Literary primitivism, its function in the early works of Vladimir Mayakovsky and other Russian cubo-futurists

grantor: University of TorontoA clarification of the notion of "literary primitivism" is attempted through a brief analysis of the history of primitivism and its manifold applications in modern art and literature. An effort to condense the term into a useful model is based on a consideration of various modernist works as well as on a critical review of existent scholarship on the subject. A brief analysis of the creative output of major Russian cubo-futurists is conducted to reveal elements of literary primitivism. Some hypotheses related to the psychological roots of primitivism in Mayakovsky's early work are formulated through a thorough analysis of his early biography. It is determined that the death of Mayakovsky's father was a turning point in the poet's emotional development and may have influenced the blooming of his creative abilities. An attempt to resolve the conflicts and contradictions of his adolescence stimulated him to seek an expression of his feelings through poetry. The convergence of the poet's inner world with the collective unconscious manifested itself in a particular primitivist mode which we identify as "psychological primitivism". The recurrent primal images in his early work, along with the prominence of Mayakovsky's poetic persona suggest analyses from a Jungian outlook of developmental archetypes and a Freudian perspective of multi-stage emotional development. As revealed in the course of this analysis, these archetypes offer insights into the poet's psyche and deepen our understanding and appreciation of his verse. Within this framework, a comprehensive analysis of Mayakovsky's literary primitivism from various perspectives, including. linguistic, psychological, literary, artistic, historical, and anthropological is given. These methods are combined in an attempt to shed light on the roots of artistic process and the modalities of creative perception, and to deepen the understanding of the broad epistemological background of the poet's work.Ph.D