Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) was a Russian philosopher and literary theorist. His work, and that of his group represents a broad project of an anti-Stalinist view of Marxism from within a Stalinist USSR. He and they made significant contributions to philosophy, literary theory, linguistics, psychology, politics, communication as well as many other disciplines.
Arguably chief among his contributions, his theory of dialogism is focused on the idea that culture, or even existence itself, is inherently responsive, involving individuals acting at a particular point in time and space, in reaction to what has gone and before and in expectation of what is to follow.
Discussions appropriate for this list include:
- The life of Mikhail Bakhtin
- The Bakhtin group (consisting of Volosinov, Medvedev), and his
influence on later critics including Kristeva, Todorov, Barthes and
British Marxist theory and finally Marxist post-modernism.
- Bakhtin in relation to Soviet politics
- questions of attribution regarding publications by the Bakhtin group
- specific works written by or attributed to Bakhtin and the group.
- Significant themes discussed by Bakhtin such as:
The goal of this list is primarily to encourage and facilitate discussion as it organically develops from subscribers' common interests. We hope to ensure that discussion is not limited to simply the discussion of one theorist but also includes in-depth discussion of the ideas contained in the theory.
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