Between Stalin and Dionysus: Bakhtin's Theory of the Carnival

The essay by Russian American philologist Boris Groys and nine commentaries followed by Groys’ reply to them in this special issue: “Deconstructing Bakhtin, Carnival with Evil”, present a provocative discussion about Bakhtin’s conceptual work and legacy for education and beyond. Boris Groys argued that Bakhtin embraced a dangerous play with Stalin’s totalitarianism through fusing art and life, prioritizing cosmic carnival over human rights and by being mesmerised by dionysian passions. The following nine commentaries, written by educationalists and non-educationalists, present a diverse spectrum of reactions to Groys’ criticism of Bakhtin: from passionate rejections to sympathetic acceptance seriously considering implications of Groys’ charges. The biggest implication for education is the relationship between the teacher and the student, specifically whether the teacher authors the student and the student’s education or not. The first commentary, written by Caryl Emerson provides a brilliant overview of all these diverse positions, in education and beyond. – DPJ Editors: Eugene Matusov and Ana Marjanovic-Shan

My Bakhtin: A reply to the commentaries

No abstrac

The Pomeron structure and diffractive parton distributions

Measurements of the diffractive structure function, $F_2^D$, of the proton at HERA are used to extract the partonic structure of the Pomeron. Regge Factorization is tested and is found to describe well the existing data within the selected kinematic range. The analysis is based on the next to leading order QCD evolution equations. The results obtained from various data sets are compared. An analysis of the uncertainties in determining the parton distributions is provided. The probability of diffraction is calculated using the obtained results.Comment: Talk presented at DIS05, Madison, Wisconsi

Słaby uniwersalizm

This essay is a discussion of the task of the avant-garde, and it presents it as an implication of Benjamin's weak messianism, as a „weak universalism” – a construction of democratic art. There is a similarity between the art of Malevich, Beuys, Warhol and internet art, which consists in efforts to build a transhistorical art pieces, which contains the conditions of possibility of all art pieces, but which is at the same time accessible to the widest public. This is the translation of the original text published „The Weak Universalism” in e-flux magazine, issue 15/2010.Niniejszy esej podejmuje temat zadania awangardy i formułuje je jako rozwinięcie Benjaminowskiego słabego mesjanizmu, jako „słaby uniwersalizm” – budowanie demokratycznej sztuki. Między twórczością Malewicza, Beuysa, Warhola czy twórców nowych mediów istnieje pewne podobieństwo, polegające na dążeniu do dzieła transhistorycznego, zawierającego warunki możliwości wszystkich dzieł, również czytelnego dla jak największej publiczności. Podstawą przekładu jest esej Groysa „The Weak Universalism”, opublikowany w czasopiśmie e-flux 15/2010