Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Shestov on Dostoevsky: the unfinalized dialogue

Ogden, M. G. (2023) Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Shestov on Dostoevsky: the unfinalized dialogue. Studies in East European Thought, (doi: 10.1007/s11212-023-09581-7) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Bakhtin’s view of the history of the novel, through the lens of Dostoevsky’s writing in his famous study on Dostoevsky’s poetics (1963), has had a significant impact on the way we read Dostoevsky today. On the other hand, Shestov’s original explorations of the human soul, which were drawn on his reading of Dostoevsky and made a lasting impression on his contemporaries, are still relatively unknown to the English-speaking reader. Having traced the history of the regenerations of Dostoevsky’s convictions in his earlier works, in his mature writings Shestov proposed that at a time of deep crisis the human mind may acquire a new dimension, which lies beyond the limits of the comprehensible and the explicable. Building on his analysis of Dostoevsky’s life and work, a transformative shift in Shestov’s own worldview, led to significant alterations in his reading of Dostoevsky in the final years of his life. In this essay, as I draw the two thinkers into a dialogue, I try to look beyond the obvious differences in the two philosophers’ views (though I acknowledge them) and, with respect to both thinkers’ outstanding contributions to twentieth-century European culture, I attempt to discover a number of key developing points in their views derived from their shared love of Dostoevsky’s art. Contrasting Shestov’s interpretation of Dostoevsky to that of Bakhtin’s, I argue that despite their different methods, standpoints, and philosophical views, and despite the seemingly antagonizing nature of their observations, Bakhtin and Shestov arrived at a number of conclusions, which contributed to our present understanding of Dostoevsky’s worldview.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ogden, Dr Marina
• Authors: Ogden, M. G.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies
• Journal Name: Studies in East European Thought
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 0925-9392
• ISSN (Online): 1573-0948
• Published Online: 11 October 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Author
• First Published: First published in Studies in East European Thought 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License