Bakhtin, A Small Dabble of Implication

Utterances are “relatively stable” according to Bakhtin and these stabilities form “speech genres” (60, Bakhtin). Speech genres themselves fall into two categories: “primary (simple) and secondary (complex) speech genres (Bakhtin, 61). According to Bakhtin, the secondary speech genres “lose their immediate relation to actual reality” (Bakhtin, 62). Their reality, from what I can tell, is based in their “event.” That is to say that these types of speech genres function “as a literary-artistic event and not as everyday life” (Bakhtin, 62). Essentially, he is proposing that a secondary speech genre is a single utterance as a whole collective work. Since utterances are a kind of response to outside forces (whether that be people or events) to Bakhtin, the novel (or letter even) is a kind of response.

This is massively important for literary criticism, as is much of what I am to explore next. The previous propositions set up a frame of inquiry for what is to come, which I will explain. Basically, Bakthin proposes all of this and then says, “Any utterance…is individual and therefore can reflect the individual speaker…that is, it possess individual style” (Bakhtin, 63). Really that seems rather obvious, especially given that every teacher I have had since the fifth grade has emphasized the use of “voice” (which I still don’t really know how it is possible to teach. “Be yourself” is a strange thing to grade). However, It is important nonetheless.

Bakhtin also proposes that “the most conducive genres [to individual style] are those of artistic literature” (Bakhtin, 63). This also seems intuitive, but it is again important. The implication of all this information is that the author has a voice. If the author has a voice, then he has some level of control over his language, even if it only goes as far as staking out a place for himself. In fact, “various genres can reveal various layers and facets of the individual personality, and individual style can be found in various interrelations with the national language” (Bakhtin, 63). By this proposition we can say that voice can give evidence into some kind of psychological realm, at least in regards to the author.

However! More importantly, as an event and utterance, literature can interact or impact “the national language” (Bakhtin, 63). This is incredibly important and also incredibly evident. As Bakhtin points out, listeners (and by extension, readers) are not passive (Bakhtin, 68). We know that literature can impact language. The term “cyberspace” was more-or-less invented by William Gibson. It has now become a common idea and word to describe the area of the Internet. Thus, novels and really any utterance can affect other speech genres. It can also provide useful clues to interpretation, such as the psychology of the person who wrote it. If some level of this psychology can be understood, it would be easier to offer a more concrete interpretation of their work. Although that gets into the “intentional fallacy” which I have heard of before, despite the fact that the reading for it was cancelled.