Bakhtin and his circle: a checklist of English translations - Mikhail Bakhtin

The following is a listing of writings currently available in English by Mikhail Bakhtin, along with V. N. Voloshinov and P. N. Medvedev, two colleagues belonging to what is often described now as Bakhtin's "circle" or "school" during the 1920s. It would be understating things to say that the work of all three theorists has attracted a great deal of attention recently; a symptom of this is the fact that new Russian editions of their work, as well as translations of it into many languages, continue to pour forth. Partly because of the volume of new translations, and partly because of the bibliographic complexities of their Russian publication histories, I have found that it is much too difficult for an English-language reader of these writings to get a clear view of what is available in English and how exactly such translations relate to the Russian originals. This bibliography is intended to provide an interim guide of this sort--interim because it will soon be rendered incomplete by forthcoming editions and translations of the work of all three men. However, a reasonably complete and accurate survey of available material seemed worth attempting at this point, since so much has already been done to make the writings of Bakhtin and his associates available. It is my hope to issue supplements to this checklist as necessary, and I invite contributions from those who may discover omissions or mistakes.

The format of this bibliography is as follows. Part 1 lists all English-language volumes cited more than once in the remainder of the bibliography--volumes, that is, containing translations of two or more works by Bakhtin, Medvedev, or Voloshinov; these are listed alphabetically by the abbreviations under which they are subsequently cited.

Part 2, on Bakhtin, is subdivided into two sections, the first listing information on the three Russian anthologies of Bakhtin's work published (thus far) since his rehabilitation in the early 1960s; these are listed chronologically by date, and it is under these dates that they are cited in the second section of Part 2. This section, the core of the bibliography, lists each of Bakhtin's translated works chronologically by date of composition. In each entry, the title is followed by information about (a) initial publication; (b) appearance, where relevant, in the anthologies listed in the preceding section; and (c) English translation or translations. There are many complexities and perplexities here as to dating, chronology, titling, revisions, and so forth, as will be evident from even a glance at the entries. In particular it has been necessary to give some titles in brackets, when no English translation of the piece in question exists as such, or where the translated title diverges too greatly from the original. I will simply add that I have taken the information available in current translations and commentaries on Bakhtin's writings at face value, trying merely to set it all into some reasonably perspicuous order.

Part 3, finally, deals with Medvedev and Voloshinov, and here matters are somewhat simpler: their works are listed by date of original publication. The problem that has arisen with these writings in translation is whether some of them should be reattributed, partly or even fully, to Bakhtin; but again I have followed a policy of listing publication information as currently available to an English-language reader, without attempting to adjudicate.

In addition to the English works cited below, I have drawn heavily (and I hope, effectively) upon the following:

Clark, Katerina and Michael Holquist. Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984.

Holquist, Michael. Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World. London: Routledge, 1990.

Morson, Gary Saul, and Caryl Emerson. Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1990.

Todorov, Tzvetan. Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogical Principle. 1981. Trans. Wlad Godzich. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984.

1. ENGLISH COLLECTIONS: ABBREVIATIONS

AA Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist and Vadim Liapunov. Trans. Vadim Liapunov; Supplement trans. Kenneth Brostrom. Austin: U of Texas P, 1990.

BSP Bakhtin School Papers. Ed. Ann Shukman. Russian Poetics in Translation, vol. 10. Oxford: RPT Publications, 1983.

DI The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: U of Texas P, 1981.

PDP Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. Ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984.

RB Rethinking Bakhtin: Extensions and Challenges. Ed. Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1989.

RRP Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views. Ed. Ladislav Matejka and Krystyna Pomorska. Cambridge: MIT P, 1971; rpt. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications, 1978.

SG Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Ed. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Trans. Vern W. McGee. Austin: U of Texas P, 1986.

2. MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH BAKHTIN (1895-1975)

RUSSIAN COLLECTIONS

1975 Vosprosy literatury i estetiki: Issledovaniia raznykh let |Questions of Literature and Aesthetics: Essays from Various Years~. Ed. S. G. Bocharov. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura.

1979 Estetika slovesnogo tvorchestva |Aesthetics of Verbal Creativity~. Ed. S. G. Bocharov and A. A. Averintsev. Moscow: Iskusstvo.

1986 Literaturno-kritichieskie stat'i. |Articles in Literary Criticism~. Ed. S. G. Bocharov and V. V. Kozhinov. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura.

INDIVIDUAL WORKS

1919. "Art and Answerability." Pub. 1919; repub. 1977. 1979: 5-6, 1986: 3-4. AA 1-3 (trans. Liapunov).

