The word in the novel and the word in the myth: Mikhail Bakhtin and Aleksei Losev

The article compares the philosophical motives of the teachings about the word in the novel and in the myth of Mikhail Bakhtin and Aleksei Losev. The article highlights two opposite trends in modern linguistic and philosophical studies of the phenomenon of language. On the one hand, there is a movement towards decentralization and relativization of linguistic consciousness. On the other hand, there is a tendency to reveal language as a single center of being and thinking. These are two fundamental and opposite paradigms in the humanities of the twentieth century. The article provides an explication of the origins of these paradigms on the basis of a comparative analysis of the concepts of Bakhtin and Losev - key figures in the field of humanitarian and philosophical thought of the last century. The basis for a comparative study is the fact that for both Losev and Bakhtin language is the main subject of their conceptual developments. At the same time, both thinkers follow such different paths that they can be characterized as the greatest antagonists in philosophical and humanitarian thought. Bakhtin’s developments are most consistent with the trends that have become widespread in modern times (the end of the 20th and the 21st centuries). Losev’s ideas, despite their indisputable significance, largely fall out of the context of modernity. If Bakhtin anticipates the way of thinking of the postmodern era, then Losev constitutes a significant antithesis in relation to this culture. This divergence in the positions of the two thinkers is most clearly manifested in their approaches to the interpretation of the word. First of all, attention is drawn to the fact that Bakhtin’s significant works are dedicated to the problem of the word in the novel. Losev, in turn, considers the word mainly in myth. This difference in areas of study is not accidental and cannot be explained solely by the personal preferences of the two thinkers. In the sphere of linguistic consciousness, myth and novel are two extreme and opposite poles. The myth is formed in the early stages of culture and corresponds to the period of assertion of national self-consciousness. The novel is formed and acquires a predominant significance in the later eras of culture, characterized by the decomposition of established forms. Between these two extreme limits are such forms of linguistic consciousness as poetry, epic, drama. It is important, therefore, to take into account that the novel is not only one of the genres of literature, but a special point of view on the world. And, according to Bakhtin, this point of view of the world is not simply opposed to myth, but requires - as a necessary condition for its emergence - the decomposition of the mythical form of linguistic consciousness. The studies of Losev and Bakhtin show that both the myth and the novel are based on a well-defined ontology. The comparative analysis of the concepts of thinkers allows substantiating the position that in each case we are talking about fundamentally different types of ontological interpretation of the world. The point of intersection of the concepts is the doctrine of the word as a special sphere of self-disclosure of being. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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