| Title | : | Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0804718229 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780804718226 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 552 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 1990 |
Small wonder, then, that Bakhtin should have speculated on the relations among received notions of biography, unity, innovation, and the creative process. Unity—with respect not only to individuals but also to art, culture, and the world generally—is usually understood as conformity to an underlying structure or an overarching scheme. Bakhtin believed that this idea of unity contradicts the possibility of true creativity. For if everything conforms to a preexisting pattern, then genuine development is reduced to mere discovery, to a mere uncovering of something that, in a strong sense, is already there. And yet Bakhtin accepted that some concept of unity was essential. Without it, the world ceases to make sense and creativity again disappears, this time replaced by the purely aleatory. There would again be no possibility of anything meaningfully new. The grim truth of these two extremes was expressed well by Borges: an inescapable labyrinth could consist of an infinite number of turns or of no turns at all.
Bakhtin attempted to rethink the concept of unity in order to allow for the possibility of genuine creativity. The goal, in his words, was a "nonmonologic unity," in which real change (or "surprisingness") is an essential component of the creative process. As it happens, such change was characteristic of Bakhtin's own thought, which seems to have developed by continually diverging from his initial intentions. Although it would not necessarily follow that the development of Bakhtin's thought corresponded to his ideas about unity and creativity, we believe that in this case his ideas on nonmonologic unity are useful in understanding his own thought—as well as that of other thinkers whose careers are comparably varied and productive.
Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics Reviews
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All I can and will say with regard to Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a prosaic, with regard to this this absolutely brilliant critical analysis of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin and his work, his theoretical base, is that authors Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson not only make the often difficult and unapproachable Bakhtin both readable and much more easily understandable, but that also and much appreciatively, they especially make clear and concise Mikhail Bakhtin's novel (no pun intended) concept of multi-voicedness, of dialogism in literature.
And yes, I made use of said very concept (dialogism as presented, as featured by Bakhtin) as an integral part of my methodology for my PhD dissertation on Paul Zech (basically claiming that Zech's oeuvre is dialogic, that his work shows and presents the same type of multiple voices as envisioned and as claimed by Mikhail Bakhtin) and I can most definitely claim and categorically state that Morson's and Emerson's Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics was (aside from Bakhtin's own standard and well-known Problems of Dostoyevsky's Poetics) my main and also my most quoted and cited secondary source (well, with regard to my methodology), and without which, both understanding Mikhail Bakhtin as a literary theorist and then transferring his theories and his concept of multiple dialogic textual voices into and onto the pre-exile prose of Paul Zech would have been considerably more difficult and likely even impossible. One of the absolute best and yes, most readable (and with that I mean easily grasped and comprehended) tomes on Bakthinian literary theory and criticism I have read to date, if you are at all interested in the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, and if you are in particular at all interested in the latter's concept of multi-voicedness and dialogism, I strongly, no I absolutely and most strongly do recommend Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics (which I for one truly consider a both literary and philosophical masterpiece). -
Before Bakhtin, this Bakhtin reader is required reading, at least for this lazy reader, who had fallen into slumberous ways. But, I was cured by Burgess and Morson/Emerson. So, I'm ready to tackle Bakhtin in the original, because this Bakhtin reader was extremely helpful and very enjoyable, but never simplistic.
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801.95092 M886 1990
