Mikhail Bakhtin

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (/bktin, bx-/;[2]

Russian: , pronounced
[mxil mxajlvt bxtin]; 17 November 1895 7
March [3] 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic,
semiotician[4] and scholar who worked on literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of language. His writings, on a variety of subjects, inspired scholars working
in a number of dierent traditions (Marxism, semiotics,
structuralism, religious criticism) and in disciplines as diverse as literary criticism, history, philosophy, sociology,
anthropology and psychology. Although Bakhtin was active in the debates on aesthetics and literature that took
place in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, his distinctive position did not become well known until he was rediscovered by Russian scholars in the 1960s.

P. N. Medvedev, who joined the group later in Vitebsk.

Vitebsk was a cultural centre of the region the perfect place for Bakhtin and other intellectuals [to organize] lectures, debates and concerts.[6] German philosophy was the topic talked about most frequently and, from
this point forward, Bakhtin considered himself more a
philosopher than a literary scholar. It was in Nevel, also,
that Bakhtin worked tirelessly on a large work concerning
moral philosophy that was never published in its entirety.
However, in 1919, a short section of this work was published and given the title Art and Responsibility. This
piece constitutes Bakhtins rst published work. Bakhtin
relocated to Vitebsk in 1920. It was here, in 1921, that
Bakhtin married Elena Aleksandrovna Okolovich. Later,
in 1923, Bakhtin was diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a
bone disease that ultimately led to the amputation of his
leg in 1938. This illness hampered his productivity and
rendered him an invalid.[7]

Early life

In 1924, Bakhtin moved to Leningrad, where he assumed

a position at the Historical Institute and provided consulting services for the State Publishing House. It is at
this time that Bakhtin decided to share his work with the
public, but just before On the Question of the Methodology of Aesthetics in Written Works was to be published,
the journal in which it was to appear stopped publication. This work was eventually published 51 years later.
The repression and misplacement of his manuscripts was
something that would plague Bakhtin throughout his career. In 1929, Problems of Dostoevskys Art, Bakhtins
rst major work, was published. It is here that Bakhtin
introduces the concept of dialogism. However, just as
this book was introduced, Bakhtin was accused of participating in the Russian Orthodox Church's underground
movement. The truthfulness of this charge is not known,
even today. Consequently, during one of the many purges
of artists and intellectuals that Joseph Stalin conducted
during the early years of his rule, Bakhtin was sentenced
to exile in Siberia but appealed on the grounds that, in his
weakened state, it would kill him. Instead, he was sentenced to six years of internal exile in Kazakhstan.[7]

Bakhtin was born in Oryol, Russia, to an old family of

the nobility. His father was the manager of a bank and
worked in several cities. For this reason Bakhtin spent
his early childhood years in Oryol, in Vilnius, and then
in Odessa, where in 1913 he joined the historical and
philological faculty at the local university (the Odessa
University). Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist write:
Odessa..., like Vilnius, was an appropriate setting for
a chapter in the life of a man who was to become the
philosopher of heteroglossia and carnival. The same
sense of fun and irreverence that gave birth to Babel's
Rabelaisian gangster or to the tricks and deceptions of
Ostap Bender, the picaro created by Ilf and Petrov, left
its mark on Bakhtin.[5] He later transferred to Petrograd
Imperial University to join his brother Nikolai. It is here
that Bakhtin was greatly inuenced by the classicist F.
F. Zelinsky, whose works contain the beginnings of concepts elaborated by Bakhtin.

Career

Bakhtin spent these six years working as a book-keeper

in the town of Kustanai, during which time he wrote several important essays, including Discourse in the Novel.
In 1936 he taught courses at the Mordovian Pedagogical
Institute in Saransk. An obscure gure in a provincial
college, he dropped out of view and taught only occasionally. In 1937, Bakhtin moved to Kimry, a town located hundred kilometers from Moscow. Here, Bakhtin
completed work on a book concerning the 18th-century

Bakhtin completed his studies in 1918. Bakhtin then

moved to a small city in western Russia, Nevel (Pskov
Oblast), where he worked as a schoolteacher for two
years. It was at this time that the rst Bakhtin Circle formed. The group consisted of intellectuals with
varying interests, but all shared a love for the discussion of literary, religious, and political topics. Included
in this group were Valentin Voloshinov and, eventually,
1

3 WORKS AND IDEAS

German novel which was subsequently accepted by the 3

Sovetskii Pisatel' Publishing House. However, the only
copy of the manuscript disappeared during the upheaval
3.1
caused by the German invasion.

