Tra verso e prosa, tra proprio e altrui

Genere, auto-traduzione e intertestualità negli scritti di Kazimir Malevič

Abstract

The article analyzes intertextuality and self-translation phenomena in Kazimir Malevič’s writing. A key figure in the Russian pictorial avant-garde, he has written numerous treatises, notes, poems, and letters. The two major influences in the formation of Malevič-writer are the involvement in the avant-garde movement and the study of the Gospel. The first aspect analyzed in this article is represented by its “fluid” use of the textual genre. The analysis reveals a correlation between the (mutant) genre of the text and the narration of religious feeling and philosophical reflection on art. This observation is sustained by Azarova’s studies on the connections between philosophical and poetic text in the Russian tradition. The second aspect is inspired by the different levels of intertextuality described by Torop. In Malevič’s writings, the “poetics of one’s / others” poem shows a “spiral” course, in which the author is simultaneously in dialogue with himself and with an idea of “humanity”, between past and future. Some concepts developed by Malevič also reflect a “spirit of the time” and are at the center of reflection for many personalities who have accompanied that time towards the future. The density of such intertextual references can be considered as part of a wider research, which recognizes the consciousness of man and of all men, in contact with others and with the divine, as its own space for action.