1919-21. Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Pub. 1986. Ed. Michael Holquist and Vadim Liapunov. Trans. Vadim Liapunov. Austin: U of Texas P, 1993. Also summarized in RB: 5-29.

C.1920-23. "Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity." Parts pub. 1977, 1978. 1979: 7-180. "Supplementary Section." 1986: 5-25. AA 4-256 (trans. Liapunov). Ch. 7 rpt. in Tekstura: Russian Essays on Visual Culture. Ed. Alla Efimova and Lev Manovich: "The Spatial Form of a Character." Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. 37-44.

1924. |Supplement:~ "The Problem of Content, Material, and Form in Verbal Art." Part pub. 1974. 1975: 6-71, 1986: 26-89. AA 257-325 (trans. Brostrom). Extract: "Toward the Aesthetics of the Word." Trans. Kenneth N. Brostrom. Dispositio 4 (1977): 299-315.

1921-29. |Problems of Dostoevsky's Art.~ Pub. Leningrad, 1929; rev. ed.: Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. See below, 1963. Extract (of ch. 5): "Discourse Typology in Prose." Trans. Richard Balthazar and I. R. Titunik. RRP 176-96. Extract: "Three Fragments" (deleted from rev. ed.). 1979: 181-87. PDP, Appendix 1: 275-82.

1929. "Preface to Volume 11 |of Tolstoy, Works~: The Dramas." 1986: 90-99. Trans. Caryl Emerson. RB 227-36, 296-97.

1929. "Preface to Volume 13 |of Tolstoy, Works~: Resurrection." 1986: 100-20. Trans. Caryl Emerson. RB 237-57, 300-02.

1934-35. "Discourse in the Novel." Part pub. 1972. 1975: 72-233. DI 259-422.

1936-38. "The Bildungsroman and Its Significance in the History of Realism." 1979: 188-236. SG 10-59. Fragment of lost study: |The Novel of Education and Its Significance in the History of Realism~.

1937-38. "Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel: Notes toward a Historical Poetics." (Ch. X: "Concluding Remarks," 1973). Part pub. 1974. 1975: 234-407, 1986: 121-290. DI 84-258. Extracts (Introduction, Chs. I and X): "The Forms of Time and the Chronotopos in the Novel: From the Greek Novel to Modern Fiction." Trans. Wendy Rosslyn. PTL 3 (1978): 493-528.

1940. Dissertation: |F. Rabelais and the History of Realism~. Pub. (with additions): The Work of Francois Rabelais and the Popular Culture of the Middle Ages. See below, 1965.

1940. "The Art of the Word in the Culture of Folk Humor (Rabelais and Gogol'." Omitted ch. of dissertation. Rev. 1970; pub. 1973. 1975: 484-95. Trans. William Mandel. Studies in Soviet Literature 12 (1976): 27-39. Trans. Patricia Sollner: "Rabelais and Gogol: The Art of Discourse and the Popular Culture of Laughter." Mississippi Review 33 (1983): 34-50.

1940. "From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse." Parts pub. 1965, 1967. Rev. 1970. 1975: 408-46, 1986: 353-91. DI: 41-83. 1965 extract trans. Ann Shukman: "The Word in the Novel." Comparative Criticism Yearbook 2 (1980): 213-20.

1941. "Epic and Novel: Toward a Methodology for the Study of the Novel." Part pub. 1970. 1975: 447-83, 1986: 392-427. DI 3-40.

1952-53. "The Problem of Speech Genres." Part pub. 1978. 1979: 237-80, 1986: 428-72. SG 60-102.

1959-61. "The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and the Human Sciences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis." Part pub. 1976. 1979: 281-307, 1986: 473-500. SG 159-72. 1976 extract trans. William Mandel: "The Problem of the Text (An Essay in Philosophical Analysis)." Studies in Soviet Literature 14 (1977-78): 3-33.

1961. "Toward a Reworking of the Dostoevsky Book." Pub. 1977; 1979: 308-27. PDP, Appendix 2: 283-302.

1962, 1969. Letters to I. I. Kanaev on Goethe. 1979: 396-97 (in notes).

1963. Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics: 2nd ed., enl., Moscow (3rd ed., 1972; 4th ed., 1979). PDP. Extract (of Emerson trans.): "The Dismantled Consciousness: An Analysis of The Double." Dostoevsky: New Perspectives. Ed. Robert Louis Jackson. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1984. 19-34. Previous trans.: R. William Rotsel. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1973. Extract (ch. 5, section 2) of Rotsel trans. rev. Priscilla Meyer and Stephen Rudy: "The Hero's Monologic Discourse and Narrational Discourse in Dostoevsky's Early Novels." Dostoevsky & Gogol: Texts and Criticism. Ed. Meyer and Rudy. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1979. 249-72, 284-86.

