Mikhail Bakhtin....Language

“Language-like the living concrete environment in which the consciousness of the verbal artist lives- is never unitary.” (674) Mikhail Bakhtin states here that language is never meant to take on only one form, it is meant to be used and abused. Sure, the words we speak are recycled but we re-invent them every day by doing something as simple as choosing how we greet people (if we greet them at all). Bakhtin even gives us the ways in which our language can be put to good use by putting it into genres, “specific points of view, specific approaches, forms of thinking, etc.” (675) Through criticism for example, we show the ever changing format in which we use our language, by simply changing our specific points of view on certain topics and seeing how those can change in the blink of an eye. People cannot stop talking about Tiger Woods now, everyone decides that he is guilty of doing something heinous, but this time next year, this time last year, it will be, and was different. And that is what Bakhtin alludes to in this article and I have to say that I agree with him in every sense of the word. Words aren’t meant to be trapped forever, no one can own a language, language (point of view) is always changing, which is why Bakhtin mentions that the words we speak today will have nothing to do with the words we speak tomorrow and spoke yesterday. An example to support this comes from the “A changing language situation: The decline of Dyribal, 1963-1989” by R.M.W. Dixon. This article focuses on the decline of the use of the Dyribal language in which at one point had 5,000 but soon saw a declined to about a solitary few, “I have worked fairly steadily on these tasks for just over a quarter of a century. During this period, I have the language decline from a state in which there was an abundance of speakers who could supply the information I sought to one in which there is just one good consultant left for each of three dialects, with no one to go to for a second opinion. The language has died at a faster rate than I could record it.” (Dixon, p.183) This quote proves what Bakhtin states is true, language is not meant forever. It is basically just a way to communicate and people are of a fickle nature which means that as hard as one may try, language will change whether we like it or not. As Bakhtin even mentions the way people can create their own language inside their own sphere. So now he even opens up to the fact that language doesn’t even have to make literary sense in order for it to be language it just has to be understood.

Works Cited

Dixon, R.M.W. “A Changing Language Situation: The Decline of Dyirbal, 1963-1989.” Language in Society, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Jun., 1991), pp. 183-200 Published by: Cambridge University Press (WEBCT) 24 February 2010.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Discourse in the Novel.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Maichael. Victoria, Aus.: Blackwell Publishing, 1998. 674-685. Print.

On the presentation...

Working with the group I did was a great experience. It was the first time I was able to work with a group that was able to agree on everything. The topic and presentation that we were able to agree on the most was on the portrayal that is the imitation of life in art and how it depicts reality in the worst way possible for knowledge to strive. For the imitation clip we chose the clip from the sitcom Friends, in which is having a baby. This clip was chosen because not only was it a clip we would all be familiar with, it was also a clip we were sure would get the message of slap-stick comedy. Because of the fact of the struggle both Rachel and Ross go through in the delivery of their first born. In the clip we see Rachel struggle to push the baby out and Ross struggle keeping the grip on Rachel, in the end the baby finally is brought to light but not before the unforgettable line Ross shares with the female doctor and Rachel of the pain he suffers when Rachel hits him with her head, “you have no idea how much this hurts.” In seeing a clip such as this, although it does serve the purpose of providing comedic relief, it does not provide much else in the way of knowledge as Plato states, “if our young men were to listen seriously to such utterances it would be difficult for them, being mere mortals, to think themselves above such behavior…” (Plato, 27). And now you have kids that don’t having children and don’t have the true knowledge of having children or of the nine months that are crucial to the formation of the child and preparation it takes to even care for the child before it is born. I must say I enjoyed this presentation, although I will admit that I was nervous going up there to talk. Overall it was pretty fun experience.

