M. M. Bakhtin (2)

It is not experience that organizes expression, but the other way around—expression organizes experience. Expression is what first gives experience its form and specificity of direction.

不是人生体验构建了艺术表现的形式。反过来说才对——表现形式构建了人生体验。表现形式先是赋予人生体验以形式，然后赋予体验以具体的方向。

V.N. Voloshinov, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (New York & London: Seminar Press, 1973), 85.

My favorite quotations--M. M. Bakhtin (1)

In order to assess and divine the real meaning of others’ words in everyday life, the following are surely of decisive significance: who precisely is speaking, and under what concrete circumstances?

“Discourse in the Novel” in M. M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 340.