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7/28/2019 bakhtins dialogic imagination review.pdf
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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
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122 Slavic and East European Journal
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
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Reviews 123
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
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124 Slavic and East European Journal
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,
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