CLS3830

Bakhtin and ethics: beyond structuralism

Millicent Vladiv-Glover

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of the course students should be familiar with the basic phenomenological concepts of the writings of M M Bakhtin and be able to demonstrate, through analysis of his texts or by applying his texts as analytic models, how his theoretical orientation transcends his native (Russian) Formalism and Structuralism (of the Lotman Tartu School) in the direction of modern (post-Kantian) ethics.

Synopsis The course will move from a simple problem statement in the form of the question: What is Bakhtin's and Lotman's structuralism like? to a more complex relational question, namely: how does Bakhtin's version of structuralism (in particular his work on the philosophy of the act) relate to ethics and Western critical theory from the 1960s to the 1990s? The new perspective from which the Bakhtin material will be illuminated will thus take the investigation beyond Structuralism.

Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words): 30%
* Seminar paper (2500 words): 40%
* Examination (2 hours): 30%
* Students may choose to convert the 2-hour examination into an additional essay of 2000 words.

Prescribed texts

Bakhtin M Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics Ardis, 1993
Bakhtin M The dialogic imagination U Texas P, 1981
Bakhtin M Towards a philosophy of the Act tr. V Liapunov, ed. V Liapunov and M Holquist, U Texas P, 1993
Kant I Critique of judgement tr. W S Pluhar, Hackett, 1987
Lotman Y Analysis of the poetic text tr. D B Johnson, Ardis, 1976
Levinas E Totality ad Infinity

Recommended reading

Mandelker A (ed.) Bakhtin in context: Across the disciplines Northwestern U P, 1995
Culler J Structuralist poetics Cornell U P, 1975
Eco U Semiotics and the philosophy of language London, 1984
Genette G Narrative discourse tr. J Lewin, Cornell U P, 1980 (original 1972)
Harland R Superstructuralism: The philosophy of structuralism and poststructuralism Methuen, 1987
Jameson F The prison-house of language: A critical account of structuralism and Russian formalism Princeton U P, 1972
Patterson D Literature and spirit: Bakhtin and his contemporaries U Kentucky P, 1988