General Information
Course Description
9620 - Bakhtin and Social Thought - Michael Gardiner
This course will serve as an introduction to the work of the Russian philosopher and cultural theorist, Mikhail M. Bakhtin (1895-1975) along with the so-called ‘Bakhtin Circle' (N. N. Voloshinov in particular), and their influence on twentieth- and twenty-first century social and cultural theory. The course will be divided roughly into three parts: i) an examination of the central writings of Bakhtin and the Circle and the broader intellectual and sociohistorical trends that shaped his ideas; ii) an analysis of the core concepts and debates associated with him and the Circle, including carnival, dialogism, polyphony, and an ‘ethics of otherness'; and iii) a look at the diverse (and often conflicting) appropriations of his work in such traditions as Marxism, phenomenology, feminism, poststructuralism, and so forth, and such disciplines as cultural studies, linguistics, philosophy and sociology.
