M.M. Bakhtin about A.S. Pushkin

Bakhtin draws the outlines of a rather flexible and integral interpretation of Pushkin's work. There are three main semantic knots in which Bakhtin comprehends Pushkin. The first one is based on the value-philosophical approach and is associated with the dialogical idea of interpenetration of personal value-ideological contexts and horizons of the author and characters. The second is devoted to novel poetics and prose. The third is related to the theory of carnival. Despite the frequent intention of illustrativeness in relation to the researcher's own philosophical and philological idea, Bakhtin's characteristics contribute a lot to our understanding of the organics of Pushkin's world. On the other hand, Pushkin's work acquires an illuminating significance for understanding Bakhtin's concepts. Bakhtin's Pushkin studies reveal with particular clarity the hermeneutic nature of Bakhtin's method: the interpretation of a text is born from the historically meaningful subjectivity of the interpreter. Let us call this subjectivity responsible: it is responsible insofar as it is marked by such features as the scale of thought and the depth of penetration into the subject. At the same time, this subjectivity is rooted in the organic, living movements of the event of being, in a specially interpreted hermeneutic pre-understanding-horizon.