|
|
|
| Mikhail Bakhtin’s Unique Interpretation of the Author’s Intention |
| Lie Fu |
| Hui Literature, Changji 831100, China |
|
|
|
|
Abstract Interpreting the meaning of literary works always involves the important issue of how to view the author’s intention. Among different views of the hermeneutic community on this issue, Bakhtin’s perspective features both similarities and his own uniqueness, which also reflects his distinctive approach to literary hermeneutics. From the very beginning, Bakhtin has blazed a new trail in interpreting the different existences of the author’s intention in the text by starting from the heteroglossia and dialogism of the speaker’s words. For example, in Discourse in the Novel, by conducting an in-depth comparison of the discourse in poetry and novels, he clarifies from different levels that it is impossible for the novelist’s reference to things to not take into account the discourse of other relevant people. In Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Bakhtin gives his own comments despite dissenting views by starting from the unique interlingual relationship between Dostoevsky and his protagonists, thereby making a unique discovery that Dostoevsky has adopted a polyphonic approach different from monological novels to achieve his intention. When it comes to polyphonic novels, people often regard dialogism as a prominent feature of such novels. According to Bakhtin’s understanding, the dialogism in Dostoevsky’s polyphonic novels is mainly reflected in three discourse levels: first in the dialogue between the author and the characters, second in the dialogue between different characters, and third in the characters’ dialogue with themselves and others in the monologue. Bakhtin manages to give a detailed analysis of the latter two levels of dialogism with brilliant insights, yet he has never neglected the dialogism at the first level from beginning to the end. If Tolstoy’s intention is mainly expressed by means of the completed narrative discourse in his monological novels, with the author-narrator voice always dominating in the novel discourse, Bakhtin finds that Dostoevsky likes to secretly internalize the author’s intention on the characters and turn it into one of the voices depicted in the novel. It is with this method that the author outside the story can have a transboundary dialogue with the characters, thereby turning the author’s voice from “back-to-back” to “face-to-face” with the character, which also contributes a full “dialogical expressiveness” to the author’s ultimate intention in the polyphonic novel. The reason why so many commentators are used to interpreting the author’s intention in the novel by monologue, and why such interpretation has its own explanatory power, is that most of the previous novels are originally monological novels. In Bakhtin’s view, only from Dostoevsky did authors start to break away from the solid framework of monological novels where the author’s voice is always higher than that of the character, and to create polyphonic novels where the author and the characters can talk on an equal basis. Whether Bakhtin’s interpretation fits the reality of Dostoevsky’s works is definitely an academic issue worthy of continuous contention, yet his unique interpretation itself represents his unique vision on the author’s intention, and opens up a brand-new perspective in the interpretation history of the author’s intention.
|
|
Received: 28 February 2020
|
|
|
|
| 1 |
苏]巴赫金： 《巴赫金全集》第四卷，白春仁、晓河译，石家庄：河北教育出版社，1998年。2 苏]巴赫金： 《巴赫金全集》第三卷，白春仁、晓河译，石家庄：河北教育出版社，1998年。3 美]埃里克·唐纳德·赫施： 《解释的有效性》，王才勇译，北京：生活·读书·新知三联书店，1991年。4 德]汉斯-格奥尔格·伽达默尔： 《真理与方法》，洪汉鼎译，北京：商务印书馆，2007年。5 苏]巴赫金： 《巴赫金全集》第五卷，白春仁、顾亚铃译，石家庄：河北教育出版社，1998年。6 苏]巴赫金： 《巴赫金全集》第六卷，李兆林、夏忠宪译，石家庄：河北教育出版社，1998年。7 洪汉鼎： 《诠释学：它的历史和当代发展》，北京：中国人民大学出版社，2018年。8 俄]陀思妥耶夫斯基： 《白痴》，冯南江译，北京：人民文学出版社，1989年。9 法]安德烈·纪德： 《关于陀思妥耶夫斯基的六次讲座》，余中先译，桂林：广西师范大学出版社，2006年。10 俄]陀思妥耶夫斯基： 《书信选》，冯增义、徐振亚译，北京：人民文学出版社，1986年。11 美]雷纳·韦勒克： 《近代文学批评史》（中文修订版）第七卷，杨自伍译，上海：上海译文出版社，2009年。12 王加兴编选： 《对话中的巴赫金：访谈与笔谈》，董晓、王加兴、周启超等译，南京：南京大学出版社，2014年。13 苏]米哈伊尔·巴赫金： 《陀思妥耶夫斯基诗学问题》，刘虎译，北京：中央编译出版社，2010年。
|
|
|
|
2021, Vol. 51 
