OPOYAZ

literary group

Also known as: Obshchestvo Izucheniya Poeticheskogo Yazyka

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July 1, 2026

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OPOYAZ, or the Society for the Study of Poetic Language, was a Russian literary group founded in 1914. It was a key part of the Formalism movement, which emphasized literature's importance in its unique use of language rather than its social content. Viktor Shklovsky, a prominent member, argued that literature should present familiar ideas in new and unusual ways to make readers see the world afresh. This concept is known as "making it strange" or ostranenie. The group was dissolved by Soviet authorities in 1922, and its members, like Shklovsky and Yury Olesha, had to adapt to the prevailing literary doctrines of the time.12

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Viktor Shklovsky
Petersburg, Shklovsky helped found OPOYAZ, the Society for the Study of Poetic Language, in 1914. He was also connected with the Serapion Brothers, a collection of writers that began meeting in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1921. Both groups felt that literature’s importance lay primarily not in its social content…
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Petersburg, Shklovsky helped found OPOYAZ, the Society for the Study of Poetic Language, in 1914. He was also connected with the Serapion Brothers, a collection of writers that began meeting in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1921. Both groups felt that literature’s importance lay primarily not in its social content…
Read More