What do you know on Bakhtin's work?

Question

What is his masterpiece?

I was really into F. de Saussure; but now I'm getting into Bakhtin, you know. His propositions on language, philosophy, society, culture... are pretty factual.

He's a marxist thinker, which is good.

What do you tell us about him? Pls, now copy sth from Wikpedia or ... say what you know, if you know; and if you really know what you know.

Tnx


Ie - b r a z i l

Answer 1

I supppose his most central work is "The Dialogic Imagination," but he became influential (at least in the West) with specific literay studies of Dostoyevsky and Rabelais. He is one of those interesting figuers on the border of philosphy and literary criticism. As I remember it, he made a nice move from traditional Marxist dialectics and Russian formalism to sort of a polyphonic version of the same. I think the book on Rabelais and carnival / misrule is wonderful, whether or not you buy his picture of carnival as accurate for Rabelais' time.

Answer 2

he wasn't marxist in the first place. .. another thing: during the stalingrad battle he was isolated in his room with lots of tobacco but without paper. so he smoked the only copy of his masterwork on the bildungsroman...