Mikhail Bakhtin - Korovashko A.V.

Among Russian scientists-humanitarians there is, perhaps, no one who could compete with Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) in terms of global fame. His books about Rabelais and Dostoevsky have been translated into many languages and are still actively published. Moreover, the whole "Bakhtin industry" functions successfully and smoothly, combining both the usual forms of cultural broadcasting of scientific ideas and features resembling the creation and maintenance of a mythologized cult. Even those people who have never read Bakhtin's writings regularly use the terms contained in them ("dialogue," "carnival," "chronotop," "laughter culture," "polyphonic novel"). The book by Alexei Korovashko not only reconstructs in detail Bakhtin's biography, extremely rich in adventurous plots, riddles and hoaxes, but also offers a new perspective on the philosophical and literary concept of the scientist.