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American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

Dialogism. Bakhtin and His World by Michael HolquistReview by: Anne NesbetThe Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, 1993), pp. 122-124Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

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122 Slavic and East European Journal

to add tohismanyroles otherwise eftlyovered)thatof honestman of abour truiennik).The callus on theback of his neck (fromyearsoftossing ack Isabella wine) is hilarious,

spoofon thework-gnarled andsofpositiveheroes,somethingmore thanthepaean to the"physicalflowering"f an octogenariandiscoveredby too earnest a readingof Rabelais.Whilethe(ik storiesdo indeedrepresent hepsychological ortrait fthe1930s at its mostintensenIskander, heypale besidehisautobiographicalales,whose subtle ngenuityendsto be lost under this kind of treatment. s are Tali's magic,Maxaz's stoicdignity, engiz'sbravado, and several other facets of the trulyfolk,genuinelyfunny nd oftenpreachyChegem.Still, ndelineatingo well the darker ide of skander,vanova has aid theground-workfor eeinghis real achievementsntheir roper ight.

She has also shownus Iskander as he is understood ya liberal ntelligentsiaassionatelycommitted o renewal nthehumanisticpirit f Russian iterature.ntriguingomments ntheGogolian underpinningsf "Goatibex" are backed byresearch ntoKhrushchev's ornand cosmonauts

mystique;a dissectionof the 'micronovella' tructure f "Three Princes

Carouse" takes time out to consider tsAesopian codingof the Mane' scandal; even the

polemicsof theglasnost'era are captured n her spirited ebuttal o Kazincev (of theNas'Sovremennikamp) and his attackon what he saw as therussophobia f "RabbitsandBoaConstrictors."fthehistoryf Russian iteraturen theSovietperiod s nowto be re-thought,then vanova has begunto sketch n thesocio-literaryutlinesof Iskander'stime: themanhimselfheplaces inthe "fourth eneration";hispoeticdebutduring heThawmakeshim n'archaist' o the innovators' fEvtugenko ndcompany;hisproseofthe 1960sreflectshe de-

varnishingdealismofTvardovskij'sNovyjmir; he disenchanted 970sfind im arving utamiddle groundbetween that journal's liberal-democratictance and the best of "neo-

populism";then oo he forms artofa generalretreat ntopsychologicalsolationism; inally,he has contributed o the

"gathering loom" represented ysuch

socially-concernedorks f

the 1980s as Astaf'ev's Pecal'nyjdetektiv nd Ajtmatov'sPlaxa. There is even one briefcomment n the "alternative oute" skandertook out ofthe deological mpasseofsocialist

realism,--alternative,hat s, to theavant-garde. hismaybe Ivanova'sonlynod to Russia's

rising ost-modernist ovement, ut ike so many ther f herrapid-firellusions, t s rich nits mplications. aughtervs. Fear s a stimulatingook; readersof skanderwillbe prodded,joltedorstungby tssheerpanache,butcertainly ot ndifferent.

Laura Beraha,MemorialUniversity

Michael Holquist. Dialogism.Bakhtinand his World. London: Routledge, 1990. 204 pp.,$13.95 (paper).

In the ast fewyearsbooks about the ifeand worksof MikhailBakhtinhavefallen,forthemostpart, nto twobasicsubgenres: hecollection farticles,nwhich Bakhtin" s shown ostand for and to inspire) dizzying rray f deas and approaches;and thesyntheticmono-

graph, n which Bakhtin" s shown orepresent moreor less unified hilosophical tance,theoreticalwhole, to which one mightprofitably ive a Name ("prosaics," "dialogism").MichaelHolquist's Dialogismbelongs o the secondcategory,s theauthorhimself oints ut

earlyon. "This book," he says, "is 'synoptic'because it treats all the texts of Bakhtin'sdifferent

tyles,periods,and even names

(the disputedtexts of

Kanaev, Medvedev,and

Voloshinov)as a singlebody of work,a positionnow possible because somethingike acomplete anon hasemerged" 11). After brief utvery sefulntroductionoBakhtin'sife,HolquistbreaksBakhtin's houghtnto seriesofthematicallyrganized hapters"Existenceas dialogue," "Language as dialogue," "Novelnessdialogue," "The dialogueofhistorynd

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Reviews 123

poetics,"and "Authoring s dialogue") whichfocus on suchproblems s "self and other,"Bakhtin'splace in linguistic heory, henovel as a genre,the"chronotope," nd "pointof

view." All these variousaspectsof Bakhtinian houghtHolquistties nto a synthetic holeunder herubricwhich erves s thetitle f his book: "dialogism."Thisprocessof"summingup" Holquist abelswith Bakhtinian erm, consummation," wordsignifyingas Holquistputs t) "a kindofgift hatone participantn theongoing ialogueofhistoryould bestowonthe other" 11).

