Trashing Caryl Emerson's recent book on Bakhtin?

[Dmitry Khanin]

    It is a little funny that Kathleen Parthe of all people characterized  Caryl Emerson as "one of the most intellectually and personally generous people in the profession." Anyway, I do not share Kathleen's opinion of Caryl Emerson as a person and scholar. As I argued in the review, Emerson got so used to trashing other people's ideas that she finally had to attack Bakhtin's teaching itself based on entirely different principles. Tom Beyer wrote that "Carol along with others preserved the memory of Bakhtin when to do so was not a public option in the Soviet Union." Sure, when Bakhtin was in vogue in the West! And now when it is no longer "cool" to be a Bakhtin scholar. she "gleefully" gave a kick to her old master. This is all it is about, isn't it? I'm afraid all the (solicited) positive reviews in the world would not increase the audience for such books as Emerson's latest opus.

                                                                            Dmitry Khanin
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dmitry Khanin 
  To: SEELANGS at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, June 07, 1999 5:26 PM
  Subject: Trashing Caryl Emerson's recent book on Bakhtin?


      I get questions from friends concerning my review of Caryl Emerson's book The First One Hundred Years of Mikhail Bakhtin that came out in Philosophy and Literature (April 1999, vol.23, # 1), pp. 220 - 223. Some people (who have not read it yet) asked if I trashed Emerson's book. Well, I guess I did. Why? Just read the review. So, instead of explaining my arguments in zillions of private letters, I decided to simply send the review itself as an attachment to this message. Enjoy!

                                                                                  Dmitry Khanin