The Influence(s) of Sound-Reproduction Technologies on Russian Avant-garde

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26884061
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: European literature
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Yagi Naoto 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 講師 (50453999)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ロシア・アヴァンギャルド / ロシア・フォルマリズム / ボリス・エイヘンバウム / イリヤ・ズダネヴィチ / セルゲイ・ベルンシテイン / 複製技術 / フォノグラフ / 音響メディア

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The emergence of modern sound-reproduction technologies (such as the telephone, the phonograph, the gramophone, and the radio) at the end of the 19th century brought about a profound change in the sound environment. With these technologies, sound, and specifically the sound of the human voice, was released from the restriction of its “here-now” character, i.e., originality, for the first time in human history. There is no doubt that this change transformed our images of hearing and sound, and offered artists in various fields the possibility of creating new art forms.
As concrete results of this research, I revealed some traces of the images of hearing and sound, as transformed by modern sound-reproduction technologies, in the development process of Il'ja Zdanevich's poetics and in the theory of Russian Formalism, particularly in Boris Eikhenbaum’s theoretical works from 1918 to 1924.

Free Research Field

人文学