The Plot, the History and the Time: From S. L. Franc to B. M. Eykhenbaum

In both his early and late works Eikhenbaum focuses on the idea of «static history» that was formed under the influence of the description of forms of time in Frank’s «The Object of Knowledge». The notion of static history leads to distinguish between the «chronological» and absolute time. For Frank, the absolute time is real irrespective one of actuality and reveals the unknowable» in the cognition process, whereas the formalists perceive it as being analogue to literary forms which are characterized by temporal potentiality. There are especially many similarities between the formalist heory of time and the formalist concept of plot.