It maybe early yetto try o "consummate" r "finalize" hebodyof work we knowas"Bakhtin."For one thing, ow"complete" s the canon to whichHolquistrefers?Giventhe

vagariesofSoviethistory, akhtin's orpus-like thatofso manyof hiscontemporaries-isfull f acunae: missingmanuscripts,manuscriptseviseddecades after heir irst ritingndtherefore ard to date,manuscripts otgenerallyvailablebut seen or edited or interpretedbya luckyfew.Unlikethe run-of-the-millextual orpus,however,Bakhtin'sbodyof work

has the additional complicatingfeatureof several extra limbs: those texts by Kanaev,Medvedev,and Voloshinovwhich ome attributeo Bakhtinhimselfnd some do not. Thedebateoverthese"disputed exts" s alreadyold and never ikely o be settled o all partici-pants'utter atisfaction; olquist himself eems rather iredofthe wholeargument, ayingonly hat this s not theplace togo into he rcanaof thedispute" 8). Thevery mportancefthe"disputed exts" especially he books ofV.N. Voloshinov) oHolquist'sconstructionf a

synoptic akhtinwouldseem,however, o force hedebateback to the surface.All but thelastcouple ofpages ofHolquist'sthird hapter "Language as Dialogue"), for nstance, rebased exclusively n Voloshinov's exts.Since theworkof Voloshinov s muchmoreovertlymotivated y political oncerns han hat f Bakhtin an observationwhich emains rue venif "Voloshinov" s justa name and notan author), ts use hereas a central artofa seamless

Bakhtinianwhole seems arring. For example,when Voloshinov nsists n thought eingakind f nner peech,a pointvery mportantoHolquist,hedoes so toopenwhatFreud calledthe unconscious o thehealthy ight fsocialdialogue-and so toreestablish he direct owerlines of communication etween state and individual.This is not an entirely enevolent

procedure nd in Voloshinov'swork s not cast in terms f a critique f totalitarianisms

Holquistseems to suggest, p. 52-53.)Holquist is an exceedingly houghtfulnterpreterf Bakhtin and is well aware of the

dangers fsacrificing eterogeneous parts"to thebenefit f a homogenous whole,"but hefeelsverystronglyhat "if we are to continue to think bout his work in a way that suseful . . somewaymustbe found o conceivehis variedactivitys a unity,withoutosingsight f thedynamicheterogeneityf his achievement"15). Holquistthusraisesthefunda-mental

uestionof

whata "useful"Bakhtinmightooklike-and how

that usefulness" s tobe shown r udged. (Does Bakhtin ease to be "useful" fone acknowledgeshat ome of histerms eem tohaveno singledefinitive eaning, hathisearlyworkdiffersnemphasis nd intone fromhis laterwork,that the Bakhtiniancorpus is a wonderfully ragmented,venmonstrous, ody?)The questionat the heartofHolquist'sDialogism, tseems tome,iswhythe work of Mikhail Bakhtin,for all its lacunae, mysteries, nclearmoments, nd evenoccasionaldownrightuselessness" continues o challenge, nspire, nd provokeus so. Hol-

quisttacklesthisquestion openlyat thebeginningf his fifthhapter;here he considers hedemandsmade of iteraryheories ndmethodologieshat heybe "useful" or evenmarket-able) and comes to a gentler eappraisal f Bakhtin'susefulness nthe author's wnscholarlylife: "An immersionnBakhtin'sthoughtwill ndeed transformhewayone reads,butonlyafter ome timehas

elapsed,and in

waysthat re not

predictable"108).The insightfuleadingsof literaryexts Frankenstein,Notes of a Madman," TheGreatGatsby)whichHolquist appends to certainchapters eem designedto demonstratehowBakhtin'sthoughtmaybe usefulto literarynalysis n this atter,ess "predictable," pirit.Holquist's nterpretationsf iterature o not seemdirectlyndebted oBakhtinianheory r

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124 Slavic and East European Journal

terminology,ndyet heyblendquitenicelynto he arger ontext fHolquist'sexposition fwhathe terms dialogism."

