Дилемма беспамятства и безглагольности на перекрестке суждений о творческих методах и творческих затруднениях Даниила Хармса

In their investigations of the roots of the fragmentary nature and the predilection for small forms in Kharms's work, the authors of the two most extensive and important studies on the subject, Jean-Philippe Jaccard and Mikhail Iampolskii, arrive at two different conclusions: alalia and amnesia. However, detailed scrutiny of Kharms's life and work suggests that Yakov Druskin's thesis, asserting “the absence of distinction between Kharms's art and life” might contribute to clarifying many questions concerning his “art” per se, especially as regards the poet's inconstancy and evasiveness, as witnessed by contemporaries.