Title: Discourse Experiment and Utopian Imagination: The Avant-Garde of Futurist Theater in the Silver Age Abstract: During the Russian Silver Age of freedom and pluralism (1890 to 1920), Futurist Theater, which was mainly represented by the plays of V. V. Mayakovsky and Velemir Khleb-nikov, had some obvious avant-garde characteristics and demonstrated a distinctive discourse experiment and a strong utopian imagination. In its experimental innovation of language and rhetoric, Futurist Theater subverted and reorganized the traditional language organization and discourse structure through the defamiliarization of language and the actualization of metaphor. In its adaptation of theme and plot, Futurist Theater reversed the theme of Symbolist Theater, adapted the inner core of the classic drama texts, and imitated, with some variations, the theme of traditional literature. Its imaginary writing about the future world, Futurist Theater based its writing on the salience of personality and awareness of values, fully embracing the enthusiasm of individuality and the imagination of industrialism, demonstrating a relatively conspicuous touch of utopia and a tendency of mysticism, and representing the playwright’s futuristic concept of the world and aesthetics. Generally speaking, that Futurist Theater stressed the need to construct the world through discourse experiment and release the utopian imagination of the future is the result of the comprehensive effect and overall influence from many factors, such as the idea of Futurism, Nietzsche’s philosophy, and the revolutionary discourse of the times. In essence, it is a poetic counteraction against the drama of Realism and Symbolism, and an artistic practice of the revolutionary spirit and revolutionary ideal. As a result, Futurist Theater laid down the foundation for the Russian avant-garde drama and the early Soviet comedy in the 20th century with its avant-garde language, romantic style of rhetoric, and radical themes. Key words: Silver Age; Futurist Theater; discourse experiment; utopian imagination; V. V. Mayakovsky; Velimir Khlebnikov Projects: “Study on Transformation of Russian Theater in the Silver Age” (17BWW042) sponsored by National Social Science Fund of China; “Study on the Compilation of A History of Russian Theater and Translation of Important Materials” (19JZD030) sponsored by the Key Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research of the Ministry of Education Author: Wang Shufu is a professor at the School of Chinese Language and Literature, Central China Normal University (Wuhan 430069, China) and a part-time researcher at the Research Center for Russian Language, Literature and Culture, Heilongjiang University (Harbin 150080, China). He is also a research fellow at the Hubei Research Center for Literary Theory and Criticism and the International Research Center for Ethical Literary Criticism. His major research interests include Russian literature, Russian theater, and Ethical Literary Criticism. Email: ccnuwangshufu@126.com
