I'm counting this for my reading challenge of 2012, even if I only read the 150 pages that dealt with "Das Wort im Roman". I find it very difficult to rate Bakhtin, because his work really is rather difficult to get through and some paragraphs needed several rereads for me to even get a slight idea what Mr. Bakhtin was getting at. It's also not exactly a fun read, it's rather philosophical, and I'm just not sure how to rate it for Goodreads.
The theory discussed in Bakhtin's text itself is wildly fascinating, however. It deals with "Redevielfalt", a term that has also become known as polyphony in English, which is a name borrowed from the musicology. It basically states that within a novel, the writer combines several voices, which has the result that you get different points of view in the novel. He explains more about the different languages, his set-up of his ideas, the various speeches a writer can use to achieve polyphony and the faults in literary research so far (that is, until 1934/1935) in the 5 chapters dealing with "Das Wort im Roman" or, the word in the novel.
The idea is interesting and fascinating to work with, but it's difficult to get your head around what Bakhtin actually wanted. In those moments it's probably best to remember that I haven't heard of anyone so far who fully understood what Bakhtin was getting at. It's part of the frustration in reading it, but also part of the challenge. Though I've cursed myself quite often for choosing a subject for a paper that includes polyphony, which forced me to read, summarize and understand this work of Bakhtin's, I'm sure that when the stress is over I'll look back on this work fondly and think it over in regards to other books I've read, as well.