Bakhtinian Thought: An Introductory Reader
BAKHTINIAN THOUGHTMikhail Bakhtin, and the writers associated with him, have come to berecognised as writers of trail-blazing importance. Working in theextraordinarily difficult conditions of Stalinist Russia, they neverthelessproduced a body of writing in literary theory, linguistics, the history of thenovel, philosophy, and what Bakhtin called ‘philosophical anthropology’,which continues to inspire and challenge people working in a number ofdifferent areas. Above all, Bakhtin insists on locating all utterances, whetherspoken or literary, between the participants in a dialogue and thus involvesthem in considerations of power and authority.This introduction and reader serves a double function. In the first place,Simon Dentith provides a lucid and approachable introduction of thework of Bakhtin and his circle, taking the reader helpfully through themany areas of their thought, and indicating the points of controversy,difficulty and excitement. This introductory section culminates in adiscussion of the particular emphases lent by Bakhtin to current debates inliterary theory. The other feature of the book is the anthology of writingby Bakhtin, Voloshinov and Medvedev, drawn from all the major areas oftheir work. This provides an especially helpful reader for a body of workotherwise published in disparate and relatively inaccessible forms. Specialemphasis has been given to the still unsurpassed linguistic thought ofVoloshinov, and the practical analyses of the novel found in Bakhtin’swriting on Dostoevsky and Dickens.This book will be especially interesting to readers new to the work ofBakhtin and his circle. The combination of an introduction and ananthology will allow such readers a context for their reading of Bakhtin, anindication of his importance for contemporary debates in literature,language and social history, and the opportunity to engage directly withthe writings of this important and indeed, for the student of literary theory,essential writer.Simon Dentith is Reader in English at Cheltenham and GloucesterCollege of Higher Education. He has previously published books on
iiGeorge Eliot and rhetoric, and has written extensively on nineteenth- andtwentieth-century literature.
Critical Readers in Theory and PracticeGENERAL EDITOR: Rick Rylance, Anglia Polytechnic UniversityThe gap between theory and practice can often seem far too wide for thestudent of literary theory. Critical Readers in Theory and Practices is a newseries which bridges that gap: it not only offers an introduction to a rangeof literary and theoretical topics, but also applies the theories to relevanttexts.Each volume is split into two parts: the first consists of an in-depth andclear introduction, setting out the theoretical bases, historicaldevelopments and contemporary critical situation of the topic. The theoryis then applied to practice in the second part in an anthology of classictexts and essays.Designed specifically with the student in mind, Critical Readers in Theoryand Practice provides an essential introduction to contemporary theoriesand how they relate to textual material.Bakhtinian Thought: An introductory reader Simon DentithWar Poetry: An introductory reader Simon Featherstone
BAKHTINIANTHOUGHTAn introductory readerSIMON DENTITHLONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1995by Routledge11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EEThis edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’scollection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”Simultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001Reprinted in 1996 1995 Simon DentithAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilizedin any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known orhereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any informationstorage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available fromthe British LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloguing in Publication DataDentith, SimonBakhtinian Thought: An introductory reader/Simon Dentith.p. cm.—(Critical readers in theory and practice)Includes bibliographical references and index.1. Bakhtin, M.M. (Mikhal Mikhaĭlovich), 1895–1975.2. Philology. 3. Criticism—Soviet Union. 4. Philosophy,Russian—20th century. I. Title. II. Series.P85.B22D46 1995801′.95′ 092–dc20 94–16524ISBN 0-203-43044-1 Master e-book ISBNISBN 0-203-39623-5 (Adobe eReader Format)ISBN 0-415-07751-6 (hbk)ISBN 0-415-11899-9 (pbk)
For my parents, Edward Dentith and Ann Dentith
ContentsGeneral editor’s prefaceixPrefacexAcknowledgementsxiiiList of abbreviationsxivPart I An overview of the writings of Bakhtin and his circleIntroduction31Voloshinov and Bakhtin on language212Bakhtin on the novel393Bakhtin’s carnival634Bakhtin and contemporary criticism85Notes to Part I99Part II Extracts from the writings of Bakhtin and his circle5V.N.Voloshinov: ‘Language, speech, and utterance’and ‘Verbal interaction’1056M.M.Bakhtin and P.N.Medvedev: from ‘Material anddevice as components of the poetic construction’1437M.M.Bakhtin: ‘The hero’s monologic discourse andnarrational discourse in Dostoevsky’s short novels’1558M.M.Bakhtin: ‘Heteroglossia in the novel’1959M.M.Bakhtin: from ‘The grotesque image of the bodyand its sources’225Notes to Part II253
viiiSuggestions for further reading261Index263
