Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was born in the city of Oryol, Russia, to a family of nobility. His father managed a bank and moved the family across several cities during his early years. The young Bakhtin spent time in Vilnius before settling in Odessa. It was here that he joined the historical and philological faculty at the local university in 1913. Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist describe Odessa as an appropriate setting for a man who would become the philosopher of heteroglossia and carnival. They note that the same sense of fun and irreverence found in Babel's Rabelaisian gangster or Ostap Bender left its mark on him. Later, Bakhtin transferred to Petrograd Imperial University to join his brother Nikolai. At this new institution, he came under the influence of the classicist F. F. Zelinsky. Zelinsky's works contained the beginnings of concepts that Bakhtin would later elaborate upon.
Bakhtin completed his studies in 1918 and moved to the small city of Nevel in western Russia. He worked there as a schoolteacher for two years while the first Bakhtin Circle formed around him. This group consisted of intellectuals with varying interests but shared a love for discussing literary, religious, and political topics. Valentin Voloshinov and Matvei Isaevich Kagan were among the members. Lev Vasilievich Pumpianskii and Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinskii also joined the circle. P. N. Medvedev eventually became part of the group later in Vitebsk. Vitebsk served as a cultural center of the region where Bakhtin and other intellectuals organized lectures, debates, and concerts. German philosophy was the topic discussed most frequently during these gatherings. From this point forward, Bakhtin considered himself more a philosopher than a literary scholar. In Nevel, he also worked tirelessly on a large work concerning moral philosophy that was never published in its entirety. A short section of this work appeared in 1919 under the title Art and Responsibility. This piece constitutes Bakhtin's first published work.
In 1924, Bakhtin moved to Leningrad and assumed a position at the Historical Institute. He provided consulting services for the State Publishing House during this period. Just before his essay On the Question of the Methodology of Aesthetics in Written Works could be published, the journal stopped publication. The work would not appear until 51 years later. Repression and misplacement of his manuscripts plagued Bakhtin throughout his career. On the 8th of December 1928, Meyer, Bakhtin, and others associated with Voskresenie were apprehended by the Soviet secret police known as the OGPU. Leaders received sentences of up to ten years in labor camps of Solovki. After an appeal considering his health, Bakhtin's sentence was commuted to exile in Kazakhstan. He and his wife spent six years in Kustanai. During these six years working as a bookkeeper, he wrote several important essays including Discourse in the Novel. In 1936, they moved to Saransk where Bakhtin taught at the Mordovian Pedagogical Institute. Later, in 1923, Bakhtin was diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a bone disease that ultimately led to amputation of a leg in 1938. This illness hampered his productivity but helped him evade worse punishment after his arrest.
Toward a Philosophy of the Act was first published in the USSR in 1986 under the title K filosofii postupka. The manuscript written between 1919 and 1921 was found in bad condition with pages missing and sections of text illegible. Consequently, this philosophical essay appears today as a fragment of an unfinished work. It comprises only an introduction with missing pages and part one of the full text. Bakhtin provided an outline in the introduction stating the essay was to contain four parts. The first part analyzes performed acts or deeds that comprise the world actually experienced. For the three subsequent unfinished parts, Bakhtin stated topics he intended to discuss. The second part would have dealt with aesthetic activity and ethics of artistic creation. The third focused on the ethics of politics while the fourth covered religion. Toward a Philosophy of the Act reveals a Bakhtin developing his moral system by decentralizing the work of Kant. He lays out three claims regarding acknowledgment of uniqueness of participation in Being. He states I both actively and passively participate in Being. My uniqueness is given but exists only to degree actualized in performed act. Because I am actual and irreplaceable I must actualize my uniqueness.
During his time in Leningrad, Bakhtin shifted his view away from early philosophy toward notion of dialogue. He began engagement with work of Fyodor Dostoevsky at this time. Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics is considered his seminal work introducing many important concepts. Originally published in Russia as Problems of Dostoevsky's Creative Art in 1929, it was revised and extended in 1963 under new title. It is later work best known in West. Concept of unfinalizability particularly important to analysis of Dostoevsky approach to character. Nothing conclusive has yet taken place in world according to Bakhtin summary. Ultimate word about world not yet spoken. World open and free everything still future. On individual level person can never be entirely externally defined. Ability to never fully enclosed by others objectifications essential to subjective consciousness. Though external finalization inevitable even necessary it can never whole truth devoid living response. Bakhtin critical of monologic tradition in Western thought seeking finalize humanity. He argues Dostoevsky always wrote opposition ways thinking turn human beings into objects. He saw degrading reification of person soul discounting freedom and unfinalizability.
During World War II Bakhtin submitted dissertation on French Renaissance writer François Rabelais which defended years later. Controversial ideas caused much disagreement leading decision deny him higher doctorate. Thus due content Rabelais and Folk Culture Middle Ages Renaissance not published until 1965 given title Rabelais and His World. In this classic of Renaissance studies Bakhtin concerns himself with openness of Gargantua and Pantagruel. Throughout text he seeks recover sections ignored or suppressed past. He conducts analysis Renaissance social system discover balance language permitted versus language not permitted. By means analysis pinpoints two important subtexts first carnival described as social institution second grotesque realism defined literary mode. In Rabelais and His World Bakhtin studies interaction between social and literary meaning body material bodily lower stratum. Intentionally refers distinction official festivities folk festivities. While official aim supply legacy authority folk have critical centrifugal social function. Carnival categorized folk festivity by Bakhtin. In chapter history laughter advances notion therapeutic liberating force arguing laughing truth degraded power.
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Common questions
Where was Mikhail Bakhtin born and what university did he attend in 1913?
Mikhail Bakhtin was born in the city of Oryol, Russia. He joined the historical and philological faculty at the local university in Odessa in 1913.
When did Mikhail Bakhtin write Discourse in the Novel during his exile?
Bakhtin wrote several important essays including Discourse in the Novel while spending six years in Kustanai between 1928 and 1934. This period followed his arrest on the 8th of December 1928 by the Soviet secret police known as the OGPU.
What is the publication history of Mikhail Bakhtin's work Rabelais and His World?
Rabelais and His World was not published until 1965 despite being defended as a dissertation during World War II. The book contains controversial ideas that led to disagreement and the denial of a higher doctorate for Mikhail Bakhtin.
Who are the true authors of works attributed to Mikhail Bakhtin such as Marxism and the Philosophy of Language?
Most scholars agree that V. N. Voloshinov and P. N. Medvedev ought considered true authors of these works rather than Mikhail Bakhtin. Claims originated early 1970s received earliest full articulation English Clark Holquist 1984 biography Bakhtin.
When did Mikhail Bakhtin have his leg amputated due to osteomyelitis?
Mikhail Bakhtin was diagnosed with osteomyelitis in 1923 which ultimately led to amputation of a leg in 1938. This illness hampered his productivity but helped him evade worse punishment after his arrest on the 8th of December 1928.