Works and ideas

Toward a Philosophy of the Act

Toward a Philosophy of the Act was rst published in the

USSR in 1986 with the title K losoi postupka. The
manuscript, written between 19191921, was found in
bad condition with pages missing and sections of text that
were illegible. Consequently, this philosophical essay appears today as a fragment of an unnished work. Toward
a Philosophy of the Act comprises only an introduction,
of which the rst few pages are missing, and part one of
the full text. However, Bakhtins intentions for the work
were not altogether lost, for he provided an outline in the
introduction in which he stated that the essay was to contain four parts.[11] The rst part of the essay deals with
the analysis of the performed acts or deeds that comprise the actual world; the world actually experienced,
A commemorative plaque marking a building in which Mikhail and not the merely thinkable world. For the three subBakhtin worked.
sequent and unnished parts of Toward a Philosophy of
the Act Bakhtin states the topics he intends to discuss. He
outlines that the second part will deal with aesthetic acAfter the amputation of his leg in 1938, Bakhtins health tivity and the ethics of artistic creation; the third with the
improved and he became more prolic. In 1940, and un- ethics of politics; and the fourth with religion.[12]
til the end of World War II, Bakhtin lived in Moscow,
where he submitted a dissertation on Franois Rabelais to Toward a Philosophy of the Act reveals a young Bakhtin
the Gorky Institute of World Literature to obtain a post- who is in the process of developing his moral philosograduate title,[8] a dissertation that could not be defended phy by decentralizing the work of Kant. This text is one
until the war ended. In 1946 and 1949, the defense of of Bakhtins early works concerning ethics and aesthetics
this dissertation divided the scholars of Moscow into two and it is here that Bakhtin lays out three claims regarding
groups: those ocial opponents guiding the defense, who the acknowledgment of the uniqueness of ones particiaccepted the original and unorthodox manuscript, and pation in Being:
those other professors who were against the manuscripts
acceptance. The books earthy, anarchic topic was the
1. I both actively and passively participate in Being.
cause of many arguments that ceased only when the gov2. My uniqueness is given but it simultaneously exists
ernment intervened. Ultimately, Bakhtin was denied a
only to the degree to which I actualize this uniquedoctorate (Doctor of Sciences) and granted a lesser deness (in other words, it is in the performed act and
gree (Candidate of Sciences) by the State Accrediting Budeed that has yet to be achieved).
reau. Later, Bakhtin was invited back to Saransk, where
he took on the position of chair of the General Liter3. Because I am actual and irreplaceable I must actuature Department at the Mordovian Pedagogical Instialize my uniqueness.
tute. When, in 1957, the Institute changed from a teachers college to a university, Bakhtin became head of the
Department of Russian and World Literature. In 1961, Bakhtin further states: It is in relation to the whole actual
Bakhtins deteriorating health forced him to retire, and unity that my unique thought arises from my unique place
in 1969, in search of medical attention, Bakhtin moved in Being.[13] Bakhtin deals with the concept of moralback to Moscow, where he lived until his death in 1975.[9] ity whereby he attributes the predominating legalistic noBakhtins works and ideas gained popularity after his tion of morality to human moral action. According to
death, and he endured dicult conditions for much of his Bakhtin, the I cannot maintain neutrality toward moral
manifest themselves as ones
professional life, a time in which information was often and ethical demands which
[14]
voice
of
consciousness.
seen as dangerous and therefore often hidden. As a result,
the details provided now are often of uncertain accuracy.
Also contributing to the imprecision of these details is
the limited access to Russian archival information during
Bakhtins life. It is only after the archives became public that scholars realized that much of what they thought
they knew about the details of Bakhtins life was false or
skewed largely by Bakhtin himself.[10]

It is here also that Bakhtin introduces an architectonic

or schematic model of the human psyche which consists
of three components: I-for-myself, I-for-the-other,
and other-for-me. The I-for-myself is an unreliable
source of identity, and Bakhtin argues that it is the I-forthe-other through which human beings develop a sense
of identity because it serves as an amalgamation of the

3.3

Rabelais and His World: carnival and grotesque

way in which others view me. Conversely, other-for-me

describes the way in which others incorporate my perceptions of them into their own identities. Identity, as
Bakhtin describes it here, does not belong merely to the
individual, rather it is shared by all.[15]

3.2

Problems of Dostoyevskys Poetics:

polyphony and unnalizability

During his time in Leningrad, Bakhtin shifted his view

away from the philosophy characteristic of his early
works and towards the notion of dialogue. It is at this time
that he began his engagement with the work of Fyodor
Dostoevsky. Problems of Dostoyevskys Art is considered
to be Bakhtins seminal work, and it is here that Bakhtin
introduces three important concepts.
First, is the concept of the unnalizable self: individual people cannot be nalized, completely understood,
known, or labeled. Though it is possible to understand people and to treat them as if they are completely
known, Bakhtins conception of unnalizability respects
the possibility that a person can change, and that a person is never fully revealed or fully known in the world.
Readers may nd that this conception reects the idea of
the soul"; Bakhtin had strong roots in Christianity and
in the Neo-Kantian school led by Hermann Cohen, both
of which emphasized the importance of an individuals
potentially innite capability, worth, and the hidden soul.
Second, is the idea of the relationship between the self
and others, or other groups. According to Bakhtin, every person is inuenced by others in an inescapably intertwined way, and consequently no voice can be said to
be isolated. In an interview with the Novy Mir Editorial
Sta ('Response to a Question from Novy Mir Editorial
Sta'), Bakhtin once explained that,
In order to understand, it is immensely important for the person who understands to be
located outside the object of his or her creative
understandingin time, in space, in culture.
For one cannot even really see ones own exterior and comprehend it as a whole, and no
mirrors or photographs can help; our real exterior can be seen and understood only by other
people, because they are located outside us in
space, and because they are others. ~New York
Review of Books, June 10, 1993.
As such, Bakhtins philosophy greatly respected the inuences of others on the self, not merely in terms of how a
person comes to be, but also in how a person thinks and
how a person sees him- or herself truthfully.

