Molly Sween
The Dialogic Imagination
M.M. Bakhtin
Bakhtin’s why question: 1.) Why do we assume that a unified language exists? 2.) Why has
everyday language [internal diologism] been ignored as a research focus by linguistics and
stylistics (279)?
“The study of verbal art can and must overcome the divorce between an abstract “formal” approach and
an equally abstract “ideological” approach” (269).
Bakhtin’s motivational mechanism: Human expression (through language) is diverse and
should not be restricted by historical precedent or a false belief in the authority of a unified
language.
Theorist’s Vocabulary:
 Language: “a world view, even a concrete opinion, insuring a maximum of mutual
understanding in all spheres of ideological life” (271).
 Unitary Language: “a system of linguistic norms” which unites and centralizes verbalideological thought (271). This process creates a national language which is “opposed to the
realities of heteroglossia” (270).
 Heteroglossia: “are specific points of view of the world, forms for conceptualizing the world
in words, specific world views, each characterized by its own objects, meanings and values”
(291-292).
 Double-voice Discourse: two voices (with two intentions) at once; that of the character and
that of the author (324).
 Style: fundamental/creative relationship of discourse to 1.) its object, 2.) speaker himself, and
3.) another’s discourse (378) [differs between poetry and novel].
Language as Stratified [Comparison: Unitary Language]
 Language stratified by …
o specifics of language-i.e. linguistic dialects and phonetics [reflection of European
language].
o social-ideological factors-i.e. languages of social groups, professional vs. generic, and
languages of generations [his focus].
Poetry vs. Novel
 Poetry
o Consists of “one unitary and indisputable discourse” (286).
o “Many worlds of language…is organically denied to poetic style” (286).
 Novel
o “…denies the absolutism of a single and unitary language” (366).
o Is cognizant of social languages and “begins by presuming a verbal and semantic
decentering of the ideological world” (367).
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Poet’s inward gaze:
1 Language
Poet vs. Novel Gaze
Novelist’s outward gaze:
Multiple Languages
Understanding Language(s):
 Object (poetry): perceive word as object, treating world as neutral (352).
 Philology (novel): diological penetration into the world (352).
Needed Approach:
 An approach is needed where “objectivity of understanding is linked with dialogic vigor and
a deeper penetration into discourse itself” (352).
 “It is not enough merely to uncover the multiplicity of languages in a cultural world or the
speech diversity within a particular national language-we must see through to the heart of this
revolution, to all the consequences flowing from it, possible only under very specific
sociohistorical conditions” (367).
Bakhtin’s Road Map
Poetry
National
Culture
(Do not enter)
Multiple Cultures
(One way)
Novel

Poetic style puts a stop to understanding discourse (and daily life) while the novel
expands and explores it.

National culture seals-off understanding (370) while awareness of multiple cultures and
languages increases consciousness.
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