WRITER

Viktor Shklovsky

1893 - 1984

Photo of Viktor Shklovsky

Icon of person Viktor Shklovsky

Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (Russian: Ви́ктор Бори́сович Шкло́вский, IPA: [ˈʂklofskʲɪj]; 24 January [O.S. 12 January] 1893 – 6 December 1984) was a Russian and Soviet literary theorist, critic, writer, and pamphleteer. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Viktor Shklovsky has received more than 333,722 page views. His biography is available in 40 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 39 in 2019). Viktor Shklovsky is the 878th most popular writer (down from 821st in 2019), the 299th most popular biography from Russia (down from 298th in 2019) and the 33rd most popular Russian Writer.

Shklovsky is most famous for his theory of ostranenie, or defamiliarization. This theory is a way of looking at art and literature as a means of seeing the world in a new way.

Memorability Metrics

  • 330k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.82

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 40

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.85

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.11

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Sentimentalʹnoe puteshestvie
1923
O teorii prozy
Literary Criticism
As time has proven, Theory of Prose still remains one of the twentieth century's most significant works of literary theory. It not only anticipates structuralism and poststructuralism, but poses questions about the nature of fiction that are as provocative today as they were in the 1920s. Founded on the concept of "making strange," it lays bare the inner workings of fiction--especially the works of Cervantes, Tolstoy, Sterne, Dickens, Bely and Rozanov--and imparts a new way of seeing, of reading, and of interacting with the world.
1929
Povesti o proze
1966
Zhili-byli
1964
Lev Tolstoĭ
1963
Literatura i kinematograf
Literary Criticism
In this essay, a leading figure of the Russian Formalist movement of the 1910s and 1920s enunciates the function of the arts: what they are and, more importantly, what they are not. His views of the other arts lead him into speculations about cinematography, which was just emerging at the time of writing, 1923.
1923
O teorii prozy
Technique, History and criticism, Prose literature
1929
Tretʹi︠a︡ fabrika
Fiction, general
1977
Lev Tolstoĭ
Biography, Novelists, Russian, Russian Novelists
biography of Leo Tolstoy
1963
Lev Tolstoy
Biography
1978
Sentimentalʹnoe puteshestvie
Biography, History, Personal narratives
1923
Zoo
Fiction, general
1923

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Viktor Shklovsky ranks 878 out of 7,302. Before him are Philip Pullman, Gaius Lucilius, Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, Bernhard Schlink, Wilbur Smith, and Johan Ludvig Runeberg. After him are Ghassan Kanafani, Dashiell Hammett, Luis Sepúlveda, Joseph Campbell, Theodoret, and Fatema Mernissi.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1893, Viktor Shklovsky ranks 36. Before him are Qazi Muhammad, Fritz Perls, Andrés Segovia, Juana Bormann, Miroslav Krleža, and Edward G. Robinson. After him are Leslie Howard, Hans Fallada, Walter Baade, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, Lili Boulanger, and Mae West. Among people deceased in 1984, Viktor Shklovsky ranks 33. Before him are Marvin Gaye, Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet, Dmitry Ustinov, Stanley Milgram, Vicente Aleixandre, and Philippe Ariès. After him are Karl Rahner, Pierre Gemayel, Tito Gobbi, Kim Il, Henri Michaux, and Oskar Werner.

Others Born in 1893

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Others Deceased in 1984

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Viktor Shklovsky ranks 299 out of 3,761. Before him are Ivan II of Moscow (1326), Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859), Alexandre Koyré (1892), Anastasia Romanovna (1530), Ilia II of Georgia (1933), and Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia (1871). After him are Sergei Skripal (1951), Nikolai Kondratiev (1892), Vladimir Ashkenazy (1937), Viktor Korchnoi (1931), Leonid Hurwicz (1917), and Kirill Meretskov (1897).

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Among WRITERS In Russia

Among writers born in Russia, Viktor Shklovsky ranks 33. Before him are Ivan Krylov (1769), Arthur Adamov (1908), Alexander Blok (1880), Alexander Litvinenko (1962), Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (1843), and Varlam Shalamov (1907). After him are Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933), Alexander Griboyedov (1795), Nikolay Karamzin (1766), Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia (1858), Vasily Zhukovsky (1783), and Fyodor Tyutchev (1803).

Russian born Writers

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