3
idea of polyphony is related to the concepts of unnalizability and self-and-others, since it is the unnalizability
of individuals that creates true polyphony.
Bakhtin briey outlined the polyphonic concept of truth.
He criticized the assumption that, if two people disagree,
at least one of them must be in error. He challenged
philosophers for whom plurality of minds is accidental
and superuous. For Bakhtin, truth is not a statement, a
sentence or a phrase. Instead, understanding is a number
of mutually addressed, albeit contradictory and logically
inconsistent, statements. Understanding needs a multitude of carrying voices. It cannot be held within a single
mind, it also cannot be expressed by a single mouth.
The polyphonic truth requires many simultaneous voices.
Bakhtin does not mean to say that many voices carry partial truths that complement each other. A number of different voices do not make the truth if simply averaged
or synthesized. It is the fact of mutual addressivity, of
engagement, and of commitment to the context of a reallife event, that distinguishes underatanding from misunderstanding.
When, in subsequent years, Problems of Dostoyevskys Art
was translated into English and published in the West,
Bakhtin added a chapter on the concept of carnival and
the book was published with the slightly dierent title,
Problems of Dostoyevskys Poetics. According to Bakhtin,
carnival is the context in which distinct individual voices
are heard, ourish and interact together. The carnival creates the threshold situations where regular conventions
are broken or reversed and genuine dialogue becomes
possible. The notion of a carnival was Bakhtins way of
describing Dostoevskys polyphonic style: each individual character is strongly dened, and at the same time the
reader witnesses the critical inuence of each character
upon the other. That is to say, the voices of others are
heard by each individual, and each inescapably shapes the
character of the other.

3.3

Rabelais and His World: carnival and

grotesque

Main article: Rabelais and His World

During World War II Bakhtin submitted a dissertation on
the French Renaissance writer Franois Rabelais which
was not defended until some years later. The controversial ideas discussed within the work caused much disagreement, and it was consequently decided that Bakhtin
be denied his doctorate. Thus, due to its content, Rabelais
and Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance was
not published until 1965, at which time it was given the
title Rabelais and His World[16] (Russian:

, Tvorestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaja
kul'tura srednevekov'ja i Renessansa).

Third, Bakhtin found in Dostoevskys work a true representation of "polyphony", that is, many voices. Each
character in Dostoevskys work represents a voice that
speaks for an individual self, distinct from others. This A classic of Renaissance studies, in Rabelais and His

3 WORKS AND IDEAS

World, Bakhtin concerns himself with the openness of

Gargantua and Pantagruel; however, the book itself also
serves as an example of such openness. Throughout the
text, Bakhtin attempts two things: he seeks to recover
sections of Gargantua and Pantagruel that, in the past,
were either ignored or suppressed, and conducts an analysis of the Renaissance social system in order to discover
the balance between language that was permitted and language that was not. It is by means of this analysis that
Bakhtin pinpoints two important subtexts: the rst is carnival (carnivalesque) which Bakhtin describes as a social
institution, and the second is grotesque realism which is
dened as a literary mode. Thus, in Rabelais and His
World Bakhtin studies the interaction between the social
and the literary, as well as the meaning of the body and
the material bodily lower stratum.[17]

traditional essay in which Bakhtin reveals how various

dierent texts from the past have ultimately come together to form the modern novel.[27]

In Epic and Novel, Bakhtin demonstrates the novels

distinct nature by contrasting it with the epic. By doing so, Bakhtin shows that the novel is well-suited to the
post-industrial civilization in which we live because it
ourishes on diversity. It is this same diversity that the
epic attempts to eliminate from the world. According to
Bakhtin, the novel as a genre is unique in that it is able
to embrace, ingest, and devour other genres while still
maintaining its status as a novel. Other genres, however,
cannot emulate the novel without damaging their own distinct identity.[26]

presses Bakhtins opinion of literary scholarship whereby

he highlights some of its shortcomings and makes suggestions for improvement.[31]

Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel introduces Bakhtins concept of chronotope. This essay applies the concept in order to further demonstrate the distinctive quality of the novel.[27] The word chronotope literally means time space and is dened by Bakhtin as
the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature.[28]
For the purpose of his writing, an author must create entire worlds and, in doing so, is forced to make use of
the organizing categories of the real world in which he
lives. For this reason chronotope is a concept that engages
reality.[29]

The nal essay, Discourse in the Novel, is one of

In his chapter on the history of laughter, Bakhtin advances Bakhtins most complete statements concerning his phithe notion of its therapeutic and liberating force, arguing losophy of language. It is here that Bakhtin provides a
that laughing truth ... degraded power.[18]
model for a history of discourse and introduces the concept of heteroglossia.[27] The term heteroglossia refers to
the qualities of a language that are extralinguistic, but
3.4 The Dialogic Imagination: chronotope common to all languages. These include qualities such as
and heteroglossia
perspective, evaluation, and ideological positioning. In
this way most languages are incapable of neutrality, for
The Dialogic Imagination (rst published as a whole in every word is inextricably bound to the context in which
1975) is a compilation of four essays concerning lan- it exists.[30]
guage and the novel: "Epic and Novel" (1941), From the
Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse (1940), Forms of
Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel (19371938), 3.5 Speech Genres and Other Late Essays
and Discourse in the Novel (19341935). It is through
the essays contained within The Dialogic Imagination In Speech Genres and Other Late Essays Bakhtin moves
that Bakhtin introduces the concepts of heteroglossia, away from the novel and concerns himself with the probdialogism and chronotope, making a signicant contri- lems of method and the nature of culture. There are six
bution to the realm of literary scholarship.[19] Bakhtin essays that comprise this compilation: Response to a
explains the generation of meaning through the pri- Question from the Novy Mir Editorial Sta, The Bilmacy of context over text (heteroglossia), the hybrid na- dungsroman and Its Signicance in the History of Realture of language (polyglossia) and the relation between ism, The Problem of Speech Genres, The Problem
utterances (intertextuality).[20][21] Heteroglossia is the of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and the Human Scibase condition governing the operation of meaning in any ences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis, From
utterance.[21][22] To make an utterance means to appro- Notes Made in 1970-71, and Toward a Methodology
priate the words of others and populate them with ones for the Human Sciences.
own intention.[21][23] Bakhtins deep insights on dialogi- Response to a Question from the Novy Mir Editorial
cality represent a substantive shift from views on the naSta is a transcript of comments made by Bakhtin to
ture of language and knowledge by major thinkers such a reporter from a monthly journal called Novy Mir that
as Ferdinand de Saussure and Immanuel Kant.[24][25]
was widely read by Soviet intellectuals. The transcript ex-

