Abstract

In the 1930s Mikhail Bakhtin and Georges Bataille , working independently, elaborated a series of interrelated theoretical conceptions bearing upon the problems of language, literature, and society. Describing his approach, Georges Bataille coined the term "heterology"; this same term would later be applied in literary studies to the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. The "heterologies" of both Bataille and Bakhtin essentially deal with centrifugal forces and phenomena, "deconstructive" in relation to authority-centered literary, linguistic, or social structures. ;In the first chapter I analyze Bakhtin's theory of the heterological "laughing culture" of the carnival by concentrating on some of its crucial aspects, such as the notions of laughter and debasement. The second chapter establishes the general economic patterns of Bakhtin and Bataille's respective approaches and shows the major divergences between them, which can be summarized as the difference between the "restricted" and "general" economies, respectively. The following chapter deals with temporal and spatial characteristics employed in Bataille and Bakhtin's heterologies. Next, I address the philosophical and methodological foundations of Bataille's theory. Analysis of the two authors' discursive theories is offered in chapters V and VI . Here I also continue addressing Bakhtin's and Bataille's strategies in relation to such general philosophical questions as the problem of "truth" , which in the final instance affects all aspects of Bakhtin's and Bataille's work. ;Of course, the main object of this study---the relation to the Other---is never lost from view in all these, thematically diversified topics or strata. In the Conclusion of the dissertation I propose some assessments of Bakhtin and Bataille's conceptions, using the criteria of effectiveness and comprehensiveness of their heterologies. A brief discussion of both authors' respective positions in the space of literary theory is also offered here, as well as the issue of reading them from the angle of complementarity