Mikhail Bakhtin: The Duvakin Interviews, 1973

In his final decade, Bakhtin was not fascinated by his own self-image. Viktor Duvakin, Mayakovsky scholar, and head of an oral history project, taped six interviews with Bakhtin in 1973, which remain our primary source of his personal views. Bakhtin's passion for poetic language and insights into music surprise readers of his essays on the novel. The Duvakin Interviews offers a fuller, more flexible image of Bakhtin than we could have imagined.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 340 pages
\n Publication date: 30 July 2019
\n Publisher: Rutgers University Press
\n

In his later years, when asked about writing his memoirs, Mikhail Bakhtin shrugged it off. Unlike many of his Symbolist contemporaries, Bakhtin showed little fascination with his own self-image. This reticence to share his own story opened the door for Viktor Duvakin, a Mayakovsky scholar, fellow academic, and the head of an oral history project. In 1973, Duvakin conducted six extensive interviews with Bakhtin over a span of twelve hours. These interviews remain our primary source of insight into Bakhtin's personal views. They cover 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.

What is particularly striking about the conversations is Bakhtin's profound love for poetic language. He possessed a vast knowledge of poetry, memorizing vast masses of it in multiple languages. Throughout the interviews, his enthusiasm for poetry shines through, adding a new dimension to our understanding of his literary and cultural interests.

The Duvakin Interviews, published by Bucknell University Press and distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press, presents a more comprehensive and nuanced portrayal of Bakhtin than what was previously imaginable. Through the meticulous translation andannotation of the complete transcript of the tapes, readers gain a deeper understanding of the man behind his renowned texts. This invaluable resource allows us to appreciate Bakhtin's intellectual journey and his profound contributions to the fields of literary theory, philosophy, and cultural studies.

\n Weight: 478g\n
Dimension: 212 x 148 x 19 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781684480906\n \n