MYSTIFICATION AS AN AUTHORIAL STRATEGY IN THE BOOK OF A. KRUCHENYKH “OWN STORIES, POEMS AND SONGS OF CHILDREN” (1923)

Abstract

The article reveals the authorial artistic strategy of Aleksey Kruchenykh’s collected works “Children’s Own Stories, Poems, and Songs” (1923). A comparison with the first edition of the collection “Children’s Own Stories and Drawings” (1914) is made. The composition of the book is analyzed. It is suggested that some poems included in the collection of 1923 were written by Aleksey Kruchenykh himself and were passed off by him as children’s texts. The aim of the hoax was to make friendly teasing references to Viktor Palmov, Sergey Tretyakov, Velemir Khlebnikov, and others. More often, these poems are like puzzles, whose clues reveal the names of familiar avant-garde artists. It is concluded that the author’s artistic strategy is to confuse the reader by blurring the boundary between children’s and adult texts and, thereby, to affirm the relationship of futuristic zaum with children’s speech. This approach noticeably distinguishes the book of Kruchenykh from other collections of children’s creativity published in the 1920s.

Keywords: russian avant-garde, futurism, children’s creativity, russian children’s literature, Aleksey Kruchenykh, teaser, literary hoax, epigram, Velemir Khlebnikov, Sergey Tretyakov, Viktor Palmov, Yury Marr, Korney Chukovsky, Nina Niss-Goldman