Plato versus Amy

Plato argues in Republic 3 that people should be spared the harsh details of reality, for Plato it was the reality of the gods. It was like Plato stated at the beginning of Republic 3, “These then, are the sorts of things which people should and should not hear about the gods from their earliest childhood, if they are to honour the gods and their parents, and to value their friendship with each other,” (Plato, 24). Nowadays the gods aren’t such a big influence as is the media. But Plato’s concept still stands…



The video is Britney Spears’ “If U Seek Amy,” and the video is basically a reference to sex. With the title working as a subliminal message, F-U-C-K-Me, it shows Britney in a whorehouse where she rises from the foot of a bed with the lyrics, “Oh baby, baby, have you seen Amy tonight? Is she in the bathroom? Is she smoking up outside?” Dressed all in black, revealing major cleavage and also wearing a pair of red pumps she begins to walk the room. The room reveals the people around either still in beds or the floors from what we are to perceive as the morning after. And not long after she breaks into the chorus of, “Love me, hate me, say what you want about me, but all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to If U Seek Amy.” This discourse of music, or art, is basically what Plato argues, to have this infest the minds of the youth, now becomes the mission of what we must censor from them. Because now sex becomes something kids don’t necessarily fear, but it still doesn’t help them truly understand what sexual intercourse means. Because now what flows in their minds is a plethora of imagery, it could either be a glamorizing vision of sex as something fun and wild, or make it appear as if sex is something that should be hidden from everyone around. As Britney spends the entire music video indoors, it isn’t until the very end that she welcomes the outside to her presence. Of course by now she is fully dressed in suburban attire and even accessorizing herself with a pie (an image of domesticity). This image could also make youths scared of sex in a sense, as some may interpret this video as imaging sex as something dirty, something to be hidden only because it is shameful. Plato I think touches on a subject similar to this in Republic 3 with this quote, “indeed the more poetic they are the less they should be heard by boys and men who must be free and fear slavery more than death, (Plato, 25). I don’t necessarily agree with this statement. Because to say that children are easily influenced by what they see is to say that they do not have minds of their own. And that simply is not true. This similar point of view is stated in the Time Magazine, Child Sexuality: Challenging the Taboos, this article discusses a journalist’s attempt to release a book that challenges parents who unnecessarily instill fear of sex in their children. “Levine, a journalist, argues that adults harm children by associating sex with danger--warning kids about pedophiles, for instance, but not acknowledging that children and teens are capable of a measure of sexual pleasure. Getting abducted by a stranger is a less likely danger for most children than the chance that a teenager will catch a sexually transmitted disease.” So therefore, talking to children and having them fear something instead of helping them understand it, proves to be even more hurtful than just watching the plain videos. For, even seen in the Britney video she shows two different sides to her, one of a sexual vixen and then one of domestic stereotype. So now youths are given two different images to choose, one of sexual “sinful” pleasure and then one of domestic “good, clean, fun” kind of pleasure. I believe that if parents are to talk to their kids about sex that maybe they should take a lesson from the popstars. In order to truly have kids understand sex, it cannot feared and it cannot be taken lightly, there needs to be morality instilled in it and children need access to it in the videos of today’s songs (to have a full image understanding of it). Because at the forefront of them listening, they need to feel trusted, they need to feel they have the liberty of making their own decision. Because ultimately they do have the final say…



This next clip shows the edited version of “If U Seek Amy,” now entitled, “If U See Amy.” This version hit radio stations across the United States, instead of the version found on the album. This version of the song does not highlight sexual intercourse instead it now sounds like an upbeat love song. Hiding away the harsh reality that is possible with sexual intercourse, the purpose now of hiding this from the youth, means that they will listen to their parents and they will (if the parents take the time to explain), understand that sex can be a choice, and it doesn’t have to end up in a whorehouse, or be a big secret that is hidden from the world, basically making defunct everything that could be interpreted from the actual song and video.

Works Cited
Spears, Britney. “If You Seek Amy.” BritneySpearsVEVO. 29 October 2009. Web. 7 February 2010.


“Winters, Rebecca.” Child Sexuality: Challenging the Taboos. 2002. Web. 7 February 2010.

In the beginning...

Here is just a cool little intro to start off the class… (Sorry it’s a little late)

The most important thing to consider when analyzing a text is what it's not telling you straight out. By this I mean inner meaning, what someone might see as meaningless words, someone else might take as insight. Take Madonna, she’s seen at the queen of pop. Someone who changed music and feminism, yet others see her as garbage. -Mannyism