Chapter 4 - Works

Summary

Bakhtin's reception was unusual, because he was unknown outside a small circle of Soviet scholars until the 1960s. This chapter describes his belated rehabilitation and recognition as a scholar. In the English-speaking world, he was initially understood as part of Russian Formalism, but after the publication of his essays on the novel in 1981, he became a theoretical icon and master thinker. Enthusiasm for Bakhtin was widespread, suspiciously so, as he was embraced by widely divergent schools and trends in the literary critical world. His status as a theortical 'cure' or alternative to post-structuralism is discussed, as is the interesting appropriation of his work by feminist and postcolonial criticism.