Contents
Summary iv A Note on Sources viii Chapter 1: Khlebnikov’s Early Life 1 2: Symbolism and the Idea of Death and Rebirth 9 3: Symbolism and the Conquest of Time 15 4: "Incantation by Laughter" and the Rebirth of the Tribal "We". 23 5: Khlebnikov and the Primitivist Inspiration 31 6: Futurism and the Concept of "byt". 56 7: The Cubist Revolution in Painting 44 8: Cubism and Khlebnikovw–"Objectlessness" and the Creation of a New World 56 9: Futurism as the Destruction of Art 62 10: A Language to Unite Mankind 76 11: All the World's Knoweldege in a Formula 83 12: The President of the Terrestrial Sphere 88 13: The World as as a Light-Ray: Khlebnikov and the Electronics Revolution 97 14: The Contradictions of Khlebnikov—Real or Imagined? 105 15: The Electronics Revolution: McLuhan 108 16: Khlebnikov: The Revolt Against Literacy 114 17: Khlebnikov's Poetry as Anti-Literacy 121 18: Sound, Time, Language and the State 136 19: A Child's View of the World 158 20: Khlebnikov, Science and the Spirit of the Revolution 162 Appendix A: A Note on Khlebnikov and Symbolism 180 Appendix B: Khlebnikov and the 'Slap' Manifesto 185 Appendix C: Some Notes on Italian Futurism 191
