Theoretical and literary ideas of Russian symbolists and M.M. Bakhtin

The article aims to characterize the influence of the Russian symbolists’ theoretical and literary heritage on M.M. Bakhtin’s views. While formalists decided to cast down the “mystical” and, therefore, philosophical foundations in analyzing literary fiction, Bakhtin became a direct follower of the traditions of Russian symbolists, who focused not only on the form but on the semantics of the text as well. Evidently, in the 1920s Bakhtin kept returning to the synthetism of Russian symbolists’ theoretical conclusions. It was thanks to Bakhtin that the line of Russian philosophical literary studies, which flourished at the beginning of the 20th century with the works by D.S. Merezhkovsky, A. Bely, V. Ivanov and others, continued unbroken. In Bakhtin’s work “Art and Responsibility” one can see the reflection and interpretation of Russian symbolists’ aesthetic concepts. It evidently echoes their articles - especially ones by V Ivanov - on the mission of a poet. Another influence on Bakhtin’s early aesthetic views was V.Ya. Bryusov. Bakhtin’s work “On the Philosophy of an Action” echoes symbolists’ writings even more, especially in the part on the role of individualism, which mirrors antinomic relationships with life and others. Bakhtin shared the aesthetical ideas and worldview of Russian symbolists, which in part explains his connection to the symbolist’ synthetic literary studies. Another topic of the article “On the Philosophy of Art” is a polemic with the formalists. In his works from the mid-1920s, such as “The Author and the Protagonist in Aesthetic Activity” and “On the Topic of the Methods of Literary Art’s Aesthetic” he would develop these points further. In this polemic Bakhtin once again relies on aesthetic - the second component of creative works of Russian symbolists. Thus, Bakhtin continues the traditions of symbolists’ synthetic literary studies without denouncing the importance of studying the form of a literary work.