Page:Knight (1975) Past, Future and the Problem of Communication in the Work of V V Khlebnikov.djvu/31

23 Chapter Four:

"INCANTATION BY LAUGHTER" AND THE REBIRTH OF THE TRIBAL "WE".

The fatalism of the Symbolists was associated with feelings of hopelessness and loneliness. This chapter introduces the theme of the "problem of communication"—the modern experience of language's inability to penetrate the space separating one human consciousness from another. Khlebnikov's "Incantation by Laughter" is shown to have been one aspect of his general attempt to counter this experience by means of a new form of language which would restore the tribal sense of belonging of pre-civilized man.