Chapter One. Bakhtinian Categories—Dialogue, Genre-Memory, Chronotope And Carnival

Abstract

The concept of dialogue provides the possibility of engagement with other discourses. First-level dialogue provides the opportunity for issues within the text surrounding the characters themselves to be considered. Second-level dialogue provides a possibility for examination of the impact of the text on the hearing-reader, especially where this involves 'word-with-a-sideward-glance' or 'word-with-a-loophole'. There is also the possibility of third-level dialogue - inter-textually and co-textually - which will take into account chronotopic elements and the Markan genre-memory. Dialogue is considered at all three levels: between interindividual characters, in terms of heteroglossia within the text, and among various speech genres and their secondary derivatives that are formative for the Markan 'genre memory'. Mikhail Bakhtin's 'middle period' certainly focuses on carnival - especially in Rabelais and his world - in ways which appear anarchic, but his later writings tend to promote a more 'responsible carnival'.Keywords: carnival; chronotopic elements; dialogue; genre memory; Markan genre; Mikhail Bakhtin