An understanding of the work of Mikhail Bakhtin is essential for a comprehensive grasp of contemporary debates in literary theory, language and social history. Bakhtinian Thought is the first collection of writings by Bakhtin, Volshinov and Medvedev to be accompanied by a full, lucid and approachable introduction to the work, by the editor Simon Dentith. This collection includes extracts from all the major areas of their work, and makes accessible to the student and teacher pieces of writing previously difficult to locate. Among the texts reproduced are: * `Language, Speech and Utterance' * `Material and Device as Components of the Poetic Construction' * `Heteroglossia in the Novel' * `The Grotesque Image of the Body and its Sources' Specifically written with the student reader in mind, Bakhtinian Thought will be a helpful and relevant introduction to one of the key thinkers of the twentieth century.