The Bildungsroman and Its Signicance in the History

of Realism" is a fragment from one of Bakhtins lost
books. The publishing house to which Bakhtin had submitted the full manuscript was blown up during the German invasion and Bakhtin was in possession of only the
prospectus. However, due to a shortage of paper, Bakhtin
began using this remaining section to roll cigarettes. So
only a portion of the opening section remains. This reFrom the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse is a less maining section deals primarily with Goethe.[32]

5
The Problem of Speech Genres" deals with the dierence between Saussurean linguistics and language as a
living dialogue (translinguistics). In a relatively short
space, this essay takes up a topic about which Bakhtin had
planned to write a book, making the essay a rather dense
and complex read. It is here that Bakhtin distinguishes
between literary and everyday language. According to
Bakhtin, genres exist not merely in language, but rather
in communication. In dealing with genres, Bakhtin indicates that they have been studied only within the realm of
rhetoric and literature, but each discipline draws largely
on genres that exist outside both rhetoric and literature.
These extraliterary genres have remained largely unexplored. Bakhtin makes the distinction between primary
genres and secondary genres, whereby primary genres
legislate those words, phrases, and expressions that are
acceptable in everyday life, and secondary genres are
characterized by various types of text such as legal, scientic, etc.[33]
The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and
the Human Sciences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis is a compilation of the thoughts Bakhtin
recorded in his notebooks. These notes focus mostly on
the problems of the text, but various other sections of the
paper discuss topics he has taken up elsewhere, such as
speech genres, the status of the author, and the distinct
nature of the human sciences. However, The Problem
of the Text deals primarily with dialogue and the way
in which a text relates to its context. Speakers, Bakhtin
claims, shape an utterance according to three variables:
the object of discourse, the immediate addressee, and a
superaddressee. This is what Bakhtin describes as the tertiary nature of dialogue.[34]

4 Disputed texts
Some of the works which bear the names of Bakhtins
close friends V. N. Voloinov and P. N. Medvedev have
been attributed to Bakhtin particularly Marxism and
Philosophy of Language and The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship. These claims originated in the early
1970s and received their earliest full articulation in English in Clark and Holquists 1984 biography of Bakhtin.
In the years since then, however, most scholars have
come to agree that Voloinov and Medvedev ought to be
considered the true authors of these works. Although
Bakhtin undoubtedly inuenced these scholars and may
even have had a hand in composing the works attributed
to them, it now seems clear that if it was necessary to attribute authorship of these works to one person, Voloinov and Medvedev respectively should receive credit.[37]
Bakhtin had a dicult life and career, and few of his
works were published in an authoritative form during his
lifetime.[38] As a result, there is substantial disagreement
over matters that are normally taken for granted: in which
discipline he worked (was he a philosopher or literary
critic?), how to periodize his work, and even which texts
he wrote (see below). He is known for a series of concepts that have been used and adapted in a number of
disciplines: dialogism, the carnivalesque, the chronotope,
heteroglossia and outsidedness (the English translation
of a Russian term vnenakhodimost, sometimes rendered
into Englishfrom French rather than from Russianas
exotopy). Together these concepts outline a distinctive
philosophy of language and culture that has at its center
the claims that all discourse is in essence a dialogical exchange and that this endows all language with a particular
ethical or ethico-political force.

From Notes Made in 1970-71 appears also as a collection of fragments extracted from notebooks Bakhtin kept
during the years of 1970 and 1971. It is here that Bakhtin
discusses interpretation and its endless possibilities. Ac- 5 Legacy
cording to Bakhtin, humans have a habit of making narrow interpretations, but such limited interpretations only
As a literary theorist, Bakhtin is associated with the
serve to weaken the richness of the past.[35]
Russian Formalists, and his work is compared with that
The nal essay, Toward a Methodology for the Human of Yuri Lotman; in 1963 Roman Jakobson mentioned
Sciences, originates from notes Bakhtin wrote during him as one of the few intelligent critics of Formalism.[39]
the mid-seventies and is the last piece of writing Bakhtin During the 1920s, Bakhtins work tended to focus on
produced before he died. In this essay he makes a dis- ethics and aesthetics in general. Early pieces such as
tinction between dialectic and dialogics and comments on Towards a Philosophy of the Act and Author and Hero
the dierence between the text and the aesthetic object. in Aesthetic Activity are indebted to the philosophical
It is here also, that Bakhtin dierentiates himself from trends of the timeparticularly the Marburg School
the Formalists, who, he felt, underestimated the impor- Neo-Kantianism of Hermann Cohen, including Ernst
tance of content while oversimplifying change, and the Cassirer, Max Scheler and, to a lesser extent, Nicolai
Structuralists, who too rigidly adhered to the concept of Hartmann. Bakhtin began to be discovered by scholars in
code.[36]
1963,[39] but it was only after his death in 1975 that authors such as Julia Kristeva and Tzvetan Todorov brought
Bakhtin to the attention of the Francophone world, and
from there his popularity in the United States, the United
Kingdom, and many other countries continued to grow.
In the late 1980s, Bakhtins work experienced a surge of
popularity in the West.

