'A Little Duck's Nest...of Bad Words': The Sound Art and Visual Culture of the Russian Anti-Book Experiment, 1881-1932

这个项目研究了创新的多感官书籍，或“反书籍”，通过二十世纪早期俄罗斯未来主义艺术家和作家的实验合作产生。这是第一次深入研究集中在这些“反书”的表演方面，包括在俄罗斯动荡的政治，文化和艺术发展的背景下，声音，文本，图像和混合材料的动态相互作用。通过对诗人Velimir Khlebnikov（1885-1922）和Aleksei Kruchenykh（1886-1969）以及画家Mikhail Larionov（1881-1964）的合作案例研究，沿着一些着名的次要合作者，该项目探讨了他们在图书实验中的参与以及他们的结果如何与欧洲同行一致或偏离。这项研究是基于对大量档案材料的审查（包括信件、照片、回忆录、俄罗斯未来主义者公开辩论的评论、戏剧表演和即兴街头活动）;大英图书馆藏书分析（一个很少被研究的资源，也提供了与其他收藏中的变体反书副本进行比较的基础）和机构编目系统的比较审查，以确定更多的反图书，往往不承认。在视觉文化，文学，声音，表演和博物馆收藏的交叉工作，这项研究汇集并扩展了南希·珀洛夫（Nancy Perloff）的批评方法，她在2016年的研究“爆炸”（Explodity）专注于反书籍的声音维度，视觉理论家Johanna Drucker的“活动区”框架来研究反书籍的多个材料和概念维度，和理查德·谢克纳的表演理论来重新语境化它们。作为第一个关注这些“反书”的表演方面的跨学科研究，本文将提供一个新的基于理论的类型学，定位他们在俄罗斯不断变化的文化政治中的颠覆作用，扩展和加深我们对艺术家书籍类型的理解，并帮助识别和编目公共/私人收藏中的此类作品。

This project examines the innovative multi-sensory books, or 'anti-books', produced through the experimental collaborations of the early twentieth-century Russian futurist artists and writers. It is the first in-depth study to focus on the performative aspects of these 'anti-books', comprising a dynamic interplay of sound, text, image, and mixed materials in the context of the turbulent political, cultural, and artistic developments in Russia. Using case studies focusing on the collaborations of the poets Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922) and Aleksei Kruchenykh (1886-1969), and the painter Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964), along with some notable secondary collaborators, the project explores their engagement in the book experiment and how their results aligned with or departed from those of their European counterparts. The research is based on examination of extensive archival material (including letters, photographs, memoirs, reviews of Russian futurist public debates, theatrical performances and impromptu street events); analysis of the British Library Collection of anti-books (a rarely examined resource that also provides the basis for comparisons with variant anti-book copies held in other collections) and a comparative review of institutional cataloguing systems in order to identify further antibooks, frequently unrecognised.Working at the intersection of visual culture, literature, sound, performance and museum collections, the research brings together and extends the critical methods of Nancy Perloff whose 2016 study 'Explodity' focused on the anti-books' sonic dimension, the visual theorist Johanna Drucker's 'zone of activity' framework to investigate the multiple material and conceptual dimensions of the anti-books, and Richard Schechner's performance theories to re-contextualise them.As the first interdisciplinary study to focus on performative aspects of these 'anti-books', the thesis will provide a new theory-based typology that locates their subversive role within the shifting cultural politics of Russia, extends and deepens our understanding of the artist's book genre, and aids identification and cataloguing of such works in public/private collections.