba Marsyan” (The Trumpet of the Martians) he calls to an opposition between the “milky way of the inventors/explorers (izobretateli) and the milky way of investors/exploiters (priobretateli)”.

In my paper I will discuss the various instances of Khlebnikov’s language creativity in connection with his and his fellow artists’ philosophical conceptions.