Bakhtin's Viva - Transcript - Edited by Professor John Shotter

Abstract

The Viva / Defense of Mikhail Bakhtin was performed at the Bedfordshire International Systemic Winter School  February 2015.  This transcript is an edited version of Comrade Bakhtin’s defence of his doctoral dissertation: "Rabelais in the History of Realism" at the Gorky Institute of World Literature in Moscow on 15 November 1946. Professor John Shotter edited the rather long transcript of the viva for this performance in February 2015 at Brathay Hall , Ambleside. The original translation was adapted and directed by Lars Kleberg and translated by Denis Zhernokleyev and Caryl Emerson for a round table reading at the 15th International Bakhtin Conference, Stockholm on 25 July 2014. The cast was made up of John Shotter and doctoral candidates on the Professional Doctorate in Systemic Practice. The video of the performance is here