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The Cambridge Introduction to Mikhail Bakhtin
In this introduction to Mikhail Bakhtin, Ken Hirschkop presents a compact, readable, detailed, and sophisticated exposition of all of Bakhtin's important works. Using the most up-to-date sources and the new, scholarly editions of Bakhtin's texts, Hirschkop explains Bakhtin's influential ideas, demonstrates their relevance and usefulness for literary and cultural analysis, and sets them in their historical context. In clear and concise language, Hirschkop shows how Bakhtin's ideas have changed the way we understand language and literary texts. Authoritative and accessible, this Cambridge Introduction is the most comprehensive and reliable account of Bakhtin and his work yet available.
210 pages, Paperback
Published January 20, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 5, 2023
Ken Hirschkop’s Cambridge introduction to the work of theorist Mikhail Bakhtin is an incredible work that comes from a lifetime of scholarship. Hirschkop, in a rather short 160 pages, provides a succinct introduction to the enigmatic and ambiguous nature of Mikhail Bakhtin’s multifaceted work that has spawned many Bakhtins.
Hirschkop’s introduction is careful and critical, he provides a large portrait of Bakhtin, his work throughout his life, his intellectual and historical contexts and reception within the Soviet Union. Hirschkop brings in the growth of Bakhtin studies and how Bakhtin has been received between Anglo and Russian spheres, how most of what Anglo people have of Bakhtin’s work is a bastardisation of it (and we still do!) that cut up essays, places together notes as if they were genuine works made by Bakhtin, and then Bakhtin himself is of course an obtuse thinker — his work already causes so many ambiguities, questions, and problems that he himself never resolved.
The problem Hirschkop majorly outlines, in this introduction that also works as a sort of critical reflection on the state of Bakhtin studies, is how much Bakhtin’s own work has been distorted and used for certain ends by whatever trends scholars use him for. Hirschkop is always very careful in his own scholarship here and draws out how each of these Bakhtins are, indeed, a form of Bakhtin but perhaps not necessarily the Bakhtin. We have the religious Bakhtin, the quasi-Marxist Bakhtin, the philosophical Bakhtin, the literary critic Bakhtin, the linguistic Bakhtin, and even then Bakhtin, as Hirschkop shows us, has been used in cultural studies, feminist, and post colonial criticism. Whether Bakhtin is truly applicable doesn’t seem to matter to these scholars as, at least in the Anglophone sphere, he’s used in a way that matters for said theorist / scholar; given Bakhtin’s own ambiguities and sometimes complex obscurity, it’s hard to tell whether or not some of these scholars are using him “correctly” so to say, but of course the inherent ambiguity gives one many licenses to proliferate these many Bakhtins.
And then, Hirschkop outlines the problem of Russian scholarship. The Russians have, due to the work of young scholars who “rescued” Bakhtin, so to say, a collected scholarly edition of all of his works, no longer with distortions or outside edits / revisions / censors. Yet, even then the editors have tried to push the religious / nationalist Bakhtin that one can sense glimpses of in his early work dedicated to ethics, work that shows Bakhtin’s deep indebtedness to Neo-Kantianism and shades of religious thought that are used in a certain religious manner — it would be wrong to say he was using these concepts in secular means.
What really shines in Hirschkop’s introduction is, well, how well he does introduce one to Bakhtin’s life (basically gives us a cliff’s note of a critical biography that has been long overdue in the Anglo world), context, his work, and his reception. The chapters work well to establish a perfect narrative understanding of the complexity of both Bakhtin’s often turbulent life and his work. Although, at times, I felt like Hirschkop’s focus wasn’t too directed on Bakhtin’s work itself. The way he formats the Works section into concepts that he introduces, interprets, and then critiques is helpful, but it felt a little less focused than other the other parts, which is where Hirschkop truly shines. My particular favourite is the life section, as again, it highlights just how much we need a new critical biography of Bakhtin, one that now includes all the new scholarship on Bakhtin and his life.
But it does work as a good introduction. You may not get a full understanding of the work, I mean it is an introduction, most of the time it is better to just read and struggle with the work, but you will get something like a glimpse into the dialogic and heteroglossic complexities surrounding Bakhtin’s work, Bakhtin studies, and just how he has been interpreted and how that can matter for the current state of literary theory. I would recommend this to get into Bakhtin as, although it is a little meh on understanding his work, you’ll understand Bakhtin as a character and the ways in which his work has been used by many different theorist to mean many different things. Yes, 160 pages seems a little too short to provide a full introduction to such a complex thinker, but Hirschkop mostly does well. I think this would help anyone from novice Bakhtin reader to complex Bakhtin scholar. Hirschkop works to introduce Bakhtin and also the state of Bakhtin studies as it has come to be today, which I thought was an interesting touch to do. It’s not just focused on the thinker but how his work has been interpreted and used.