LEGACY

Bakhtins primary works include Toward a Philosophy

of the Act, an unnished portion of a philosophical essay; Problems of Dostoyevskys Art, to which Bakhtin later
added a chapter on the concept of carnival and published
with the title Problems of Dostoyevskys Poetics; Rabelais
and His World, which explores the openness of the Rabelaisian novel; The Dialogic Imagination, whereby the
four essays that comprise the work introduce the concepts
of dialogism, heteroglossia, and chronotope; and Speech
Genres and Other Late Essays, a collection of essays in
which Bakhtin concerns himself with method and culture.

Bakhtin concentrates heavily on language and its general

use.[47] Leslie Baxter observes: Communication scholars have much to gain from conversing with Bakhtins
dialogism.[48] Kim argues that theories of human communication through verbal dialogue or literary representations such as the ones Bakhtin studied will apply to virtually every academic discipline in the human sciences.[49] Bakhtins theories on dialogism inuence interpersonal communication research, and dialogism represents a methodological turn towards the
messy reality of communication, in all its many language
[50]
In the 1920s there was a Bakhtin school in Russia, in forms. In order to understand Bakhtin as a communication scholar one must take all forms of communication
line with the discourse analysis of Ferdinand de Saussure
into account. While Bakhtins works focused primarily
[40]
and Roman Jakobson.
on text, interpersonal communication is also key, especially when the two are related in terms of culture. Kim
states that culture as Geertz and Bakhtin allude to can be
5.1 Inuence
generally transmitted through communication or recipro[51]
He is known today for his interest in a wide variety of cal interaction such as a dialogue.
subjects, ideas, vocabularies, and periods, as well as his
use of authorial disguises, and for his inuence (alongside Gyrgy Lukcs) on the growth of Western scholarship on the novel as a premiere literary genre. As
a result of the breadth of topics with which he dealt,
Bakhtin has inuenced such Western schools of theory
5.2.1 Interpersonal communication
as Neo-Marxism, Structuralism, Social constructionism,
and Semiotics. Bakhtins works have also been useful in
anthropology, especially theories of ritual.[41] However, Any concrete utterance is a link in the chain of speech
his inuence on such groups has, somewhat paradoxi- communication of a particular sphere. The very boundcally, resulted in narrowing the scope of Bakhtins work. aries of the utterance are determined by a change of
According to Clark and Holquist, rarely do those who in- speech subjects. Utterances are not indierent to one ancorporate Bakhtins ideas into theories of their own ap- other, and are not self-sucient; they are aware of and
preciate his work in its entirety.[42]
mutually reect one another... Every utterance must be
regarded as primarily a response to preceding utterances
of the given sphere (we understand the word response
here in the broadest sense). Each utterance refutes afrms, supplements, and relies upon the others, presupposes them to be known, and somehow takes them into
account... Therefore, each kind of utterance is lled with
various kinds of responsive reactions to other utterances
of the given sphere of speech communication.[52] This
is reminiscent of the inter-personal theory of communication turn-taking. This means that every utterance is related to another utterance, true to turn-taking in which
the conversational norms are followed in order for a conversation to have a cohesive ow in which individuals respond to one another. If, for example, an utterance does
not pertain to a previous utterance then a conversation
is not occurring. However, the utterance will likely pertain to an utterance that the individual once heard- meaning it is, in fact, interrelated, just not in the context of
that particular conversation. As Kim explains, the entire world can be viewed as polyglossic or multi-voiced
since every individual possesses their own unique world
5.2 Bakhtin and communication studies
view which must be taken into consideration through diBakhtins communication legacy reaches beyond rhetoric, alogical interaction.[53] This world view must be considsocial constructionism and semiotics as he has been ered when a conversation is occurring in order to better
called the philosopher of human communication.[46] understand its cultural and communicative signicance.
While Bakhtin is traditionally seen as a literary critic,
there can be no denying his impact on the realm of
rhetorical theory. Among his many theories and ideas
Bakhtin indicates that style is a developmental process,
occurring both within the user of language and language
itself. His work instills in the reader an awareness of tone
and expression that arises from the careful formation of
verbal phrasing. By means of his writing, Bakhtin has
enriched the experience of verbal and written expression
which ultimately aids the formal teaching of writing.[43]
Some even suggest that Bakhtin introduces a new meaning to rhetoric because of his tendency to reject the separation of language and ideology.[44] As Leslie Baxter
explains, for Bakhtin, Because all language use is riddled with multiple voices (to be understood more generally as discourses, ideologies, perspectives, or themes),
meaning-making in general can be understood as the interplay of those voices.[45]

