Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (University of Texas Press Slavic Series, No 8)

Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: The best introduction to Bakhtin as he is at his mostprovocative and lucid form. The next book to read for those interestedin the man would be the Rabelais and the Dostoevsky book.

Rating:
Summary: Review of the Bildungsroman Book Fragment
Review: This Book, like almost everything Bakhtin wrote is profound and food for thought. Unfortunately, and this is the drawback with some of the English Language translations and compilations, it is also quite uneven, both in subject matter and content. The Reader should not be deterred. It is worth reading, because there are some fine insights buried in this book. --- I will only write about the so called Bildungroman Fragment here. It has become almost more legendary because of the fact that Bakhtin supposedly used the only surviving manuscript for Cigarette Papers and thus literally smoked his own work. However, any student of the Bildungsroman will immediately comrpehend its use in Bakhtin's reconstruction of the History of the Genre. Bakhtin begins with the origins in the 16th and 17th Centuries, and traces the development to the Classical Period of German Literature. Presumably, Goethes "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre" was to be the pinnacle of development, but this is a part that is lost. What is important is that Bakhtin not only correctly names the Novels of the Genre we all should know, by authors such as Wieland, Herder, Keller etc., but he also names several very important Novels which are usually forgotten, and have been branded as obscure or eccentric by Critics and Scholars. I will name three: Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel: "Lebensläufe in Aufstehender Linie", Johann Karl Wezel: "Lebensgeschichte Tobias Knauts, des Weisen sonst der Stammler genannt" and Jean Paul: "Titan". I would suggest that Bakhtin's Essay is of importance because thanks to him these three Novels are being rediscovered by todays' readers, they have entered the Discussion of Literary of Criticism and have taken their place in the History of the Bildungsroman, which they rightly deserve.

Rating:
Summary: Review of the Bildungsroman Book Fragment
Review: This Book, like almost everything Bakhtin wrote is profound and food for thought. Unfortunately, and this is the drawback with some of the English Language translations and compilations, it is also quite uneven, both in subject matter and content. The Reader should not be deterred. It is worth reading, because there are some fine insights buried in this book. --- I will only write about the so called Bildungroman Fragment here. It has become almost more legendary because of the fact that Bakhtin supposedly used the only surviving manuscript for Cigarette Papers and thus literally smoked his own work. However, any student of the Bildungsroman will immediately comrpehend its use in Bakhtin's reconstruction of the History of the Genre. Bakhtin begins with the origins in the 16th and 17th Centuries, and traces the development to the Classical Period of German Literature. Presumably, Goethes "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre" was to be the pinnacle of development, but this is a part that is lost. What is important is that Bakhtin not only correctly names the Novels of the Genre we all should know, by authors such as Wieland, Herder, Keller etc., but he also names several very important Novels which are usually forgotten, and have been branded as obscure or eccentric by Critics and Scholars. I will name three: Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel: "Lebensläufe in Aufstehender Linie", Johann Karl Wezel: "Lebensgeschichte Tobias Knauts, des Weisen sonst der Stammler genannt" and Jean Paul: "Titan". I would suggest that Bakhtin's Essay is of importance because thanks to him these three Novels are being rediscovered by todays' readers, they have entered the Discussion of Literary of Criticism and have taken their place in the History of the Bildungsroman, which they rightly deserve.