ABSTRACT
Since the first edition of this book was published Bakhtin has continued to fascinate and repel increasing numbers of readers from a constantly growing number of disciplines. In fact, there has been so much work, and of such a variety, that the precise meaning of the proper noun “Bakhtin” is even less clear than once it was. As he himself wrote in the final words of the last article he wrote, “The contexts of dialogue are without limit.”1
