The Logic of the Transmental Language of the Russian Avant-Garde

Abstract

The paper examines the transmental language (zaum) and its conceptual framework; it aims to clarify its linguistic status as a poetic language, and the philosophical implications of informational aspects of this language "beyond reason". At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Avant-garde rejected the idea of artistic production as a mechanical imitation and established the autonomy of poetic language and literature; in the same period, the universal morphology of subjective experience was being researched. Zaum is recognized as one of the tools for altering human speech and thought, which would consequently result in the revival of the entire culture.