7
5.2.2

Communication and culture

Bakhtins life work can be understood as a critique of

the monologization of the human experience that he perceived in the dominant linguistic, literary, philosophical,
and political theories of his time.[54] True to his roots
of social constructionism and post-modernism Bakhtin
was critical of eorts to reduce the unnalizable, open,
and multivocal process of meaning-making in determinate, closed, totalizing ways.[54] According to Bakhtin,
the meaning found in any dialogue is unique to the sender
and recipient based upon their personal understanding of
the world as inuenced by the socio-cultural background.
Bakhtins dialogism opens up space for communication
scholars to conceive of dierence in new ways meaning
they must take the background of a subject into consideration when conducting research into their understanding
of any text as a dialogic perspective argues that dierence (of all kinds) is basic to the human experience.[54]
Kim argues that his ideas of art as a vehicle oriented
towards interaction with its audience in order to express
or communicate any sort of intention is reminiscent of
Cliord Geertzs theories on culture.[53] Culture and
communication become inextricably linked to one another as ones understanding, according to Bakhtin, of a
given utterance, text, or message, is contingent upon their
culture background and experience.
5.2.3

Carnivalesque and communication

Sheckels contends that what [... Bakhtin] terms the carnivalesque is tied to the body and the public exhibition of
its more private functions [...] it served also as a communication event [...] anti-authority communication events
[...] can also be deemed carnivalesque.[55] Essentially,
the act of turning society around through communication,
whether it be in the form of text, protest, or otherwise
serves as a communicative form of carnival, according
to Bakhtin. Steele furthers the idea of carnivalesque in
communication as she argues that it is found in corporate
communication. Steele states that ritualized sales meetings, annual employee picnics, retirement roasts and similar corporate events t the category of carnival.[56] Carnival cannot help but be linked to communication and culture as Steele points out that in addition to qualities of inversion, ambivalence, and excess, carnivals themes typically include a fascination with the body, particularly its
little-gloried or 'lower strata' parts, and dichotomies between high or low..[57] The high and low binary is particularly relevant in communication as certain verbiage is
considered high, while slang is considered low. Moreover, much of popular communication including television shows, books, and movies fall into high and low brow
categories. This is particularly prevalent in Bakhtins native Russia, where postmodernist writers such as Boris
Akunin have worked to change low brow communication forms (such as the mystery novel) into higher literary works of art by making constant references to one of

Bakhtins favorite subjects, Dostoyevsky.

6 Bibliography
Bakhtin, M.M. (1929) Problems of Dostoevskys Art,
(Russian) Leningrad: Priboj.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1963) Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics, (Russian) Moscow: Khudozhestvennaja literatura.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1968) Rabelais and His World.
Trans. Hlne Iswolsky. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1975) Questions of Literature and
Aesthetics, (Russian) Moscow: Progress.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1979) [The] Aesthetics of Verbal
Art, (Russian) Moscow: Iskusstvo.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1981) The Dialogic Imagination:
Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl
Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London:
University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1984) Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics. Ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late
Essays. Trans. Vern W. McGee. Austin, Tx: University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M.M. (1990) Art and Answerability. Ed.
Michael Holquist and Vadim Liapunov. Trans.
Vadim Liapunov and Kenneth Brostrom. Austin:
University of Texas Press [written 19191924, published 1974-1979]
Bakhtin, M.M. (1993) Toward a Philosophy of the
Act. Ed. Vadim Liapunov and Michael Holquist.
Trans. Vadim Liapunov. Austin: University of
Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M.M. (19962012) Collected Writings, 6
vols., (Russian) Moscow: Russkie slovari.
Bakhtin, M.M., V.D. Duvakin, S.G. Bocharov
(2002), M.M. Bakhtin: Conversations with V.D. Duvakin (Russian), Soglasie.
Bakhtin, M.M. (2004) Dialogic Origin and Dialogic Pedagogy of Grammar: Stylistics in Teaching Russian Language in Secondary School. Trans.
Lydia Razran Stone. Journal of Russian and East
European Psychology 42(6): 1249.
Bakhtin, M.M. (2014) Bakhtin on Shakespeare:
Excerpt from Additions and Changes to Rabelais.
Trans. Sergeiy Sandler. PMLA 129(3): 522537.

8 NOTES

See also
Dialogical Self
Hubert Hermans
Lev Vygotsky
Menippean satire
Nikolai Marr
Pavel Medvedev
Voskresenie

Notes

[1] Y. Mazour-Matusevich (2009), Nietzsches Inuence on

Bakhtins Aesthetics of Grotesque Realism, CLCWeb 11:2
[2] Bakhtin. Random House Websters Unabridged Dictionary.

[22] Holquist and Emerson 1981, p. 428

[23] Bakhtin
[24] Holquist, 1990
[25] Hirschkop, Ken; Shepherd, David G (1989), Bakhtin and
cultural theory, Manchester University Press ND, p. 8,
ISBN 978-0-7190-2615-7, retrieved 2011-04-26 Unlike
Kant, Bakhtin positions aesthetic activity and experience
over abstraction. Bakhtin also clashes with Saussures
view of langue is a 'social fact'", since Bakhtin views
Saussures society as a disturbing homogenous collective
[26] Holquist xxxii
[27] Holquist 1981, p. xxxiii
[28] Bakhtin 84
[29] Clark and Holquist 278
[30] Farmer xviii
[31] Holquist xi.

