Resumo de Zangezi - Velimir Khlebnikov

Khlebnikov?s, Zangezi, never performed in his lifetime, was produced in 1923 at the Museum of Artistic Culture in Petrograd. The protagonist is Khlebnikov?s alter ego, the prophet Zangezi. Zangezi, subtitled a ?Supersaga in Twenty Planes,? is made up of 20 sections or ?word planes? that act as building blocks of the story. Each plane contains a different section of the artist?s universe; these include: the Birds, the Gods, Zangezi and his works such as, The Tables of Destiny. The Gods speak only in the language of zaum, or beyonsense, while the people are eager in their desire to learn this language and discover the importance of words from their prophet. Zangezi is described as ?speech maker?, and ?teacher,? and each section goes through the Alphabet as if it has a powerful physical presence. The townspeople both mock and revere their prophet respectively; they are often times perplexed by his words and yet he is presented as being more powerful than the Gods in this universe of word Planes.
In the early 1920?s, Khlebnikov was to write his own drama, Zangezi. In Zangezi, Khlebnikov emphasizes the omnipresent power of ?the word?; the protagonist, Zangezi, defines his identity from his artistic creations; without them the hero does not exist. ?And now he?s dead. The motive seems to have been the destruction of all his manuscripts? (Schmidt, 235). Khlebnikov continued the Union of Youth?s attempt to merge different art forms into one. In Zangezi, he not only carries on Mayakovsky?s endeavor to ?erase the boundary between two genres, between lyricism and drama? (Livshits, 161), but also creates a whole new language of word roots. ?Khlebnikov?s experiments with the Russian language, viewed from a wider perspective, are actually an effort to discover how language itself ?grows? and ?works.? His ?delving? into roots, as Mayakovsky put it, was a search for the source of the word, a return to the time when the ?name corresponded to things?(Kern, 15). Much of the dialogue in Zangezi is made up of the new zaum language, which was Khlebnikov?s attempt at reaching a deeper form of communication, above and beyond words.
Though the poet is introduced as a prophet and a martyr, often revered by the crowd, the element of mockery and incomprehension questions the authority of the prophet. The hero?s audience illustrates this difficulty when they ridicule the poet?s preaching in the dialogue of both plays. Khlebnikov?s zaum language was so difficult to understand that the author felt compelled to explicate it with footnotes in the written text. Zangezi can never be completely understood by the listener, this undermines his proficiency in the role designed for him. ?That stuff sounds beautiful, but there?s nothing to it! We want fire! We?re cold! And this is lousy wood you?ve cut, it won?t heat up our stoves? (Schmidt, 216). The audience of ?passersby? who have sought out their prophet, Zangezi, spend half of the play ridiculing his words and questioning his philosophy. Zangezi preaches about Alphabet war-makers; he delves into the importance of word roots and the hidden power within them. Zangezi voices the words of zaum, which are so powerful they frighten the Gods, and yet, to the unenlightened, they remain abstruse. ?This is vain bibble-babble, Zangezi! What language are you trying to talk? (Schmidt, 215). Such an opaque language can hold no power without further explanation, or, perhaps, a journey into the mind of the playwright. As such, Zangezi?s position of teacher and instructor remains a precarious one. Like Mayakovsky, the crowd ridicules him, as much as reveres.

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