A Bakhtinian Lesson, or the History of Lithuanian Soviet Novel as Described by Algimantas Bučys

Abstract

The paper deals with the analysis of the history of Lithuanian Soviet novel as represented by a literary critic Algimantas Bucys in his book “Novel and the Present Day” (1973, 1977). This book contains a strong Bakhtinian methodological introduction (it addresses Bakhtin’s concept of the novel) and extensive quotes from Bakhtin’s book “Epic and Novel”, in which the novel concept is introduced. Bakhtin’s text was very little known and hard to find back in the 1960s. As it is obvious from the analysis, Bakhtin’s theory plays an ambiguous role in Bucys’ history of the national novel. On the one hand, Bakhtin’s theory provides theoretical grounds for the novelization of genres and is a suitable methodology for research into Lithuanian novel. On the other hand, Bucys uses a dogmatic type of analogy, and the analysis itself is based on comparing rather than on interpretation.