Vadim Shershenevich

Vadim Gabrielevich Shershenevich (Russian: Вадим Габриэлевич Шершеневич; 25 January 1893 – 18 May 1942) was a Russian poet. He was highly prolific, working in more than one genre, moving from Symbolism to Futurism after meeting Marinetti in Moscow. Later he pioneered the post-revolutionary avant-garde Imaginist movement, but abandoned it in favour of the theatre.

Biography and career

Earlier years

Shershenevich was born in

Shershenevich edited almanacs produced by the Peterburgskiy Glashatay publishing house and helped prepare almanacs from the Moscow publishing house Mezzanine of Poetry, which he practically headed. Before the end of 1913 he published two additional books of poems. He became the theorist and the propagandist of futurism in Russia: He met F.T. Marinetti in Moscow in 1914 and translated his books and published collections of his own articles.^{[citation needed]} His Declaration About Futurist Theatre (1914) attacked asserted that plays and theater direction of the day suppressed the actor: "Action should dominate the theater, not the word."

By age 21, Shershenevich began to develop the theory of

In 1918 Shershenevich became close to Sergei Yesenin and Anatoly Marienhof. He founded the "order of imaginists" and became the theorist of imaginism.^{[citation needed]} At this time, 1918–20, his books of poetry exemplify the imaginist period.

During the subsequent years he published the book of poems Cooperatives of merriment (1921), the play One continuous absurdity (1922) and the book about the art of his comrades Marienhof, Ivnev, Kusikov and Yesenin To whom I shake hands (1921). From 1919 through 1925 he participated in nine anthologies, including Foundry of Words (Plavil'nia slov) (1920) with Yesenin and Marienhof.

Late years

In 1926 Shershenevich published his own collection So, the Summary, his last poetic book. In it he broke with imaginist poetics. He summed up imaginism in these words: "Imaginism is dead ... Poetry has become polemic ... Lyricism is taken away from poetry and poetry without lyricism is as good as a race horse without a leg. Thus the failure of imaginism is understandable, as it always insisted on poetization of poetry."

By that time Shershenevich had moved on to

During the early part of World War II Shershenevich, sick with tuberculosis, was evacuated with the Moscow Chamber Theater to Barnaul, where he died on 18 May 1942.

Works

Books

• Spring Thaw (Весенние проталинки) (c. 1911)
• Carmina (1913)
• Extravagant Flakones (1913)
• Romantic Powder (1913)
• Automobilian Advance (Автомобилья поступь) (1916)
• Crematory. The poem of imaginist (1919)
• Horse like a horse (Лошадь как лошадь) (1920)
• Theory of Free Verse (Notes on Poetic Technique) (Teoriia svobodnogo stikha (zametki o poeticheskoi tekhnike)) (1920) Translator and Editor.
• 2 × 2 = 5 (1920)
• Cooperatives of merriment (1921)
• To whom I shake hands (1921)
• Red Alcohol (Krasnyi Alkogol') (1922) With Matvei Royzman.
• So, the Summary (1926)
• Kinopechat: Igor Ilinisky (1926)

Screenplays

• When Moscow Laughs (Devushka s korobkoy) (1927)^[2]
• A Kiss From Mary Pickford (Potseluy Meri Pikford) (1927)^[3]
• The House on Trubnaya (Dom na Trubnoy) (1928)^[4]

References