Hirschkop’s introduction is careful and critical, he provides a large portrait of Bakhtin, his work throughout his life, his intellectual and historical contexts and reception within the Soviet Union. Hirschkop brings in the growth of Bakhtin studies and how Bakhtin has been received between Anglo and Russian spheres, how most of what Anglo people have of Bakhtin’s work is a bastardisation of it (and we still do!) that cut up essays, places together notes as if they were genuine works made by Bakhtin, and then Bakhtin himself is of course an obtuse thinker — his work already causes so many ambiguities, questions, and problems that he himself never resolved.
The problem Hirschkop majorly outlines, in this introduction that also works as a sort of critical reflection on the state of Bakhtin studies, is how much Bakhtin’s own work has been distorted and used for certain ends by whatever trends scholars use him for. Hirschkop is always very careful in his own scholarship here and draws out how each of these Bakhtins are, indeed, a form of Bakhtin but perhaps not necessarily the Bakhtin. We have the religious Bakhtin, the quasi-Marxist Bakhtin, the philosophical Bakhtin, the literary critic Bakhtin, the linguistic Bakhtin, and even then Bakhtin, as Hirschkop shows us, has been used in cultural studies, feminist, and post colonial criticism. Whether Bakhtin is truly applicable doesn’t seem to matter to these scholars as, at least in the Anglophone sphere, he’s used in a way that matters for said theorist / scholar; given Bakhtin’s own ambiguities and sometimes complex obscurity, it’s hard to tell whether or not some of these scholars are using him “correctly” so to say, but of course the inherent ambiguity gives one many licenses to proliferate these many Bakhtins.
And then, Hirschkop outlines the problem of Russian scholarship. The Russians have, due to the work of young scholars who “rescued” Bakhtin, so to say, a collected scholarly edition of all of his works, no longer with distortions or outside edits / revisions / censors. Yet, even then the editors have tried to push the religious / nationalist Bakhtin that one can sense glimpses of in his early work dedicated to ethics, work that shows Bakhtin’s deep indebtedness to Neo-Kantianism and shades of religious thought that are used in a certain religious manner — it would be wrong to say he was using these concepts in secular means.
What really shines in Hirschkop’s introduction is, well, how well he does introduce one to Bakhtin’s life (basically gives us a cliff’s note of a critical biography that has been long overdue in the Anglo world), context, his work, and his reception. The chapters work well to establish a perfect narrative understanding of the complexity of both Bakhtin’s often turbulent life and his work. Although, at times, I felt like Hirschkop’s focus wasn’t too directed on Bakhtin’s work itself. The way he formats the Works section into concepts that he introduces, interprets, and then critiques is helpful, but it felt a little less focused than other the other parts, which is where Hirschkop truly shines. My particular favourite is the life section, as again, it highlights just how much we need a new critical biography of Bakhtin, one that now includes all the new scholarship on Bakhtin and his life.
But it does work as a good introduction. You may not get a full understanding of the work, I mean it is an introduction, most of the time it is better to just read and struggle with the work, but you will get something like a glimpse into the dialogic and heteroglossic complexities surrounding Bakhtin’s work, Bakhtin studies, and just how he has been interpreted and how that can matter for the current state of literary theory. I would recommend this to get into Bakhtin as, although it is a little meh on understanding his work, you’ll understand Bakhtin as a character and the ways in which his work has been used by many different theorist to mean many different things. Yes, 160 pages seems a little too short to provide a full introduction to such a complex thinker, but Hirschkop mostly does well. I think this would help anyone from novice Bakhtin reader to complex Bakhtin scholar. Hirschkop works to introduce Bakhtin and also the state of Bakhtin studies as it has come to be today, which I thought was an interesting touch to do. It’s not just focused on the thinker but how his work has been interpreted and used.
January 31, 2023
This is an effective introduction to Mikhail Bakhtin. He certainly lived an interesting life and is worth studying. Through reading this book, I am not certain I would enjoy reading his works. However, I have learned a good deal and am interested in various applications of his philosophy. If you asked me to succinctly state what his philosophy was, I couldn't do it after reading this book, but, the thing is, it seems like no one can. He is an enigma.
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September 14, 2023RK NOOK PERSONS_23_09
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews