Whenever Bakhtin, in his final decade, was queried about writing his memoirs, he shrugged it off. Unlike many of his Symbolist generation, Bakhtin was not fascinated by his own self-image. This reticence to tell his own story was the point of access for Viktor Duvakin, Mayakovsky scholar, fellow academic, and head of an oral history project, who in 1973 taped six interviews with Bakhtin over twelve hours. They remain our primary source of Bakhtin’s personal views:  on formative moments in his education and exile, his reaction to the Revolution, his impressions of political, intellectual, and theatrical figures during the first two decades of the twentieth century, and his non-conformist opinions on Russian and Soviet poets and musicians. Bakhtin's passion for poetic language and his insights into music also come as a surprise to readers of his essays on the novel. One remarkable thread running through the conversations is Bakhtin's love of poetry, masses of which he knew by heart in several languages. Mikhail Bakhtin: The Duvakin Interviews, 1973, translated and annotated here from the complete transcript of the tapes, offers a fuller, more flexible image of Bakhtin than we could have imagined beneath his now famous texts. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

This book is a unique scholarly attempt to examine Don Quixote from multiple angles to see how the re-accentuation of the world's greatest literary hero takes place in film, theatre, and literature. To accomplish this task, eighteen scholars from the USA, Canada, Spain, and Great Britain have come together, and each of them has brought his/her unique perspective to the subject. For the first time, Don Quixote is discussed from the point of re-accentuation, i.e. having in mind one of the key Bakhtinian concepts that will serve as a theoretical framework. A primary objective was therefore to articulate, relying on the concept of re-accentuation, that the history of the novel has benefited enormously from the re-accentuation of Don Quixote helping us to shape countless iconic novels from the eighteenth century, and to see how Cervantes's title character has been reinterpreted to suit the needs of a variety of cultures across time and space.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Soviet philologist, literary dissident, and university professor Viktor Duvakin made it his mission to interview the members of the artistic avant-garde who had survived the Russian Revolution, Stalin's purges, and the Second World War. Based on archival materials held at the Moscow State University Library, Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors catalogues six interviews conducted by Duvakin. The interviewees talk about their most intimate life experiences and give personal accounts of their interactions with famous writers and artists such as Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sergei Eisenstein, and Marina Tsvetaeva. They offer insights into the world of Russian emigrants in Prague and Paris, the uprising against the Communist government, what it was like to work at the United Nations after the Second World War, and other important aspects of life in the Soviet Union and Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Archival photographs, as well as hundreds of annotations to the text, are included to help readers understand the historical and cultural context of the interviews. The unique and previously unpublished materials in Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors will be of great interest to anyone who wants to learn more about this fascinating period in Soviet history.

This book aims to examine the heritage of Victor Shklovsky in a variety of disciplines. To achieve this end, we drew upon colleagues from eight different countries across the world - USA, Canada, Russia, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Hong Kong - in order to bring the widest variety of points of view on the subject. But we also wanted this book to be more than just another collection of essays of literary criticism: we invited scholars from different disciplines - literature, cinematography, and philosophy - who have dealt with Shklovsky's heritage and saw its practical application in their fields. Therefore, all these essays are written in a variety of humanist academic and scholarly styles, all engaging and dynamic.

Art and Answerability, the work that would become Mikhail Bakhtin's literary manifesto, was first published in Den Iskusstva (The Day of the Art) on September 13, 1919. Mikhail Bakhtin's Heritage in Literature, Arts, and Psychology: Art and Answerability celebrates one hundred years of Bakhtin's heritage. This unique book examines the heritage of Mikhail Bakhtin in a variety of disciplines. To articulate the enduring relevance and heritage of the varied works of Bakhtin, sixteen scholars from eight countries have come together, and each has brought his/her unique perspective to the subject. Bakhtin's work in aesthetics, moral philosophy, linguistics, psychology, carnival, cognition, contextualism, and the history and theory of the novel are present here, as understood by a wide variety of distinguished scholars.

This volume focuses on the literary and artistic exploration of female friendship in various geographical contexts, spanning the centuries from the medieval period until the present. The essays address the intense female bonding in world literature as a universal human need for intimacy, sense of belonging, and purpose. The main focus is on the reevaluation of friendships between women, which have been traditionally less epitomized than those between men. The authors of this volume demonstrate how the emotional unions of women offer compelling insights to various historical and contemporary societies, helping us understand gender relations, traditions, family life, and community values.

This book examines the heritage of Victor Shklovsky in a variety of disciplines. To achieve this end, Slav N. Gratchev and Howard Mancing draw upon colleagues from eight different countries across the world-the United States, Canada, Russia, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, and China-in order to bring the widest variety of points of view on the subject. Viktor Shklovsky's Heritage in Literature, Arts, and Philosophy is more than just another collection of essays of literary criticism: the editors invited scholars from different disciplines-literature, cinematography, and philosophy-who have dealt with Shklovsky's heritage and saw its practical application in their fields. Therefore, all of these essays are written in a variety of humanist academic and scholarly styles, all engaging and dynamic.

