A new paradigm for the study of novel: notes on second volume of the Chinese third edition collected works of Mikhail Bakhtin

This article was completed at Peking University and was sponsored by the Chinese National Philosophical and Social Sciences Fund. The name of the major research project, to which the present article is attributed, is “A Study of the Russian School of poetics”, and the project number is 22&ZD286. Favourably invited by Mr. Qian Zhongwen, the chief editor of the Chinese new edition Collected Works of Mikhail Bakhtin, the author of this paper was entrusted to write a “Translator's Preface” for its second volume (the volume on novel theory). The present notes first briefly introduce the reception of Bakhtin's collected works in China as well as the academic background underpinning the writing of the “Translator's Preface”, and then with the Chinese position interpret the characteristics of Bakhtin's study of novel theory from three perspectives: new routes, new concepts, and new paradigm.