[3] Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson, Mikhail Bakhtin:

Creation of a Prosaics, Stanford University Press, 1990, p.
xiv.

[32] Holquist xiii.

[4] Maranho 1990, p.197

[34] Holquist xvii-xviii.

[5] Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist, Mikhail Bakhtin

(Harvard University Press, 1984: ISBN 0-674-57417-6),
p. 27.

[35] Holquist xix.

[6] Mikhail Bakhtin (Russian philosopher and literary critic)

- Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Britannica.com.
1975-03-07. Retrieved 2013-03-23.

[37] Bota and Bronckart.

[7] ". " (in Russian). polit.ru. Retrieved 26 November 2015.

[8] Holquist Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World p.10

[33] Holquist xv.

[36] Holquist xx-xxi.

[38] Brandist The Bakhtin Circle, 1-26

[39] Holquist Dialogism, p.183
[40] Peter Ludwig Berger Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience (1997) p.86

[10] Hirschkop 2

[41] Lipset, David and Eric K. Silverman (2005) Dialogics of

the Body: The Moral and the Grotesque in Two Sepik
River Societies. Journal of Ritual Studies 19 (2) 17-52.

[11] Liapunov xvii

[42] Clark and Holquist 3.

[12] Bakhtin 54

[43] Schuster 1-2.

[13] Bakhtin 41

[44] Klancher 24.

[14] Hirschkop 12-14

[45] Baxter, Leslie (2006). Communication as...: Perspectives

on theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. p. 101.

[9] Holquist xxi-xxvi

[15] Emerson and Morson

[16] Holquist xxv
[17] Clark and Holquist 297-299
[18] Iswolsky 1965, p. 92f.
[19] Holquist xxvi
[20] Maranho 1990, p.4
[21] James V. Wertsch (1998) Mind As Action

[46] Danow, David (1991). The Thought of Mikhail Bakhtin:

From Word to Culture. New York: St. Martins Press. pp.
34.
[47] Gary, Kim (2004). Mikhail Bakhtin: The philosopher of
human communication. The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology 12 (1): 5362 [54].
[48] Baxter, Leslie (2011). Voicing relationships: A dialogic
perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing, Inc.
p. 35.

[49] Kim, Gary. Mikhail Bakhtin: The philosopher of human communication (54).. The University of Western
Ontario Journal of Anthropology 12 (1): 5362.
[50] White, E.J. akhtinian dialogism: A philosophical and
methodological route to dialogue and dierence?" (PDF).
[51] Kim, Gary (2004). Mikhail Bakhtin: The philosopher
of human communication.. The University of Western
Ontario Journal of Anthropology 12 (1): 5362 [54].
[52] Bakhtin, Mikhail (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Texas: University of Austin. p. 91.
[53] Kim, Gary (2004). Mikhail Bakhtin: The philosopher of
human communication. The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology 12 (1): 5362 [54].
[54] Baxter, Leslie (2006). Communication as...:Perspectives
on theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing, Inc.
p. 102.
[55] Sheckels, T.F. (2006). Maryland politics and political
communication: 1950-2005. Lanham, MD: Lexington
Books. p. 35.
[56] Goodman, M.B. (1994). Corporate communication: Theory and Practice. Albany: SUNY. p. 242.
[57] Goodman, M.B. (1994). Corporate communication: Theory and Practice. Albany: SUNY. p. 249.

References
Boer, Roland (d), Bakhtin and Genre Theory in
Biblical Studies. Atlanta/Leiden, Society of Biblical
Literature/Brill, 2007.

Farmer, Frank. Introduction. Landmark Essays

on Bakhtin, Rhetoric, and Writing. Ed. Frank
Farmer. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1998. xixxiii.
Green, Barbara. Mikhail Bakhtin and Biblical Scholarship: An Introduction. SBL Semeia Studies 38.
Atlanta: SBL, 2000.
David Hayman Toward a Mechanics of Mode:
Beyond Bakhtin NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction,
Vol. 16, No. 2 (Winter, 1983), pp. 101120
doi:10.2307/1345079
Jane H. Hill The Reguration of the Anthropology
of Language (review of Problems of Dostoevskys
Poetics) Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Feb.,
1986), pp. 89102
Hirschkop, Ken. Bakhtin in the sober light of day.
Bakhtin and Cultural Theory. Eds. Ken Hirschkop
and David Shepherd. Manchester and New York:
Manchester University Press, 2001. 1-25.
Hirschkop, Ken. Mikhail Bakhtin: An Aesthetic
for Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1999.
Holquist, Michael. [1990] Dialogism: Bakhtin and
His World, Second Edition. Routledge, 2002.
Holquist, Michael. Introduction. Speech Genres
and Other Late Essays. By Mikhail Bakhtin. Eds.
Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986. ix-xxiii.

Bota, Cristian, and Jean-Paul Bronckart. Bakhtine

dmasqu: Histoire d'un menteur, d'une escroquerie
et d'un dlire collectif. Paris: Droz, 2011.

Holquist, Michael.
Introduction to Mikhail
Bakhtins The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.
Austin and London: University of Texas Press,
1981. xv-xxxiv

Brandist, Craig. The Bakhtin Circle: Philosophy, Culture and Politics London, Sterling, Virginia:
Pluto Press, 2002.

Holquist, M., & C. Emerson (1981). Glossary. In

MM Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by MM Bakhtin.

