“I and the other” in the early works of Mikhail Bakhtin: a project of ethical literary criticism

In his early studies, M.M. Bakhtin developed the architectonic of the act, based on two pillars: I and the Other. In literary text, this architectonic is realized in the author’s appeal to his hero, as well as in the interdependence of the heroes. Bakhtin confirmed his philosophical and aesthetic theses on the example of only a few literary texts. By interpretating a short I.S. Turgenev’s story “Cabbage-soup” author of the article shows how Bakhtin’s early aesthetics can be used in literary criticism, namely in narratology.