Bakhtinian Thought: An Introductory Reader

by Simon Dentith

First published in 1994. Mikhail Bakhtin, and the writers associated with him, have come to be recognised as writers of trail-blazing importance. Working in the extraordinarily difficult conditions of Stalinist Russia, they nevertheless produced a body of writing in literary theory, linguistics, the history of the novel, philosophy, and what Bakhtin called ‘philosophical anthropology’, which continues to inspire and challenge people working in a number of different areas. Above all, Bakhtin insists on locating all utterances, whether spoken or literary, between the participants in a dialogue and thus involves them 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 the work of Bakhtin and his circle, taking the reader helpfully through the many areas of their thought, and indicating the points of controversy, difficulty and excitement. This introductory section culminates in a discussion of the particular emphases lent by Bakhtin to current debates in literary theory. The other feature of the book is the anthology of writing by Bakhtin, Voloshinov and Medvedev, drawn from all the major areas of their work. This provides an especially helpful reader for a body of work otherwise published in disparate and relatively inaccessible forms. Special emphasis has been given to the still unsurpassed linguistic thought of Voloshinov, and the practical analyses of the novel found in Bakhtin’s writing on Dostoevsky and Dickens. This book will be especially interesting to readers new to the work of Bakhtin and his circle. The combination of an introduction and an anthology will allow such readers a context for their reading of Bakhtin, an indication of his importance for contemporary debates in literature, language and social history, and the opportunity to engage directly with the writings of this important and indeed, for the student of literary theory, essential writer.

Genres: Reference, Theory, Literary Fiction

282 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 1994

Reviews

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

an introductory text, I suppose for undergraduates. contains some thoughtful essays and a few of the more famous excerpts. a reader such as this text should not really be considered a useful substitute for actually working through the original volumes, however.

[Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up ages ago at a book fair and have been picking away at it here and there for the past month or so. Bahktin's thought is still vivid to this day - shows the concrete nature of language and the way that we can't really judge a word outside of its context. You should point this book towards anyone who tries to tell you that good literature "transcends history" through "timeless themes" -- all literature is historical, and is composed of all the voices that were present at the time of writing (and reading).

Introduction was good and commentary on each essay was nice. The major problem of constructing a bahktin reader is that all of his essays are like 100+ pages long, so this book does a nice job at compiling essays that represent much of his major thought, and are also rather short.