Art and Answerability, the work that would become Mikhail Bakhtin's literary manifesto, was first published in Den Iskusstva (The Day of the Art) on September 13, 1919. Mikhail Bakhtin's Heritage in Literature, Arts, and Psychology: Art and Answerability celebrates one hundred years of Bakhtin's heritage. This unique book examines the heritage of Mikhail Bakhtin in a variety of disciplines. To articulate the enduring relevance and heritage of the varied works of Bakhtin, sixteen scholars from eight countries have come together, and each has brought his/her unique perspective to the subject. Bakhtin's work in aesthetics, moral philosophy, linguistics, psychology, carnival, cognition, contextualism, and the history and theory of the novel are present here, as understood by a wide variety of distinguished scholars.

This book is the first scholarly attempt to examine Don Quixote from the angle of dialogism and polyphony. To begin with, although Mikhail Bakhtin considered Dostoevsky the "creator of a polyphonic novel," we believe that the first elements of polyphony can be observed in Cervantes' Don Quixote. A preliminary objective will therefore be to articulate, without reducing the role of Dostoevsky in the creation of the polyphonic novel and relying on Bakhtin's interpretation of polyphony, heteroglossia, and multivoicedness, that the polyphonic structure appeared and evolved to a state of relative maturity centuries before Dostoevsky. The book will subsequently explore how and why the polyphonic structure was born within the classic monophonic structure of Don Quixote, the ways in which this new structure positioned itself in relation to the classic monophonic one, and what relations it may be said to have established with it resulting in a unique amalgam-the hybrid semi-polyphonic novel. An overarching concern throughout the project will be to trace Cervantes' search for new and more sophisticated expressive possibilities that the old, monophonic narration could not offer, while also shedding light on how Cervantes systematically and deliberately employed polyphonic structure in Don Quixote.

The Poetics of the Avant-garde in Literature, Arts, and Philosophy presents a range of chapters written by a highly international group of scholars from disciplines such as literary studies, arts, theatre, and philosophy to analyze the ambitions of avant-garde artists. Together, these essays highlight the interdisciplinary scope of the historic avant-garde and the interconnected of its artists. Contributors analyze topics such as abstraction and estrangement across the arts, the imaginary dialogue between Lev Yakubinsky and Mikhail Bakhtin, the problem of the “masculine ethos� in the Russian avant-garde, the transformation of barefoot dancing, Kazimir Malevich’s avant-garde poetic experimentations, the ecological imagination of the Polish avant-garde, science-fiction in the Russian avant-garde cinema, and the almost forgotten history of the avant-garde children’s literature in Germany. The chapters in this collection open a new critical discourse about the avant-garde movement in Europe and reshape contemporary understandings of it.

Whenever Bakhtin, in his final decade, was queried about writing his memoirs, he shrugged it off. Unlike many of his Symbolist generation, Bakhtin was not fascinated by his own self-image. This reticence to tell his own story was the point of access for Viktor Duvakin, Mayakovsky scholar, fellow academic, and head of an oral history project, who in 1973 taped six interviews with Bakhtin over twelve hours. They remain our primary source of Bakhtin’s personal views:  on formative moments in his education and exile, his reaction to the Revolution, his impressions of political, intellectual, and theatrical figures during the first two decades of the twentieth century, and his non-conformist opinions on Russian and Soviet poets and musicians. Bakhtin's passion for poetic language and his insights into music also come as a surprise to readers of his essays on the novel. One remarkable thread running through the conversations is Bakhtin's love of poetry, masses of which he knew by heart in several languages. Mikhail Bakhtin: The Duvakin Interviews, 1973, translated and annotated here from the complete transcript of the tapes, offers a fuller, more flexible image of Bakhtin than we could have imagined beneath his now famous texts. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

This book is a unique scholarly attempt to examine Don Quixote from multiple angles to see how the re-accentuation of the world's greatest literary hero takes place in film, theatre, and literature. To accomplish this task, eighteen scholars from the USA, Canada, Spain, and Great Britain have come together, and each of them has brought his/her unique perspective to the subject. For the first time, Don Quixote is discussed from the point of re-accentuation, i.e. having in mind one of the key Bakhtinian concepts that will serve as a theoretical framework. A primary objective was therefore to articulate, relying on the concept of re-accentuation, that the history of the novel has benefited enormously from the re-accentuation of Don Quixote helping us to shape countless iconic novels from the eighteenth century, and to see how Cervantes's title character has been reinterpreted to suit the needs of a variety of cultures across time and space.

This book reflects the spirit of times-when the most dramatic events of the 20th century were happening in Russia and the USSR. A transcription and translation of a 1967-68 interview with the founder of the Formalist School of literary theory, Viktor Shklovsky, this volume offers a slice of Russian micro-history, like the contributions of Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg but even more trustworthy because it relies on the living voice of that history. Through the transcription of a six-hour phono-document, the readers hear the voice of a real participant in events that for the longest time in the USSR were forbidden to discuss or write about. Shklovsky, besides being a well-known and brilliant literary theorist, was a friend and interlocutor of many famous people whose lives and deaths, up to these days, remain a mystery to us. Through these informal dialogues that are not constrained by censorship or fear, we will be able to shed some more light on the real characters, instincts, habits, and views of those people. By "listening" to these dialogues, readers will see the reflection of history in the eyes of a real witness who, in most cases, was just a good fellow citizen and suffered during those times, like thousands of others.