Abstract (eng)
The paper at hand aims towards a discussion of selected text from the Russian director,
actor, writer and theoretician Boris Jurevich Jukhananov (born 1957) with a view on a poetics
of ―Writing as Becoming‖. The artist is located in-between several institutions and artistic
position; therefore the paper tries to critically revise and apply certain terms and conceptions
that usually form the basis of literary analysis. In this respect, the paper has two main
appeals: Contextualizing Jukhananov‘s work (descriptive aspect) as well as discussing the
applicability and validity of selected terms and concepts (systematic aspect).
These concepts are drawn from Jacques Derrida‘s formulation of ―writing‖ and Gilles
Delueze‘s (together with Félix Guattari and Claire Parnet) theoretical discussions on
literature (both its aspects as being ―minor‖ and as a state of ―becoming‖) as well as from the
Russian philologist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. His conception of a ―Philosophy of the
act― (approx. 1921) as well as several selected writings on aesthetics, are discussed in
relation to the problem of ―art‖ (as ―literature‖) and ―life‖, the juxtaposition of which appears to
be a major concern in the theoretical and artistic writings of Jukhananov. These
circumstances are elaborated, drawing from both Jukhananov‘s biography, where he is
described as a major figure in the Russian underground scene of the 1980s, and in relation
to questions of community and the late soviet state.
The central concern of this paper, however, is to be found in a discussion of
Jukhananovs unpublished novel Моментальные записки сентиментального солдатика
(read in a version from 2008) and its analysis concerning the aforementioned theoretical
concepts. Jukhananov‘s „novel of transcription― is discussed as contributing to a poetics of
the diary and the materiality of montage as well as in relation to Jukhananov‘s own
theoretical works concerning the aesthetics of video.