Carner, Grant Calvin Sr (1995) Conuence,

Bakhtin, and Alejo Carpentiers Contextos in Selena and Anna Karenina Doctoral Dissertation
(Comparative Literature) University of California at
Riverside.

Klancher, Jon. Bakhtins Rhetoric. Landmark Essays on Bakhtin, Rhetoric, and Writing. Ed. Frank
Farmer. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1998. 23-32.

Clark, Katerina, and Michael Holquist. Mikhail

Bakhtin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1984.
Emerson, Caryl, and Gary Saul Morson. Mikhail
Bakhtin. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Eds. Michael Groden, Martin
Kreiswirth and Imre Szeman. Second Edition 2005.
The Johns Hopkins University Press. 25 Jan. 2006
.

Liapunov, Vadim. Toward a Philosophy of the Act.

By Mikhail Bakhtin. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1993.
Lipset, David and Eric K. Silverman, Dialogics of
the Body: The Moral and the Grotesque in Two
Sepik River Societies. Journal of Ritual Studies Vol.
19, No. 2, 2005, 17-52.
Magee, Paul. 'Poetry as Extorreor Monolothe:
Finnegans Wake on Bakhtin'. Cordite Poetry Review
41, 2013.

10
Maranho, Tullio (1990) The Interpretation of Dialogue University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-22650433-6
Meletinsky, Eleazar Moiseevich, The Poetics of
Myth (Translated by Guy Lanoue and Alexandre
Sadetsky) 2000 Routledge ISBN 0-415-92898-2
Morson, Gary Saul, and Caryl Emerson. Mikhail
Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics. Stanford University
Press, 1990.
O'Callaghan, Patrick. Monologism and Dialogism
in Private Law The Journal Jurisprudence, Vol. 7,
2010. 405-440.
Pechey, Graham. Mikhail Bakhtin: The Word in the
World. London: Routledge, 2007. ISBN 978-0415-42419-6
Schuster, Charles I. Mikhail Bakhtin as Rhetorical
Theorist. Landmark Essays on Bakhtin, Rhetoric,
and Writing. Ed. Frank Farmer. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1998. 1-14.
Thorn, Judith. The Lived Horizon of My Being: The Substantiation of the Self & the Discourse
of Resistance in Rigoberta Menchu, Mm Bakhtin
and Victor Montejo. University of Arizona Press.
1996.
Townsend, Alex, Autonomous Voices: An Exploration of Polyphony in the Novels of Samuel
Richardson, 2003, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles,
Frankfurt/M., New York, Wien, 2003, ISBN 9783-906769-80-6 / US-ISBN 978-0-8204-5917-2
Sheinberg, Esti (2000-12-29). Irony, satire, parody
and the grotesque in the music of Shostakovich. UK:
Ashgate. p. 378. ISBN 0-7546-0226-5. Archived
from the original on 2007-10-17.
Vice, Sue. Introducing Bakhtin. Manchester University Press, 1997
Voloshinov, V.N. Marxism and the Philosophy of
Language. New York & London: Seminar Press.
1973
Young, Robert J.C., 'Back to Bakhtin', in Torn
Halves: Political Conict in Literary and Cultural
Theory Manchester: Manchester University Press;
New York, St Martins Press, 1996 ISBN 0-71904777-3
Mayerfeld Bell, Michael and Gardiner, Michael.
Bakhtin and the Human Sciences. No last words.
London-Thousand Oaks-New Delhi: SAGE Publications. 1998.
Michael Gardiner Mikhail Bakhtin. SAGE Publications 2002 ISBN 978-0-7619-7447-5.

10

EXTERNAL LINKS

Maria Shevtsova, Dialogism in the Novel and

Bakhtins Theory of Culture New Literary History,
Vol. 23, No. 3, History, Politics, and Culture (Summer, 1992), pp. 747763 doi:10.2307/469228
Stacy Burton Bakhtin, Temporality, and Modern
Narrative: Writing the Whole Triumphant Murderous Unstoppable Chute Comparative Literature,
Vol. 48, No. 1 (Winter, 1996), pp. 3964
doi:10.2307/1771629
Vladislav Krasnov Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky A
study in the Polyphonic Novel by Vladislav Krasnov
University of Georgia Press ISBN 0-8203-0472-7
Maja Soboleva: Die Philosophie Michail Bachtins.
Von der existentiellen Ontologie zur dialogischen
Vernunft. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2009.
(French) Jean-Paul Bronckart, Cristian Bota:
Bakhtine dmasqu : Histoire d'un menteur, d'une
escroquerie et d'un dlire collectif, Editeur : Droz,
ISBN 2-600-00545-5

10 External links
The Bakhtin Circle, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Bakhtin Centre (University of Sheeld)
A Bakhtin prole (James P. Zappen)
Bakhtin Timeline
INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY - The
Battle over Mikhail Bakhtin by Matt Steinglass in
Lingua Franca (April 1998)
Philology in Runet. A special search through the M.
M. Bakhtins works.
Carnival, Carnivalesque and the Grotesque Body
Bakhtin and Religion: A Feeling for Faith
excerpts from Rabelais and his world
Page on Bakhtin with a photo
Absurdist Monthly Review - The Writers Magazine
of The New Absurdist Movement
Polyphony of Brothers Karamazov likened to Bach
fugue [Shockwave Player required]
Description of Bakhtins work and how it was discovered by Western scholars
Languagehat blog on the veracity of the smoking
incident

11

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