Lenin as an Object of Formalist Discourse: The Limits of the Literary and the Boundaries of Discipline

Abstract The analysis of Lenin’s language and rhetoric undertaken by the leading representatives of Russian Formalism in the pages of the journal LEF in early 1924 represents more than a tactical attempt to align Formalism with the mainstream of Bolshevik culture‐building in the context of the Soviet 1920s. The contributions of Viktor Shklovsky, Boris Eikhenbaum, and Iurii Tynianov, in particular, to the volume are not only consistent with the evolution of Formalist thinking from the early emphasis on poetic language and the theory of the device to a concern with historical and social evolution but also constitute a serious attempt to extend Formalist theory into the domain of political rhetoric, by implication extending the scope of the emergent discipline of literary studies across the full spectrum of verbal production. The methodologies deployed by Shklovsky, Eikhenbaum, and Tynianov are shown to call into question the label “Formalist,” which has significant implications not only for the history of theory and criticism but also for the present condition of literary studies as a discipline.