Mikhail Bakhtin in the context of existentialist philosophy

The article is a reflection on the book by N. K. Bonetskaya «Russian Existentialism» (2021), where M. M. Bakhtin (along with L. I. Shestov and N. A. Berdyaev) is interpreted as one of the key representatives of existential philosophy. The author believes that, although the existential motives in Bakhtin's work, as well as the influence of S. Kierkegaard, F. Nietzsche and F. M. Dostoevsky on him, are obvious, it is difficult to attribute him only to the representatives of existentialism. One of the components of Bakhtin's phenomenon, as it seems to the author, is expressed in the fact that his works make it possible to interpret this thinker from various theoretical positions, but at the same time, he cannot be reduced to any of them. While agreeing with the legitimacy of analyzing his ideas from the point of view of existential influences, one should understand, at the same time, that such an analysis, for objective reasons, would always be partial and one-sided.