1965. Rabelais and His World. Pub. Moscow. Introduction (3-67) rpt. in 1986: 291-352. Trans. Helene Iswolsky. Cambridge: MIT P, 1968; rpt. Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1984. Extract (of ch. 3): "The Role of Games in Rabelais." Yale French Studies 41 (1968): 124-32.

1970. "Response to a Question from the Novy Mir Editorial Staff." Pub. 1970 |title: "Make Bolder Use of Potential"~. 1979: 328-35, 1986: 501-08. SG 1-9.

1970. Internal review of L. E. Pinsky |Shakespeare~. 1979: 411-12 (in notes).

1970-71. Interview: "On the Polyphonic Nature of Dostoevsky's Works." Pub. (Polish) 1971, (Russian) 1975.

1970-71. "From Notes Made in 1970-71." 1979: 336-60. SG 159-72.

1973. "Concluding Remarks" (to "Forms of Time and of the Chronotope"). See above, 1937-38. DI 243-58.

3. WRITINGS BY OTHER CIRCLE MEMBERS

PAVEL NIKOLAEVICH MEDVEDEV (1892-1938)

"The Formal (Morphological) Method, or Scholarly Salieri-ism." 1924. Trans. Ann Shukman. BSP 51-65.

"Sociologism without Sociology (On the Methodological Works of P. N. Sakulin)." 1926. Trans. C. R. Pike. BSP 67-74.

"The Immediate Tasks Facing Literary-Historical Science." 1928. Trans. C. R. Pike. BSP 75-91. (author: "P. N. Medvedev |M. M. Bakhtin~"). Version of ch. 2 of The Formal Method.

The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship: A Critical Introduction to Sociological Poetics. Leningrad, 1928; rpt. New York, 1982 (author: "Mikhail Bakhtin"). Trans. Albert J. Wehrle. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1978 (authors: "P. N. Medvedev/M. M. Bakhtin"). Rpt. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1985 (authors: "M. M. Bakhtin/P. N. Medvedev"). Rpt. Johns Hopkins UP, 1991 (authors: "M. M. Bakhtin/P. N. Medvedev").

-----. Heavily rev. ed. pub. Leningrad, 1934: Formalism and the Formalists, with added ch.: "The Collapse of Formalism." 1934. Ch. ed. and trans. Mark Kaiser. Language and Literary Theory: Essays in Honor of Ladislav Matejka. Ed. Benjamin A. Stolz, I. R. Titunik, and Lubomir Dolezel. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Contributions, 1984. 405-41.

VALENTIN NIKOLAEVICH VOLOSHINOV (1894-1936)

"Discourse in Life and Discourse in Art." 1926. Trans I. R. Titunik. Freudianism. Appendix I: 93-116. Trans. John Richmond: "Discourse in Life and Discourse in Poetry." BSP 5-30 (author: "V. N. Voloshinov |M. M. Bakhtin~").

Freudianism: A Marxist Critique. Moscow-Leningrad, 1927; rpt. New York, 1983. Ed. I. R. Titunik and Neal H. Bruss. Trans. I. R. Titunik. New York: Academic P, 1976. Rpt. as Freudianism: A Critical Sketch. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987. Rpt. ed. adds ch. 10 of orig.: "A Critique of Marxist Apologias of Freudianism." Trans. Liv Tudge. Appendix II: 117-32.

"The Latest Trends in Linguistic Thought in the West." 1928. Trans. Noel Owen. BSP 31-49 (author: "V. N. Voloshinov |M. M. Bakhtin~"). Abstract of Marxism and the Philosophy of Language, Part II, chs. 1-3.

Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Leningrad, 1929; 2nd ed., 1930. Trans. Ladislav Matejka and I. R. Titunik. New York: Seminar P, 1973; rpt. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986. Extract (from chs. 2 and 3 of Part III): "Reported Speech." RRP 149-75. Ch. 1 of Part I: "The Study of Ideologies and Philosophy of Language" rpt. in Texstura: Russian Essays on Visual Culture. Ed. Alla Efimova and Lev Manovich. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. 1-9.

"Literary Stylistics." 1930. Trans. Noel Owen (parts 1 and 2) and Joe Andrew (part 3). BSP 93-152 (author: "V. N. Volshinov |M. M. Bakhtin~").

David Gorman is assistant professor of English at Northern Illinois University and the book review editor of Style; he has published essays on the history and theory of criticism in various anthologies and journals, including Poetics Today and Diacritics.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Northern Illinois University
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group