7/28/2019 bakhtins dialogic imagination review.pdf http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/bakhtins-dialogic-imagination-reviewpdf 1/4 American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages Dialogism. Bakhtin and His World by Michael Holquist Review by: Anne Nesbet The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, 1993), pp. 122-124 Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/308638 . Accessed: 11/04/2013 04:49 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Slavic and East European Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 115.111.184.44 on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:49:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
Dialogism. Bakhtin and His World by Michael HolquistReview by: Anne NesbetThe Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, 1993), pp. 122-124Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/308638 .
Accessed: 11/04/2013 04:49
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages is collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to The Slavic and East European Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 115.111.184.44 on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:49:19 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
to add tohismanyroles otherwise eftlyovered)thatof honestman of abour truiennik).The callus on theback of his neck (fromyearsoftossing ack Isabella wine) is hilarious,
spoofon thework-gnarled andsofpositiveheroes,somethingmore thanthepaean to the"physicalflowering"f an octogenariandiscoveredby too earnest a readingof Rabelais.Whilethe(ik storiesdo indeedrepresent hepsychological ortrait fthe1930s at its mostintensenIskander, heypale besidehisautobiographicalales,whose subtle ngenuityendsto be lost under this kind of treatment. s are Tali's magic,Maxaz's stoicdignity, engiz'sbravado, and several other facets of the trulyfolk,genuinelyfunny nd oftenpreachyChegem.Still, ndelineatingo well the darker ide of skander,vanova has aid theground-workfor eeinghis real achievementsntheir roper ight.
She has also shownus Iskander as he is understood ya liberal ntelligentsiaassionatelycommitted o renewal nthehumanisticpirit f Russian iterature.ntriguingomments ntheGogolian underpinningsf "Goatibex" are backed byresearch ntoKhrushchev's ornand cosmonauts
mystique;a dissectionof the 'micronovella' tructure f "Three Princes
Carouse" takes time out to consider tsAesopian codingof the Mane' scandal; even the
polemicsof theglasnost'era are captured n her spirited ebuttal o Kazincev (of theNas'Sovremennikamp) and his attackon what he saw as therussophobia f "RabbitsandBoaConstrictors."fthehistoryf Russian iteraturen theSovietperiod s nowto be re-thought,then vanova has begunto sketch n thesocio-literaryutlinesof Iskander'stime: themanhimselfheplaces inthe "fourth eneration";hispoeticdebutduring heThawmakeshim n'archaist' o the innovators' fEvtugenko ndcompany;hisproseofthe 1960sreflectshe de-
varnishingdealismofTvardovskij'sNovyjmir; he disenchanted 970sfind im arving utamiddle groundbetween that journal's liberal-democratictance and the best of "neo-
populism";then oo he forms artofa generalretreat ntopsychologicalsolationism; inally,he has contributed o the
"gathering loom" represented ysuch
socially-concernedorks f
the 1980s as Astaf'ev's Pecal'nyjdetektiv nd Ajtmatov'sPlaxa. There is even one briefcomment n the "alternative oute" skandertook out ofthe deological mpasseofsocialist
realism,--alternative,hat s, to theavant-garde. hismaybe Ivanova'sonlynod to Russia's
rising ost-modernist ovement, ut ike so many ther f herrapid-firellusions, t s rich nits mplications. aughtervs. Fear s a stimulatingook; readersof skanderwillbe prodded,joltedorstungby tssheerpanache,butcertainly ot ndifferent.
Laura Beraha,MemorialUniversity
Michael Holquist. Dialogism.Bakhtinand his World. London: Routledge, 1990. 204 pp.,$13.95 (paper).
