Re: [xmca] Bakhtin/Volosinov

[Phil Chappell <philchappell@mac.com>]

The English blurb (below) suggests obstinacy among some scholars, Mike. I'm only kicking myself that I can't read French. There will surely be some critical reviews - I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Phil

Mikhaïl Bakhtine came to be considered the « greatest literary specialist of the twentieth century » after the publication of his older manuscripts and the claim that he was the actual author of the 1920s texts by Medvedev and Voloshinov. A veritable Bakhtine literary industry grew out of this focusing on the unity and coherence of his work. Archival publications and interviews with Bakhtine released at the end of the century demonstrated that he had in fact lied about his biography and falsified and plagiarized texts. Jean-Paul Bronckart and Cristian Bota examine Bakhtine's motivations, the actual origin of the texts he claimed, as well as the obstinacy of some scholars in continuing the tradition of Bakhtine’s genius.


On 19/09/2011, at 1:25 PM, mike cole wrote:

> Fascinating, Phil.
> What in the world do people like Michael Holquist have to say about this
> matter??
> mike
> 
> On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 3:44 PM, Phil Chappell <philchappell@mac.com> wrote:
> 
>> Apologies for cross posting: thought this might be of interest to some
>> folks here.
>> 
>> Phil
>> 
>> Just a note, for those of you who read a bit of French, to alert you to an
>> important new book by our colleague Jean-Paul Bronkart (whose work I was
>> belatedly introduced to through his participation in ISFC 38 in Lisbon in
>> July).
>> 
>> The book argues convincingly that Bakhtin lied about being the author of
>> Voloshinov’s Marxism and the Philosophy of Language and Medvedev’s The
>> Formal Method in Literary Scholarship, calls into serious question his
>> authorship of Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, and shows that the key
>> concepts in famous papers such as ‘The problem of speech genres’ were
>> plagiarised from Voloshinov.
>> 
>> I am embarrassed to have been caught up myself in this scandal, having
>> quoted over and over again in talks and publications a couple of passages
>> from ‘The problem of speech genres’, wrongly crediting them to Bakhtin.
>> I guess it is time for us all to read Marxism and the Philosophy of
>> Language carefully again, give credit where credit is due, and start winding
>> back this longstanding intellectual charade.
>> 
>> Bronckart, J-P & C Bota 2011 Bakhtine démasqué: histoire d’un menteur,
>> d’une escroquerie et d’un délire collectif. Geneve: Librairie Droz.
>> 
>> Our thanks for Jean-Paul for this wonderful piece of scholarship.
>> 
>> Jim (Martin)__________________________________________
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