Bakhtinian concept of literature and the analysis of characters in modern foreign language textbooks

Abstract

In this paper, part of a larger study, we analyse an EFL textbook using Bakhtinian concepts of literature and language. This research focuses mainly on the role played by characters in the structuring of thematic units. In particular, concepts from the Bakhtin Circle, such as polyphony, exotopy and the surplus of vision, are used. In the analysis, we investigate if the discursive voices are illuminated by a single authorial consciousness or if the author’s evaluation monopoly prevails in relation to the characters. In the dialogue between the areas, we relate the study of characters in the textbooks to the study of the role of character in the fictional universe presented by Candido (1968), and we search, by means of this relation, points of convergence between the areas of literature and of these foreign language textbooks.