Biography of Mikhail Bakhtin
During his imprisonment, Bakhtin began suffering health problems caused by chronic osteomyelitis, a painful inflammation of the bone marrow, and while his exile to the frozen isolation of Kazakhstan was no doubt severe, it undoubtedly saved him from a certain death in prison. During exile, Bakhtin was prevented from teaching and instead supported himself as a bookkeeper. In 1936, he was released from exile and taught for a time in Saransk until renewed purges led him to resign and move to a small town outside Moscow. There, his worsening osteomyelitis led to amputation of his right leg, and he was forced to use crutches or a walking stick the remainder of his life (Clark and Holquist 261).
After his surgery, Bakhtin was unable to find formal employment, though he was invited on occasions to deliver lectures at the Gorky Institute of World Literature. He also used his free time to finish a book on the German novel of education and to work on a number of essays on the dialogic nature of the novel, most of which were based on material culled from his lecture notes.
In addition, he began writing a doctoral dissertation on Rabelais for the Gorky Institute. However, the advent of World War II interrupted his work on the dissertation, and his book on the German novel of education literally went up in smoke. The publishing house to which Bakhtin sent this latter manuscript was bombed by the Germans during the war, and due to a cigarette paper shortage at that time, Bakhtin used the pages of the book's prospectus to support his continual craving for nicotine (Clark and Holquist 273). Though only a fragment of this work has survived, Bakhtin's essays on the dialogic theory of the novel remained intact, yet were not published in the Soviet Union until 1973, well after Moscow graduate students had rescued him from obscurity. These essays were translated into English as The Dialogic Imagination.
This collection of essays, written between 1934 and 1941, is undoubtedly the
After his surgery, Bakhtin was unable to find formal employment, though he was invited on occasions to deliver lectures at the Gorky Institute of World Literature. He also used his free time to finish a book on the German novel of education and to work on a number of essays on the dialogic nature of the novel, most of which were based on material culled from his lecture notes.
In addition, he began writing a doctoral dissertation on Rabelais for the Gorky Institute. However, the advent of World War II interrupted his work on the dissertation, and his book on the German novel of education literally went up in smoke. The publishing house to which Bakhtin sent this latter manuscript was bombed by the Germans during the war, and due to a cigarette paper shortage at that time, Bakhtin used the pages of the book's prospectus to support his continual craving for nicotine (Clark and Holquist 273). Though only a fragment of this work has survived, Bakhtin's essays on the dialogic theory of the novel remained intact, yet were not published in the Soviet Union until 1973, well after Moscow graduate students had rescued him from obscurity. These essays were translated into English as The Dialogic Imagination.
This collection of essays, written between 1934 and 1941, is undoubtedly the