In one of his late essays in Speech Genres, Bakhtin traces the secularization of literature to the solvent effects of irony:
“Irony has penetrated all languages of modern times (especially French); it
has penetrated into all words and forms . . . Irony is everywhere – from
the minimal and imperceptible, to the loud, which borders on laughter.
Modern man does not proclaim; he speaks. That is, he speaks with
reservations. Proclamatory genres have been retained mainly as parodic
and semi-parodic building blocks for the novel. . . . The speaking
subjects of high, proclamatory genres ± of priests, prophets, preachers,
judges, leaders, patriarchal fathers, and so forth ± have departed this life.
They have all been replaced by the writer, simply the writer, who has fallen
heir to their styles. . . . . Literature has been completely secularised.”
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