A dialogical perspective of theory, method and analysis

Abstract

This text aims at presenting some of the aspects of Bakhtinian thought – i.e., of works carried out by Mikhail Bakhtin (1875-1975) and members of his Circle (notably V.N. Voloshinov and P.N. Medvedev) pointing to a dialogical perspective, both theoretical and methodologically speaking. This perspective, as well as the actual ideas of circle and authorship(s), was strengthened in the 1990’s, a time during which, their papers, after being discovered, re-discovered and translated, began to offer an ethical and aesthetic breadth to treat and conceive languages. Their works, whichever signature they hold (Bakhtin, Bakhtin/ Voloshinov, Medvedev), exhibit the engagement of research and of human beings facing the responsibility of being alive. Two books are examined in this paper: Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (1929), signed by Voloshinov, and Problems of Dostoievski Poetics (1929/1963), signed by Bakhtin.