Not Really About Bakhtin

July 3, 2007

My interest in literary theory has so greatly waned that I could do no more than skim Terry Eagleton’s article on Mikhail Bakhtin. But it did remind me that I was, at one point, captivated by his work, particularly his thoughts on polyphony and “the carnival.”

But what I remember now is the reminiscence by a friend of how Bakhtin would lock himself in his tiny study and work and write for 14 hours or more a day, interrupting his concentration only occasionally to accept black tea and cheese sandwiches. That and the picture of his death mask. The austerity of the work and what little is left afterward.

Tags: Philosophy