ABSTRACT
The concept of outsideness in Bakhtin's work has attracted attention for its unusual counterintuitive and intriguing notion that the outsider sees more than the insider. Caryl Emerson included a substantial review of the Russian literature on outsideness as the ethical dimension of art in her book The First Hundred Years of Mikhail Bakhtin, which is a valuable resource and covers a number of Russian scholars' contributions in detail. Brandist says that outsideness is central to Bakhtin's aesthetics and its importance is asserted in various forms, throughout his work'. Outsideness provides an element of continuity in Bakhtin's work throughout the changing focus of his attention from ethics and intersubjectivity to aesthetic creativity; and has proved to be one of his conceptions that have stood the test of scrutiny from scholars. The case for reductionism has been argued strongly by Robert Segal. He targets Eliade's work on the irreducibility of religion and finds Eliade's arguments inconsistent and circular.
