The breakthroughs in analytical and applied psychology by Sigmund Freud and C.G.Jung, the socio-economic philosophy of Karl Marx, and the philosophical insights of Jacques Derrida into Western metaphysics, likewise, have given rise to Psychoanalytical criticism, Marxist criticism and Deconstruction respectively. Whereas most of the literary theories making their rounds in the twentieth century academic circles have had their origin in non-literary fields of knowledge, Bakhtin’s theories emerge out of his in-depth interpretation of literary texts.įerdinand de Saussure’s theories of language supplied the foundation upon which Structuralism as a method of literary interpretation was built. His Rabelais and His World (1968) is an elaborate discussion of the 16th century French novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, and his Problems of Dostoyevsky’s Poetics (1984) is a theoretical study of Dostoyevsky’s novels. His in-depth and socio-cultural interpretations of the Classical, Renaissance and Russian literatures not only arm the reader-critic with powerful tools of evaluation, but also induce him to return to those texts with fresh curiosity. The polemical power of his theories comes from his conviction that a literary work has to be interpreted in its own terms that the tools of interpretation have to be literary in nature. All his theoretical writings are firmly grounded in general human nature and the social context. Two important intentions guide all his intellectual pursuits: the process of creativity and ethical responsibility. The original and enduring quality of his theoretical constructs rests on the fact that he based his theories on the liberal humanist interpretation and creative understanding of texts, particularly fiction. Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) is one of the most original and enduring literary theorists of the twentieth century.
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