A Slap in the Face of Public Taste
A 1912 Russian Futurist manifesto that attacked literary tradition and asserted the independence of contemporary artists.
Russian Futurism: An avant-garde movement in Russia that rejected established artistic conventions and embraced modernity, experimentation, and disruption. The manifesto became an early programmatic statement of this broader movement.
Literary canon: A body of works regarded by institutions and communities as especially authoritative or enduring. The manifesto explicitly challenges the authority of inherited literary works.
Manifesto: A public declaration of principles and intentions, often issued by a group seeking change. The work uses the manifesto form to announce a collective break with literary convention.
Symbolism: A literary and artistic movement that used symbols, suggestion, and musical language to evoke ideas and emotions. The Futurists sought to displace the older movement's authority in Russian poetry.
A Game in Hell: A Russian Futurist illustrated book by Velimir Khlebnikov and Aleksei Kruchenykh, published in 1912. Its publication alongside the manifesto helped present Futurist writing and visual art together.
Hylaea: A Russian Futurist group whose members included poets and artists such as David and Nikolai Burliuk, Velimir Khlebnikov, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Members of this circle authored and published the manifesto.
Literary tradition: The transmission of literary forms, works, and conventions across generations. The authors reject tradition as a binding standard for contemporary writing.
Literary polemic: A forceful written argument that attacks opposing ideas or established practices in literature. Its attacks on canonical authors make polemic central to its strategy.
Realism: An artistic approach that represents ordinary life with attention to observable detail and social conditions. The manifesto rejects inherited literary models rather than extending established modes such as realism.
A Tragedy: A 1913 play by Vladimir Mayakovsky that stages a poet confronting a fragmented world. It shows the theatrical experimentation that followed the manifesto's attack on convention.