In the ast fewyearsbooks about the ifeand worksof MikhailBakhtinhavefallen,forthemostpart, nto twobasicsubgenres: hecollection farticles,nwhich Bakhtin" s shown ostand for and to inspire) dizzying rray f deas and approaches;and thesyntheticmono-
graph, n which Bakhtin" s shown orepresent moreor less unified hilosophical tance,theoreticalwhole, to which one mightprofitably ive a Name ("prosaics," "dialogism").MichaelHolquist's Dialogismbelongs o the secondcategory,s theauthorhimself oints ut
earlyon. "This book," he says, "is 'synoptic'because it treats all the texts of Bakhtin'sdifferent
tyles,periods,and even names
(the disputedtexts of
Kanaev, Medvedev,and
Voloshinov)as a singlebody of work,a positionnow possible because somethingike acomplete anon hasemerged" 11). After brief utvery sefulntroductionoBakhtin'sife,HolquistbreaksBakhtin's houghtnto seriesofthematicallyrganized hapters"Existenceas dialogue," "Language as dialogue," "Novelnessdialogue," "The dialogueofhistorynd
This content downloaded from 115.111.184.44 on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:49:19 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
poetics,"and "Authoring s dialogue") whichfocus on suchproblems s "self and other,"Bakhtin'splace in linguistic heory, henovel as a genre,the"chronotope," nd "pointof
view." All these variousaspectsof Bakhtinian houghtHolquistties nto a synthetic holeunder herubricwhich erves s thetitle f his book: "dialogism."Thisprocessof"summingup" Holquist abelswith Bakhtinian erm, consummation," wordsignifyingas Holquistputs t) "a kindofgift hatone participantn theongoing ialogueofhistoryould bestowonthe other" 11).
It maybe early yetto try o "consummate" r "finalize" hebodyof work we knowas"Bakhtin."For one thing, ow"complete" s the canon to whichHolquistrefers?Giventhe
vagariesofSoviethistory, akhtin's orpus-like thatofso manyof hiscontemporaries-isfull f acunae: missingmanuscripts,manuscriptseviseddecades after heir irst ritingndtherefore ard to date,manuscripts otgenerallyvailablebut seen or edited or interpretedbya luckyfew.Unlikethe run-of-the-millextual orpus,however,Bakhtin'sbodyof work
has the additional complicatingfeatureof several extra limbs: those texts by Kanaev,Medvedev,and Voloshinovwhich ome attributeo Bakhtinhimselfnd some do not. Thedebateoverthese"disputed exts" s alreadyold and never ikely o be settled o all partici-pants'utter atisfaction; olquist himself eems rather iredofthe wholeargument, ayingonly hat this s not theplace togo into he rcanaof thedispute" 8). Thevery mportancefthe"disputed exts" especially he books ofV.N. Voloshinov) oHolquist'sconstructionf a
synoptic akhtinwouldseem,however, o force hedebateback to the surface.All but thelastcouple ofpages ofHolquist'sthird hapter "Language as Dialogue"), for nstance, rebased exclusively n Voloshinov's exts.Since theworkof Voloshinov s muchmoreovertlymotivated y political oncerns han hat f Bakhtin an observationwhich emains rue venif "Voloshinov" s justa name and notan author), ts use hereas a central artofa seamless
Bakhtinianwhole seems arring. For example,when Voloshinov nsists n thought eingakind f nner peech,a pointvery mportantoHolquist,hedoes so toopenwhatFreud calledthe unconscious o thehealthy ight fsocialdialogue-and so toreestablish he direct owerlines of communication etween state and individual.This is not an entirely enevolent
procedure nd in Voloshinov'swork s not cast in terms f a critique f totalitarianisms
Holquistseems to suggest, p. 52-53.)Holquist is an exceedingly houghtfulnterpreterf Bakhtin and is well aware of the
dangers fsacrificing eterogeneous parts"to thebenefit f a homogenous whole,"but hefeelsverystronglyhat "if we are to continue to think bout his work in a way that suseful . . somewaymustbe found o conceivehis variedactivitys a unity,withoutosingsight f thedynamicheterogeneityf his achievement"15). Holquistthusraisesthefunda-mental
uestionof
whata "useful"Bakhtinmightooklike-and how
that usefulness" s tobe shown r udged. (Does Bakhtin ease to be "useful" fone acknowledgeshat ome of histerms eem tohaveno singledefinitive eaning, hathisearlyworkdiffersnemphasis nd intone fromhis laterwork,that the Bakhtiniancorpus is a wonderfully ragmented,venmonstrous, ody?)The questionat the heartofHolquist'sDialogism, tseems tome,iswhythe work of Mikhail Bakhtin,for all its lacunae, mysteries, nclearmoments, nd evenoccasionaldownrightuselessness" continues o challenge, nspire, nd provokeus so. Hol-
quisttacklesthisquestion openlyat thebeginningf his fifthhapter;here he considers hedemandsmade of iteraryheories ndmethodologieshat heybe "useful" or evenmarket-able) and comes to a gentler eappraisal f Bakhtin'susefulness nthe author's wnscholarlylife: "An immersionnBakhtin'sthoughtwill ndeed transformhewayone reads,butonlyafter ome timehas
elapsed,and in
waysthat re not
predictable"108).The insightfuleadingsof literaryexts Frankenstein,Notes of a Madman," TheGreatGatsby)whichHolquist appends to certainchapters eem designedto demonstratehowBakhtin'sthoughtmaybe usefulto literarynalysis n this atter,ess "predictable," pirit.Holquist's nterpretationsf iterature o not seemdirectlyndebted oBakhtinianheory r
This content downloaded from 115.111.184.44 on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:49:19 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
terminology,ndyet heyblendquitenicelynto he arger ontext fHolquist'sexposition fwhathe terms dialogism."