General editor’s prefaceThe interpretation of culture never stands still. Modern approaches tofamiliar problems adjust our sense of their importance, and new ideasfocus on fresh details or remake accepted concepts. This has beenespecially true over recent years when developments across the humanitieshave altered so many ideas.For many this revolution in understanding has been exciting butdifficult, involving the need to integrate advanced theoretical work withattention to specific texts and issues. This series attempts to approach thisdifficulty in a new way by putting together a new balance of basic texts anddetailed, introductory exposition.Each volume in the series will be organized in two parts. Part Oneprovides a thorough account of the topic under discussion. It detailsimportant concepts, historical developments and the contemporarycontext of interpretation and debate. Part Two provides an anthology ofclassic texts or—in the case of very recent work—essays by leading writerswhich offer focused discussions of particular issues. Commentary andeditorial material provided by the author connect the explanations inPart One to the materials in Part Two, and in this way the reader movescomfortably between original work and enabling introduction.The series will include volumes on topics which have been of particularimportance recently. Some books will introduce specific theoretical ideas;others will re-examine bodies of literary or other material in the light ofcurrent thinking. But as a whole the series aims to reflect, in a clearminded and approachable way, the changing ways in which we understandthe expanding field of modern literary and cultural studies.Rick Rylance
PrefaceIt is now some twenty-five years since the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin(1895–1975) began to make an impact in the West—since, that is, thepublication of Rabelais and his World in 1968. During that time hisinfluence has grown enormously, not only in literary criticism but also inhistory, anthropology, linguistics and philosophy. But during that timealso, the nature of his influence has been constantly changing, both as therange and variety of Bakhtin’s own writing has gradually emerged and beentranslated, and as the intellectual, social and political climate in Europeand America has altered. In the heady days of the late 1960s and early1970s, Bakhtin, in France at any rate, was the celebrator of carnival, of theforce that subverts and upturns everything official, authoritarian and onesidedly serious. As the work on Dostoevsky and the novel became known,Bakhtin came to be seen more as the supreme theorist of the novel,speaking directly to the openness of the novel form and praisingDostoevsky above all as the novelist of polyphony. When the connectionbecame established between Bakhtin and two other Russian writers fromthe 1920s, P.N.Medvedev and V.N.Voloshinov, they jointly appeared ascritics of Saussurean linguistics and Russian Formalism, and thus, to theirreaders in the West in the 1970s and 1980s, as pointing beyond thestructuralism and formalism then prevalent. But during those decades also,different Bakhtins have appeared, first in Russian and then in English. Hecan now be seen as providing a profound, socially and linguisticallygrounded history of the novel; and also as a philosopher who emerges fromearly twentieth-century neo-Kantianism and in whose thinking ethics andthe I—Thou relationship are central.Moreover, this real diversity within the writings of Bakhtin and thoseconnected with—what has been called the Bakhtin circle—has meant thathe has been appropriated by writers and critics of widely differentintellectual and political persuasions. In Russia, indeed, his apparentcommitment to some kind of Christianity—though what kind exactly
xiremains unclear—has meant that he has appealed, though not exclusively,to intellectuals of a conservative, Orthadox cast. In the West, by contrast,he is appealed to by writers whose allegiances are as various as liberalhumanism, deconstruction, and Marxism—though Bakhtin’s relationshipto Marxism is as controversial as his relationship to Christianity There aremany now, doubtless, who would disclaim allegiance to any of these ‘isms’and simply describe themselves as Bakhtinians. But at all events, there isnow a struggle going on over the legacy of Bakhtin, Voloshinov andMedvedev, as indeed one would expect over the meanings and direction ofany large, attractive and fruitful body of writing, especially when it iscomplicated, as it is in this case, by difficult questions of attribution,censorship, and a thirty-five-year interruption in publication history.This book is an introduction to the work of Bakhtin and his circle, andtherefore aims to give its readers some of the materials for judging amongstthese various positions. I am suspicious of any attempt to find a real ordefinitive Bakhtin that will explain or explain away the evident diversitythat marks his writing, especially if you include in that the writing ofVoloshinov and Medvedev. In my account of the writings I shall seek togive as full weight as possible to the arguments as they actually appear—and not seek to find elaborate counter-interpretations of them, a practiceoften resorted to in the sometimes justified belief that conditions ofpublication in the Soviet Union demanded elaborate ruses and, especially,bows in the direction of the official version of Marxism. I am an agnosticon the question of the disputed authorship, for it has been stronglysuggested, and widely believed, that the books attributed to Voloshinovand Medvedev were actually written by Bakhtin himself. However, in thefirst chapter I will set out what is at stake in the controversy that surroundsthis question. None of which is to say that I am indifferent to the variousclaims that have been made about Bakhtin and his circle, or that I do notfind some aspects of their writing more appealing than others, for I amespecially attracted by the socially and historically grounded account oflanguage and writing that emerges in the writings of the 1930s and inVoloshinov’s book on language. You will see these preferences reflected inthe anthology, and you may, if you choose, discount them as you read thetext that follows.The book falls into two parts. The first part consists of an introduction,which aims to give an overview of the writings of Bakhtin, and of therelevant works by Voloshinov and Medvedev. The second part consists ofan anthology of these writings, and a brief word is required in explanationof my selection here. Bakhtin, notoriously, is not a succinct writer, hisexpansiveness and repetitions reflecting a philosophical and critical attitude
xiiin favour of argument by accumulation and averse to theoretical synopsis.This makes his writing difficult to anthologize, expecially if one has apreference, as I do, for complete sections of argument rather thanexcerpted paragraphs. As a result I have chosen, in the case of Bakhtin, asmall number of lengthy extracts rather than a large number of short ones,and I have chosen extracts that demonstrate Bakhtin’s actual analyticalpractice. As to Voloshinov and Medvedev, in each case I have chosen anextract which is sufficient to give you a sense of their distinctive manner ofargument, and which equally gives some sense of their wider intellectualposition. It need hardly be added that the book only aims to orient youwith respect to a considerable body of writing, and that it is hoped that itwill both encourage and equip you to embark on a much fuller engagementwith the writings of Bakhtin and his circle.
AcknowledgementsMy primary thanks are due to the many translators and editors of Bakhtinand his circle who have made an introductory work of this kind possible.Thanks are also due to Rick Rylance, Kay Richardson and John O’Brien whoread all or part of the manuscript, who made many helpful suggestions,and who saved me from many embarrassing errors. Any that remain are ofcourse solely my own responsibility.For permission to reprint copyright material I gratefully acknowledgethe following:Academic Press, Inc., for ‘Language, speech, and utterance’ and ‘Verbalinteraction’, in Marxism and the Philosophy of Language by V.N.Vološinov,translated by Ladislav Matejka and I.R.Titunik, copyright 1973 bySeminar Press; the Johns Hopkins University Press for ‘The properformulation of the problem of the poetic construction’, ‘Social evaluationand its role’, and ‘Social evaluation and the concrete utterance’, in TheFormal Method in Literary Scholarship: A Critical Introduction toSociological Poetics by M.M.Bakhtin and P.N.Medvedev, translated byAlbert J. Wehrle, copyright 1978 by the Johns Hopkins UniversityPress; the University of Minnesota Press and Manchester University Pressfor ‘The hero’s monologic discourse and narrational discourse inDostoevsky’s short novels’, in Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics byM.M.Bakhtin, edited and translated by Caryl Emerson, copyright 1984by the University of Minnesota Press; the University of Texas Press for‘Heteroglossia in the novel’, reprinted from ‘Discourse in the novel’ in TheDialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M.Bakhtin, edited by MichaelHolquist, translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, copyright 1981 by the University of Texas Press; the MIT Press for ‘The grotesqueimage of the body and its sources’, in Rabelais and His World byM.M.Bakhtin, translated by Helen Iswolsky, copyright 1968 by theMIT Press.
AbbreviationsThe following abbreviations have been used:AADIFMFMCMPLPDPRWSGM.M.Bakhtin, Art and Answerability: Early PhilosophicalEssays by M.M.Bakhtin, edited by Michael Holquist andVadim Liapunov (University of Texas Press, 1990).M.M.Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays,edited by Michael Holquist; translated by CarylEmerson and Michael Holquist (University of TexasPress, 1981).M.M.Bakhtin and P.N.Medvedev, The Formal Methodin Literary Scholarship: A Critical Introduction toSociological Poetics, translated by Albert J.Wehrle(Harvard University Press, 1985).V.N.Vološinov, Freudianism: A Marxist Critique,translated by I.R.Titunik (Academic Press, New York,1976).V.N.Vološinov, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language,translated by Ladislav Matejka and I.R.Titunik(Academic Press, New York, 1986).M.M.Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, editedand translated by Caryl Emerson, with an introductionby Wayne C.Booth (Manchester University Press,1984).M.M.Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, translated byHelene Iswolsky (Indiana University Press, 1984).M.M.Bakhtin, Speech Genres and Other Late Essays,translated by Vern W.McGee (University of TexasPress, 1986).
xvIn general I have followed standard transliterations in writing Bakhtin andVoloshinov; however, where authors or translators have used Baxtin orVološinov I have retained these spellings when providing references.
xvi
PART IAn overview of the writings of Bakhtin andhis circle
2
IntroductionOne of Mikhail Bakhtin’s basic principles is that communicative acts onlyhave meaning, only take on their specific force and weight, in particularsituations or contexts; his is an account of the utterance, of the actualcommunicative interaction in its real situation. Nothing demonstrates thisprinciple more clearly than the fate of Bakhtin’s own utterances, many ofwhich could have no life, no specific force and weight, in his own lifetime,because they could not be published in the Soviet Union; and when theywere published and translated in the West, they issued into specificsituations which lent them the force of other expectations and agendas.There is no betrayal here, no departure from a fixed original meaning, forthe life of any word is as a succession of utterances, in each of which itsmeanings are enriched, contested, or annexed. The words of Bakhtinhimself are no exception. Yet there is an interesting corrolary to thisemphasis on the ‘situatedness’ of all utterances, which is that they mustissue forth from one historically unique and particular place to another,indeed from one person to another, necessarily caught up in thecomplexities and inequities of social life. In this first chapter I aim to giveyou a sense of the situation out of which Bakhtin, and Voloshinov andMedvedev, speak. These are extraordinary and courageous voices thatspeak out of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution about language andliterature, and about ethics and history; and they speak to us in the West,now spectators of another Russian Revolution which might yet, among itsmore minor consequences, upset our notions of some key Bakhtinianthemes. In short, dialogue with another—at the heart of Bakhtin’s thinking—does not invite us to cancel what historically separates us but rather tounderstand that other’s historical specificity as fully as possible.
4 BAKHTINIAN THOUGHT: AN INTRODUCTORY READERIThe only biography of Mikhail Bakhtin was published in 1984, written bytwo American scholars, Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist.1 Whatfollows is of course deeply dependent on this pioneering work. It is aconsiderable achievement, not only for what it managed to discover, ininauspicious circumstances, about the actual life histories of Bakhtin andthe members of his circle, but also because of the way it weaves togetherthese biographical facts with the intellectual history which makes themimportant. For although Mikhail Bakhtin led a scholarly life, and wasprofoundly committed to such a life in the great tradition of the Russianintelligentsia, his life was not without its dramatic vicissitudes, thrust uponhim by the times he lived in. There is reputed to be a Chinese proverbialblessing: ‘May you not live in interesting times.’ If anyone lived ininteresting times, it was Mikhail Bakhtin, who was twenty-two at the timeof the Russian Revolution in 1917, and thus lived through the Revolution,the Civil War that followed it, the excitements of the 1920s, theimposition of Stalinism, the purges of the 1930s, the German invasion ofthe Soviet Union, the cultural freeze of the Cold War, the Khruschev thaw,and the stagnation of the Brezhnev years. Bakhtin’s writings wereprofoundly affected by this extraordinary history, not least because theycould not be published between 1929 and the 1960s.Mikhail Bakhtin was born in 1895 into a provincial banking family. Hewas the younger of
3 Bakhtin’s carnival 63 4 Bakhtin and contemporary criticism 85 Notes to Part I 99 Part II Extracts from the writings of Bakhtin and his circle 5 V.N.Voloshinov: ‘Language, speech, and utterance’ and ‘Verbal interaction’ 105 6 M.M.Bakhtin and P.N.Medvedev: from ‘Material and device as components of the poetic construction’ 143
2. The Rhetoric of Film: Bakhtinian Approaches and Film Ethos Film as Its Own Rhetorical Medium 32 Bakhtinian Perspectives on the Rhetoric of Film 34 Film Ethos 42 3. The Rhetoric of Film: Pathos and Logos in the Movies Pathos in the Movies 55 Film Logos 63 Blade Runner: A Rhetorical Analysis 72 4.
This thesis explores elements of carnival and the camivalesque in contemporary Australian children's literature. It is informed by the Bakhtinian idea of carnival and investigates to what extent these ideas are incorporated into selected contemporary publications. It draws on Bakhtinian concepts and discusses their influence within the
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