Shklovski, Victor Borisovich

Shklovski, Victor Borisovich (vēk`tər bərē`səvĭch shklôf`skē), 1893–1984, Russian critic and writer. Shklovski was an exponent of the formalist school, which held that in literature only the form and structure of a work are important, not its content or the social conditions that produced it. After a period of opposing the Bolshevik government he spent two years abroad, chiefly in Berlin, where he wrote A Sentimental Journey (1923), an autobiography covering the years from 1917 to 1922. Among his critical works are The Technique of the Writer's Craft (1928) and works on Leo Tolstoy (1928), Mayakovsky (1941, tr. 1971), and Dostoyevsky (1957). Shklovski also wrote numerous film scenarios.