UDC

130.2+141.32+1(091)

DOI

10.37482/2687-1505-V219

Authors

Vladimir N. Zheleznyak
Perm National Research Polytechnic University; Komsomol’skiy prospekt 29, Perm, 614990, Russian Federation; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1961-6406 e-mail: shlezo2@gmail.com
Andrey V. Politov
Perm National Research Polytechnic University; Komsomol’skiy prospekt 29, Perm, 614990, Russian Federation; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4175-9040 e-mail: erikhczeren@yandex.ru

Abstract

This article is an ontological and existential interpretation of Mikhail Bakhtin’s early works (Art and Answerability; Toward a Philosophy of the Act; Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity), containing a deep philosophical-anthropological and innovative, in historical and philosophical terms, dialectic of author and hero. The study suggests that during his years in Nevel and Vitebsk Bakhtin strove for an ontological and ethical deepening of the aesthetics of verbal creativity, asserting (in the ontological plane) the being of the hero and, accordingly, the ontological status of the author and the literary work. Unlike with being (an objectively outside position), it is possible to argue with the “author” (a subjectively involved position); the existing (genuine) author is present in the literary work in the form of events that are transgredient (out-of-reach) to the hero’s consciousness. While a hero’s life unfolds as a sequence of actions, the real author is hidden in the hero’s fate (in fact, his own fate) and must be responsible for him. In order to embrace his life in a holistic event, an individual needs to “disappear” as a psychological subject in the practical procedure of ontological conversion of consciousness and relate himself to the moments of his life that are transgredient to his personality. The sum of such moments can be called human destiny. In order to be a full-ledged, real author for the hero, the “subject” must become an author for himself (regardless of whether he is going to become an artist or not). As a result, an objective ontological and existential situation arises, in which the hero and the author undergo an ontological and aesthetic conversion (neutralization of bad subjectivity).

Keywords

M.M. Bakhtin, anthropology, human, outsideness, ontological conversion, philosophical aesthetics, author, hero

References

1. Bakhtin M.M. K filosofii postupka [Toward a Philosophy of the Act]. Bakhtin M.M. Sobranie sochineniy. T. 1. Filosofskaya estetika 1920-kh godov [Collected Works. Vol. 1. Philosophical Aesthetics of the 1920s]. Moscow, 2003, pp. 7–68.

2. Bakhtin M.M. Avtor i geroy v esteticheskoy deyatel’nosti [Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity]. Bakhtin M.M. Sobranie sochineniy. T. 1. Filosofskaya estetika 1920-kh godov [Collected Works. Vol. 1. Philosophical Aesthetics of the 1920s]. Moscow, 2003, pp. 69–263.

3. Gogotishvili L.A., Averintsev S.S. Kommentarii [Commentaries]. Bakhtin M.M. Sobranie sochineniy. T. 1. Filosofskaya estetika 1920-kh godov [Collected Works. Vol. 1. Philosophical Aesthetics of the 1920s]. Moscow, 2003, pp. 351–492.

4. Holquist M., Сlark K. Arkhitektonika otvetstvennosti [The Architectonics of Answerability]. M.M. Bakhtin: pro et contra. Vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 2002, pp. 37–71.

5. Besedy V.D. Duvakina s M.M. Bakhtinym [V.D. Duvakin’s Conversations with M.M. Bakhtin]. Moscow, 1996. 342 p.

6. Bonetskaya N.K. Bakhtin glazami metafizika [Bakhtin Through the Eyes of a Metaphysician]. Moscow, 2016. 552 p.

7. Bonetskaya N.K. Russkiy ekzistentsializm [Russian Existentialism]. St. Petersburg, 2021. 666 p.

8. Makhlin V.L. Vtoroe soznanie: podstupy k gumanitarnoy epistemologii [Second Consciousness: Approaches to Humanitarian Epistemology]. Moscow, 2009. 626 p.

9. Nikolaev N.I. M.M. Bakhtin v 1910-e i 1920-e gody: edinstvo puti [M.M. Bakhtin in the 1910s and 1920s: A Single Path]. Voronina N.I. (ed.). Idei Mikhaila Bakhtina i vyzovy XXI stoletiya: ot dialogicheskogo voobrazheniya k polifonicheskomu myshleniyu [Ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin and Challenges of the 21st Century: From Dialogic Imagination to Polyphonic Thinking]. Saransk, 2021, pp. 32–34.

10. Morson G.S., Emerson C. Mikhail Bakhtin. Sozdanie prozaiki: Fragment [Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics: A Fragment]. M.M. Bakhtin: pro et contra. Vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 2002, pp. 72–97.

11. Hirschkop K. Mythmaking: Why Bakhtin Went Back to the Future in the 1930s. Voronina N.I. (ed.). Idei Mikhaila Bakhtina i vyzovy XXI stoletiya: ot dialogicheskogo voobrazheniya k polifonicheskomu myshleniyu [Ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin and Challenges of the 21st Century: From Dialogic Imagination to Polyphonic Thinking]. Saransk, 2021, pp. 57–61.

12. Sychev A.A. Etika norm i filosofiya postupka [Ethics of Norms and Philosophy of Act]. Gumanitarnye vedomosti TGPU im. L.N. Tolstogo, 2019, no. 2, pp. 121–129. DOI: 10.22405/2304-4772-2019-1-2-121-129

13. Konev V.A., Ivanova V.N. Event: Philosophy sub specie eventi. Filosofskiy zhurnal, 2021, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 35–49 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.21146/2072-0726-2021-14-3-35-49

14. Bakhtin M.M. Iskusstvo i otvetstvennost’ [Art and Answerability]. Bakhtin M.M. Sobranie sochineniy. T. 1. Filosofskaya estetika 1920-kh godov [Collected Works. Vol. 1. Philosophical Aesthetics of the 1920s]. Moscow, 2003, pp. 5–6.

15. Tarkovsky A.A. Ya proshchayus’ so vsem… [I’m Saying Goodbye to Everything…]. Tarkovsky A.A. Blagoslovennyy svet [The Blessed Light]. St. Petersburg, 1993, p. 145.

16. Losev A.F. Problema khudozhestvennogo stilya [The Problem of Artistic Style]. Kiev, 1994. 288 p.

17. Heidegger M. Sein und Zeit. Tübingen, 1967. 437 p.

18. Heidegger M. Bytie i vremya [Being and Time]. Moscow, 1997. 451 p.

19. Heidegger M. Gesamtausgabe. Vol. 12. Unterwegs zur Sprache. Frankfurt am Main, 1985. 262 p.

20. Heidegger M. Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung. Frankfurt am Main, 1951 (Russ. ed.: Khaydegger M. Raz”yasneniya k poezii Gel’derlina. St. Petersburg, 2003. 320 p.).