It is difficult to imagine a serious literary discussion among Slavists that would not eventually invoke the name of Yuri Tynianov (1894-1943). And yet, in notable contrast to his flashier Russian Formalist colleague Viktor Shklovsky, Tynianov’s writings have still been only spottily translated into English. Many of Tynianov’s ideas—especially but not only concerning parody, literary evolution, and the dynamism of center and periphery—have lost none of their currency today. The belated arrival of such a careful and well annotated translation is worth celebrating.