THE PROBLEM OF MEMORY AND OBLIVION: BAKHTIN’S MECHANISMS OF SAVING / ERASING TRACES OF TRADITION IN CULTURAL HISTORY
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
The question of genre traditionally occupies a central position in Russian literary theory. This article focuses on the problem of memory and oblivion, their role in the development of literary genres, construction of images, and preservation and transmission of tradition. The concepts of great memory and deliberate oblivion in the cultural history were advanced by Mikhail Bakhtin in the materials he prepared for the revision of his book on François Rabelais in the early 1940’s. The overarching context for its study was informed by the theory of menippea. Menippea retrospectively established as a genre in the late 17th–18th centuries by critics who defned its generic characteristics and (re)invented its history from antiquity to the seventeenth century, gave a new impetus to Bakhtin’s genre theory, provided him with a perspective on the problem of generic identity and on the ways genres were constructed. Within the framework of menippea, he developed the following theories and concepts: the theory of “memory of the genre,” the theory of the “immanent memory” of literature as independent from the author’s individual memory, the concept of contactless transmission of tradition, and the concept of “great objective human memory” transcending linguistic, national, and cultural boundaries.
Authors and Affiliations
Irina L. Popova
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26079
- DOI 10.22455/ 2500-4247-2016-1-1-2-73-90
- Views 732
- Downloads 29
Diderot as the critique of art and the translation of time and place: from the pictural composition to the literary decomposition / recomposition
In his reflections on painting, Diderot as a theoretician of fine arts explains that the painter must respect the unity of time and place for the paintings to be thematically and aesthetically solid. However, the uniti...
CHEKHOV’S ETHICAL HERITAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN MEDICAL HUMANITIES
The paper discusses Chekhovian ethical discourse in American fiction and non-fiction that forms part of an emerging literary canon of medical humanities in the USA. Besides Chekhov’s “medical” stories, special attentio...
IN SEARCH OF FOLKLORE IMPERATIVE: IVAN A. IL’YIN AND PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT OF THE RUSSIAN IMMIGRATION CIRCLE
This article is part of the larger research project “Philosophical Thought of the Russian ‘Silver Age’ and Folklore.” Its aim is philosophical reflection of the Russian folk culture considering it as living tradition th...
PATERNAL CARE: EMPEROR NICOLAS I IN GOGOL’S FATE
The essay for the frst time highlights the history of a long-term attention and patronage that Еmperor Nicholas I as philanthropist, censor, and reader bestowed on Nikolay Gogol. It shows the increasing interest of the...
Rahel Vaenhagen and the Culture of Her Time
This essay examines the personality of Rahel Varnhagen, one of the brightest representatives of the German cultural milieu, owner of a literary salon that brought together prominent authors, artists, philosophers, noble...