Xlebnikov et l’héritage grec

The essay investigates the causes, forms, and ideas that prompted the turn to ancient Greek tradition in the thought and works of Velimir Xlebnikov, one of the most characteristic representatives of modernism in Russian poetry of the Silver Age. In spite of the high-sounding manifestos that proclaimed a radical rupture with tradition, Xlebnikov was in no hurry to «throw from the steamship of modernity» any type of heritage, least of all the legacy of the Greeks, which nourished his poetic system by means both of parody and «harmony» . In his verbal creations Xlebnikov used authors of antiquity, and entire realms of ancient philosophy resonate idiosyncratically with his thinking, which rests on the Pythagorean conception of the world.