The Master and the Slave
Lukacs, Bakhtin, and the Ideas of their Time
Published on 18. May 2000
Book
Hardback
342 pages
978-0-19-818725-7 (ISBN)
Description
This book is a comparative study in the history of ideas. It is an innovative examination of the intellectual background, affiliations and contexts of two major twentieth-century thinkers and an historical interpretation of their work in aesthetics, cultural theory, literary history, and philosophy.
Unlike all existing texts on Lukacs and Bakhtin, this book offers a comparison of their writings at different stages of their intellectual development and in the broad context of the ideas of their time. The book introduces unknown archival material and discusses hitherto disregarded or overlooked texts by Lukacs and Bakhtin. It puts forward new readings of best-known work on Dostoevsky, Rabelais, and Goethe and treats in an original way the question of the coherence of Bakhtin's ouevre. The book offers valuable insight into the sources of Bakhtin's terminological repertoire and through examination of Bakhtin's and Lukacs's intellectual affiliations - of the limits and substance of their originality as thinkers.
Lukacs and Bakhtin emerge from the book as thinkers, whose intellectual careers followed strikingly similar paths. They both were confronted with similar agendas and questions posed for them by their time. Bakhtin however, had to find answers not only for this common agenda but also to the answers that Lukacs himself had already provided.
Unlike all existing texts on Lukacs and Bakhtin, this book offers a comparison of their writings at different stages of their intellectual development and in the broad context of the ideas of their time. The book introduces unknown archival material and discusses hitherto disregarded or overlooked texts by Lukacs and Bakhtin. It puts forward new readings of best-known work on Dostoevsky, Rabelais, and Goethe and treats in an original way the question of the coherence of Bakhtin's ouevre. The book offers valuable insight into the sources of Bakhtin's terminological repertoire and through examination of Bakhtin's and Lukacs's intellectual affiliations - of the limits and substance of their originality as thinkers.
Lukacs and Bakhtin emerge from the book as thinkers, whose intellectual careers followed strikingly similar paths. They both were confronted with similar agendas and questions posed for them by their time. Bakhtin however, had to find answers not only for this common agenda but also to the answers that Lukacs himself had already provided.
Reviews / Votes
Galin Tihanov's book ... should be heartily welcomed * Historical Materialism * ... a very significant book for all those who are interested in the development of literary and cultural theoryin the inter-war period. It adds a new dimension to the debates discussed in Lunn' Marxism and Modernism and Jay's The Dialectical Imagination, and like these works it will prove an important resource in the intellectual history of Marxism and the theory of culture. * Historical Materialism * ... Tihanov has made a contribution of prodigious learning, subtle argumentation and lucid exposition. There is a dynamic inside this book, not only in its title: the dialectical contest holds and richly informs our attention. * Charles Lock, Recherche Litteraire * Closely and incisively argued, densely packed with ideas, arresting points and challenging arguments ... It should stimulate lively debate for a long time to come. One can hardly ask more of an academic study * Journal of European Studies * A brilliant comparative study of the ideas of G. Lukacs and M. Bakhtin ... will be essential reading for students and specialists of Bakhtin, Lukacs, twentieth-century literary theory, aesthetics and the history of ideas in Russia and Germany * Journal of European Studies * Rich and spectacular study ... astonishingly precise insights crowd in on every page ... exceptionally impressive volume * The Russian Review * Tihanov's annotations (scrupulously accurate and accessible in Oxford's handsome format) are a gold mine for Bakhtin and Lukacs scholars alike * The Russian Review * Galin Tihanov is a brilliant historian of ideas and in The Master and the Slave he compares and contrasts the ideas of Lukacs and Bakhtin in connection with the novel and in the context of prevalent critical and philosophical ideas of their time. Anyone who has got anywhere near these two thinkers, especially Bakhtin, knows how easy it is to misunderstand them and how hard it is to be sure one does understand them. Tihanov can help. Every library where Theory reigns needs it desperately * Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance * Compelling new book ... * Simon Dentith, Times Literary Supplement * Tihanov has produced both the most thoughtful, incisive and erudite book yet to be published on Bakhtin and an excellent and innovative study of Lukacs ... In one fell swoop Tihanov has given us a brilliant analysis of cultural argument in the interwar period and set a new standard for the study of Bakhtin's work in particular. * Ken Hirschkop, Slavonic and East European Review * An intelligent and stimulating read ... Tihanov's study is a welcome contribution to twentieth-century intellectual history * Michael Eskin, Slavonica *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
617 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-818725-7 (9780198187257)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Galin Tihanov is Junior Research Fellow in Russian and German Intellectual History, University of Oxford
Content
PART I: CONCEPTS ; PART II: TRANSFIGURATIONS ; PART III: HEROES