Revol(t)ver: Gender Aspects of V. Majakovskijʼs Anthropological Experiment

This paper attempts to reassess Maiakovskiiʼs personal gender myth, using the deconstruction method to identify the constituents of his masculine self, with specific focus placed on his unique artistic dress-code, certain Western cultural influences and the authentic imagery of Russian mythology. This analysis concludes with a hypothesis that Maiakovskiiʼs Avant-Gardist trajectory of gradual change in human nature was not through the androgenic reduction of sex, but rather through the elimination of the “capillary” power present in gender relations, sustained during the political turmoil and the personal dramas encountered by the poet.