Perhapsthe true value of Michael
Holquist's Dialogismlies in its
presentationf
yetanother isionof that world": another consummation"f Bakhtin's houghtwelldeservingofa place intheever-growingakhtinian ialogue.WhenHolquist speaksofconsummationas a kind of "gift,"he fails to mentionthat elsewhere "Author and Hero in Aesthetic
Activity") akhtin oncludes hat the form f the aesthetic onsummation f an individual"is "death" (131). Althoughthe man Bakhtin has been dead for some time,Bakhtinian
thought,till lipperynd verymuch live-as thisbook continues o demonstrate-escapesany attempt o "consummate" t once and for all. Each attempt, owever, dds somethingvery aluable to thegreater ialogue,andHolquist'sDialogismwill ertainlye welcomedbyall thosemany eadersfascinated ythemanyfacesof MikhailBakhtin.
AnneNesbet,Universityf California, erkeley
GeorgeS.N. Luckyj. UKRAINIAN LITERATURE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: AREADER'S GUIDE. Toronto: The U. of TorontoPress, 1992. 136pp. $40.00/$18.95.
The author uccinctlyescribeshis ntentions or hisbook inthepreface: It is an attempto
surveythe major literary rends,the chiefauthors,and theirworks,as seen againstthehistoricalbackgroundof the present century" vii). The volumesuccessfullyoes this: it
comprises fact-packed ompendium fnames,datesand titles f authors nd theirworks;
brief assagesofquotations rom he iteraryriticismn majorworks ndauthors; s well asdiscussions f prominentiteraryrendswithin he context f thevicissitudes fUkrainian
historywith tsconcomitant oliticalreality. o his credit he authorde-emphasizes hedrekthatwas socialist ealism.
Luckyjdividesthe book intoeight hapters hat ssentially ollow chronological ormat.The firsteginswith hetransitionaryeriodfrom ealism oUkrainianmodernism ttheturnofthecenturynd concludeswith he1917revolution.Mostprominent uring hisperiodoftransition ere the writers van Franko,Lesja Ukrajinka,andMyxajloKocjubyns'kyj.Thelatternparticular, master fprose,deservesgreater ecognitionnd extensive omparativestudyn the West.The secondchapter oversthe brief ost-revolutionarykrainian ulturalrevival,which became what 6migr6 riticJurijLavrynenkoabeled "the executed renais-
sance." Duringthisperiod a pleiad of stellarfigures merged, ncluding heprosewritersMykolaXvyl'ovyj ndValerijanPidmohyl'nyj;heplaywrightykolaKuli' andthe dramatistLes' Kurbas; and an extraordinary umber of world-classpoets including avlo Tycyna,MykolaBa'an, BohdanAntonyc, ndMaksymRyl's'kyj.All of thesefigureseserve consid-erable attentionnworld iteraturelasses,but as yethave rarely ound heirway nto com-
parative iteratureyllabi n the West. This short-lived enaissancewas squelchedfirst ymassivepurgesofUkrainian ntellectuals nd laterbytheStalin-instigatedamine f 1932-3thatkilledover 7 millionpeople. Chapter II brieflyoversthe"highlights"f theUkrainianredactionof socialismrealism.Luckyj pointsout that his initial stimate f 254 Ukrainianwriters illedduring hepurges, ecently,ccording o Russiansources,hasbeen increased o500: nearlyhalfofthe number fSoviet writersiquidated.
Chapter V discusses hepost-Stalinistthaw" from 953to 1972,focusingnthe "sixtiers"generation fwriters,mostly oets,who ushered nanotherUkrainian ultural enaissance.Major figuresn thisgroup includedVasyl' Symonenko, van Dra6, and Lina Kostenko.Luckyjmarks he start f theUkrainiandissidentmovementn1964with heend of thethaw,and tracesthefate and writingsf significantiguresikeVjadeslavCornovil, van Dzjuba,
This content downloaded from 115.111.184.44 on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:49:19 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions