Daniil Kharms (1905–1942) was an early Soviet-era poet, dramatist, and author of children’s literature. His pseudonyms for himself—DanDan, Khorms, Shardam, Daniel Charms—reflect both his absurdist point of view and his membership in an avant-garde collective in which art was unbound from logic. In defending the right to create the unpredictable and irrational, he placed himself directly at odds with Socialist Realism. The Soviets exiled him in the late 1920s, and in 1941 he was arrested and imprisoned in a psychiatric ward, where he died.
WORKS THAT HAVE APPEARED IN NARRATIVE:
- Three New Decrees, a short story, in Stories of the Week: 2013–2014