Bakhtin and the Human Sciences

No Last Words

Michael Mayerfeld Bell editor Michael Gardiner editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:SAGE Publications Inc

Published:7th Aug '98

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Bakhtin and the Human Sciences cover

Bakhtin and the Human Sciences demonstrates the abundance of ideas Bakhtin′s thought offers to the human sciences, and reconsiders him as a social thinker, not just a literary theorist. The contributors hail from many disciplines and their essays′ implications extend into other fields in the human sciences. The volume emphasizes Bakhtin′s work on dialogue, carnival, ethics and everyday life, as well as the relationship between Bakhtin′s ideas and those of other important social theorists.

In a lively introduction Gardiner and Bell discuss Bakhtin′s significance as a major intellectual figure and situate his ideas within current trends and developments in social theory.

What are we to make of Bakhtin? Nearly twenty years after his death, the full richness of his ideas has still not been digested. For many people working in the social sciences he remains a mysterious and impenetrable writer. Many are conscious hat his ideas are relevant for sociology and cultural studies, but would be hard pressed to give chapter and verse. Others regard Bakhtin to be figure who contributed to the literary and philologic fields of study.

This accessible and thoughtful text aims to demonstrate the relevance of Bakhtin to the human sciences. It argues that most of the current literature has been characterized by a superficial appropriation of Bakhtinian ideas and neologisms. What has been neglected is a serious engagement with his core ideas and a sustained reflection on their implications for social and cultural theory.

A lively introduction discusses the importance of Bakhtin as a major intellectual figure and situates his ideas in current theoretical trends and developments. This is followed by essays from a diverse group of contributors, organized around the four main themes in Bakhtin′s work: dialogics, carnivals, conversations and ethics and everyday life.

Bakhtin and the Human Sciences is an accurate and insightful attempt to extend Bakhtin′s ideas into the mainstream social sciences and to reconsider Bakhtin as a social thinker, not just a literary theorist.

ISBN: 9780761955290

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 500g

256 pages