The forms of author and hero in Georg Lukács and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of the novel

• Grant number: 22/02685-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): July 01, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Guardini Teixeira Vasconcelos
• Grantee: Gabriel Apostólico Carra
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/13012-6 - The interpretations of the author and hero categories in the prefaces of the first French and English translations of Mikhail Bakhtin's work, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Among the debates around the nature of the novel and its paths in the first half of the 20th century, two authors stood out, as they accepted the inherent difficulties of the genre: the Hungarian Georg Lukács and the Russian Mikhail Bakhtin. The former formulated speculative reflections on literary forms and their destinies. Bakhtin, from a similar background (German philosophy) proposed readings for the novel that dialogues, causes tension and even inverts the Lukács's proposals. Central to the discussions of the time are the concepts of literary genre, life and culture, which, in the theory of the novel, are articulated from the notions of author - the one who seeks to give meaning to life through literary forms - and hero - one who, within the literary form, seeks to find a meaning for his existence. The following study attempts, discussing one theory against the light of the other, to understand how the categories of author and hero were conceived in their theories of the novel: how did both theorists reorient the debates from which they are tributaries? What shapes did they give the categories? What are the specificities of each of the theories and what are the consequences of these formulations for the understanding of the novel as a genre and as a work of art?