1st Edition
Difference, Dialogue, and Development A Bakhtinian World
Difference, Dialogue, and Development is an in-depth exploration of the collected works of Mikhail Bakhtin to find relevance of key concepts of dialogism for understanding various aspects of human development. Taking the reality of differences in the world as a given, Bandlamudi argues that such a reality necessitates dialogue, and actively responding to that necessity leads to development. The varied works of Bakhtin that span several decades passing through the most tumultuous period in Russian history, are brought under one banner of three D’s – Difference, Dialogue and Development – and the composite features of the three D’s emerge as leitmotifs in every chapter.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction: Dialogue = Development
Chapter 2. The Novel & The Hero: Developmental Narrative & The Developing Subject
Chapter 3. Creative Living and Aesthetic Vision: Cultivating Finer Sensibilities
Chapter 4. Carnivalization of Consciousness: A Catalyst for Development
Chapter 5. Authoring the Self – Answering the Other:
Epistemological Necessities and Ethical Obligations
Chapter 6. Dialogic Method for Human Sciences:
Between the Message Giver – Message – Messenger – and Message Receiver
Chapter 7. Differences as the Will to Power and Freedom to Choose
References
Biography
Dr. Lakshmi Bandlamudi is a Professor of Psychology at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. She is the author of Dialogics of Self, The Mahabharata and Culture: The History of Understanding and Understanding of History, and several other papers focusing on dialogic consciousness.
"In an ocean of Bakhtiniana, this is a fresh voice. Lakshmi Bandlamudi brings together the disparate works Bakhtin wrote over a long lifetime in a reading that adds ‘Development’ to the usual ‘Ds’ (Dialogue, Difference) in Bakhtin studies. In so doing, she adds another dimension to the heteronomy called ‘Bakhtin.'" – Michael Holquist, Professor Emeritus, Comparative Literature, Yale University
"Lakshmi Bandlamudi’s Difference, Dialogue, and Development has to rank among the very best, certainly the clearest, most astute expositions of Bakhtin’s writings. Her aim is not simply to explicate the Russian thinker’s wide-ranging, at times seemingly contradictory, essays but to depict his worldview and the ethical implications that derive from his commitment to the ever-shifting dialogical dimensions of human life—to encounters that resist definition, as definition is demanded. Bandlamudi accepts, indeed elaborates, the challenges to the staid visions of the human sciences that Bakhtin poses. As such, she challenges those same staid assumptions that govern so much of our lives. Her work is transformative." – Vincent Crapanzano, Distinguished Professor, Anthropology and Comparative Literature, Graduate Center, City University of New York
"The author probably planned this book as an introduction to Bakhtin’s work that would make sense within both the Western hermeneutic usage and the classical Indian tradition. By the time this intriguing text ends, Bakhtin has gatecrashed into the Indian theories of knowledge and aesthetics and seems to be perfectly at ease in his new environs, showing not the slightest inclination to leave." – Ashis Nandy, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, India