La prosa filosofica di N. Evreinov negli anni dell’emigrazione. Introduzione al trattato Otkrovenie iskusstva e analisi dei temi principali

Claudia Pieralli N. Evreinov’s Aesthetics in the Emigration Years: Analytical Approaches to the Treatise Otkrovenie iskusstva and Fundamental Themes The present paper focuses on a particular side of Evreinov’s heritage: the critical prose dedicated to the philosophy and theory of symbolic forms. Actually, if Evreinov’s theories on theatricality and theatralization of life worked out during the 10’s are widely known, then not the same may be said about the contribution he has given in the post-revolutionary era, which proves to be a turning point in the orientation of his philosophical refl ection. This second and unknown period of Evreinov’s thought is signifi cantly testifi ed by an impressive and unpublished text, written during his emigration years in Paris in the Thirties: the treatise Otkrovenie Iskusstva. My paper argues two theses, the fi rst of which has a thematical-analytical nature: Otkrovenie Iskusstva is a proper ‘system of thought’, based on its own categories. The second thesis has a wider methodological import: recovering unpublished sources forgotten in archives is a necessary task if we want to restore historiographical and exegetical completeness of the legacy of any author. The treatise represents in fact the fi nal outcome of a long and relentless work in theoretical meditation on art, on its genesis, its features and aims and provides elements of interest for the contextual study of the cultural history of Russian emigration during the Thirties.