Perhapsthe true value of Michael

Holquist's Dialogismlies in its

presentationf

yetanother isionof that world": another consummation"f Bakhtin's houghtwelldeservingofa place intheever-growingakhtinian ialogue.WhenHolquist speaksofconsummationas a kind of "gift,"he fails to mentionthat elsewhere "Author and Hero in Aesthetic

Activity") akhtin oncludes hat the form f the aesthetic onsummation f an individual"is "death" (131). Althoughthe man Bakhtin has been dead for some time,Bakhtinian

thought,till lipperynd verymuch live-as thisbook continues o demonstrate-escapesany attempt o "consummate" t once and for all. Each attempt, owever, dds somethingvery aluable to thegreater ialogue,andHolquist'sDialogismwill ertainlye welcomedbyall thosemany eadersfascinated ythemanyfacesof MikhailBakhtin.

AnneNesbet,Universityf California, erkeley

GeorgeS.N. Luckyj. UKRAINIAN LITERATURE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: AREADER'S GUIDE. Toronto: The U. of TorontoPress, 1992. 136pp. $40.00/$18.95.

The author uccinctlyescribeshis ntentions or hisbook inthepreface: It is an attempto

surveythe major literary rends,the chiefauthors,and theirworks,as seen againstthehistoricalbackgroundof the present century" vii). The volumesuccessfullyoes this: it

comprises fact-packed ompendium fnames,datesand titles f authors nd theirworks;

brief assagesofquotations rom he iteraryriticismn majorworks ndauthors; s well asdiscussions f prominentiteraryrendswithin he context f thevicissitudes fUkrainian

historywith tsconcomitant oliticalreality. o his credit he authorde-emphasizes hedrekthatwas socialist ealism.

Luckyjdividesthe book intoeight hapters hat ssentially ollow chronological ormat.The firsteginswith hetransitionaryeriodfrom ealism oUkrainianmodernism ttheturnofthecenturynd concludeswith he1917revolution.Mostprominent uring hisperiodoftransition ere the writers van Franko,Lesja Ukrajinka,andMyxajloKocjubyns'kyj.Thelatternparticular, master fprose,deservesgreater ecognitionnd extensive omparativestudyn the West.The secondchapter oversthe brief ost-revolutionarykrainian ulturalrevival,which became what 6migr6 riticJurijLavrynenkoabeled "the executed renais-

sance." Duringthisperiod a pleiad of stellarfigures merged, ncluding heprosewritersMykolaXvyl'ovyj ndValerijanPidmohyl'nyj;heplaywrightykolaKuli' andthe dramatistLes' Kurbas; and an extraordinary umber of world-classpoets including avlo Tycyna,MykolaBa'an, BohdanAntonyc, ndMaksymRyl's'kyj.All of thesefigureseserve consid-erable attentionnworld iteraturelasses,but as yethave rarely ound heirway nto com-

parative iteratureyllabi n the West. This short-lived enaissancewas squelchedfirst ymassivepurgesofUkrainian ntellectuals nd laterbytheStalin-instigatedamine f 1932-3thatkilledover 7 millionpeople. Chapter II brieflyoversthe"highlights"f theUkrainianredactionof socialismrealism.Luckyj pointsout that his initial stimate f 254 Ukrainianwriters illedduring hepurges, ecently,ccording o Russiansources,hasbeen increased o500: nearlyhalfofthe number fSoviet writersiquidated.

Chapter V discusses hepost-Stalinistthaw" from 953to 1972,focusingnthe "sixtiers"generation fwriters,mostly oets,who ushered nanotherUkrainian ultural enaissance.Major figuresn thisgroup includedVasyl' Symonenko, van Dra6, and Lina Kostenko.Luckyjmarks he start f theUkrainiandissidentmovementn1964with heend of thethaw,and tracesthefate and writingsf significantiguresikeVjadeslavCornovil, van Dzjuba,

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