Mikhail Bakhtin

As in other works, in "Discourse in the Novel," Bakhtin distinguishes the novel from other genres, such as poetry, through its multiplicity of voices. Novels are not univocal but dialogic:...

Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the grotesque is a key element of the larger project of grotesque realism. Bakhtin insists on the importance of confronting and even emphasizing the material qualities...

For Bakhtin, language is dialogic, meaning that no one person or group owns it; the meanings of words instead develop in the context of dialogues between different people. For Bakhtin, the basic...

Bakhtin argued that early Formalist and Structuralist critics did not articulate the "sociological stylistics" of literature. These critics focused too much on the unitary, abstract rules of...

It is true that Bakhtin is known mostly as a Formalist and Marxist literary theorist. One of Bakhtin's most famous works is Discourse in the Novel. In this work, he discusses heteroglossia, the...

Bakhtin believed that language should be studied for its dynamic, real life, elements of speech and social relations. He did not think, as some structuralists did, that language is an abstract...

For Saussure, who was the father of structuralist theory, language is a closed system of differential signs that are disconnected from history, a material that can be studied as a science/system of...

To Bakhtin, the novel stands apart from earlier forms such as the epic or lyric poem because it includes a multiplicity of voices. It is polyphonic, or made up of a blend of voices and dialects. It...

Formalist and early Structuralist thinkers failed to articulate a sociological, "living language" in their literary analyses. Bakhtin recognized this and referred to this mistake as a "monologic"...

"Heteroglossia" literally means "other voices" or "different voices." Bakhtin believed that the complexity and diversity of many different voices was overlooked in literary and sociological...

There are a couple of issues going on in this question. It seems to me that the best way to approach it is to take each one singularly and move from there. If we examine "heteroglossia" as the...

Bakhtin believed that the basic units of language, such as words or utterances, do not have abstract meanings but are instead affected by the speaker's relationships with other people and the...

Bakhtin's ideas of dialogism and double voicing are among several aspect of performative pragmatics, and they both aim to explain how the process of speaking, listening, and understanding are...

I tend to think that any discussion of Bakhtin is going to be complex and intricate. In true Bakhtin form, there is little that is simple and direct. Rather, much of his thinking is divergent and...

Bakhtin's ideas around language concern the way that he saw humans as being part of a community and his view that language meant they could never be viewed as being isolated from each other. Note...

In his seminal work, Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, Bakhtin developed his theory of the polyphonic novel in response to Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. He defines a polyphonic work as one...

Bakhtin's thought can be characterized as "unsystematic" for two reasons. First, Bakhtin's work spanned categories. He made major contributions to philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, and literary...